The departure of the Spaniards from Mexico to the Felipinas Islands, and the information obtained there of the great Kingdom of China.

Chapter I.
While Don Luis de Velasco, viceroy and lieutenant for the Catholic king, Don Felipe, our lord, was in charge of the government of the kingdom of Mexico, his Majesty ordered him to fit out a large fleet in the Southern Sea, to levy the soldiers necessary for it, and to send it on a voyage of discovery to the islands of the West.

The renowned captain Magallanes (when he circumnavigated the globe in the ship "Victoria") had already given information about these islands.

The viceroy obeyed most carefully and assiduously his Majesty's orders.

He fitted out the fleet at great cost, and despatched it from Puerto de la Navidad in the year sixty-four.