the seasons suitable for such navigation. In obedience to your royal
order, I declare, Sire, that the propositions cover four principal
points, each of which I shall explain in order. [The original document
contains a marginal abstract of each of the four points that follow;
but these abstracts are here omitted.]

_First point_. This point contains in brief the substance of all
the others. In explaining it, I declare that the navigations from
these kingdoms to those islands are so worthy of consideration, and
so important, that no others in the world at this time are equal to
them. For the drugs, fragrant gums, spices, precious stones, and silks
that the Dutch enemy and their allies bring thence--obtained partly
by pillaging, and partly by trading in their forts and factories
which they own throughout that archipelago--amount, as they do at
present, to five millions [of pesos] annually. It has been stated
how paramount is this undertaking to any others that can today be
attempted; for besides the spiritual injury inflicted by those
heretical pirates among all that multitude [of heathen peoples]
(which I think the universal Master has delivered to your Majesty so
that you may cultivate it and cleanse it for His celestial granaries),
it is quite certain--since the enemy are collecting annually so large
a mass of wealth; and since the sinews of war consist in that, both
for attack and defense--that they are acquiring and will continue
to acquire those riches daily, with greater forces. And, as they
continue to increase in strength, their ambitious designs will also
extend further. In the same degree as the enemy grows stronger, it is
certain that our forces will continue to decrease--and so much that,
if relief does not arrive there in time, the day will come in which
not one of your Majesty's vessels can be placed on the sea, because
of the many that the enemy will have there. Inasmuch as there is no