Will your Majesty also command that food and sustenance be provided for the soldiers, for their sufferings are most pitiful.
In another letter, I have informed your Majesty of the deep affliction and pressing need in which I found this city, because all the houses and property had been destroyed by fire, not even the fortifications escaping.

On account of the constant danger from fire, because the buildings were being constructed of wood and bamboo, thatched with straw, and because many quarries and much limestone had been discovered, which is brought down the river, I forbade that any houses should be built of other material than stone, since this could be done at a very slight expense.

I ordered roof-tiles and bricks to be made; and now many substantial and handsome houses are being constructed of stone.

The natives have assisted no little in this, for most of them have been set to work in the quarries.

According to the promptness exercised by the citizens, I trust, God helping, that, in ten years, the city will be built entirely of stone, for from two stone houses here the number has increased to twenty large houses, besides a monastery; and a considerable number of buildings, very substantial and well planned, are at present in course of construction.
This city is located on a narrow piece of land, between the sea on one side and a river of considerable size, which flows through part of the city, on the other; while on another side is a swamp or morass.