.

Of the measures which should be chosen for the growth.
and preservation of that kingdom.
The first thing which offers under this heading is the consideration of the matters pertaining to the war with the Dutch, which is the basal and fundamental question for all the rest; for the enemy is making such efforts and using so many measures to get control of that archipelago, and drive out the Spaniards.
Three ways and means present themselves to the mind, beside which I find no other one, although I have considered it well.
The first, if it be possible for your Majesty, is to manage to have an armed fleet sent.

If, when Don Alonso Faxardo was already your governor, he had taken the one which had been made ready, the time was opportune so that he could have driven out the enemy from their posts, together with the fleet which was in the Filipinas, which was weakened in men and artillery by its loss at Manila.

On account of this, the natives of the island of Maluco, fearful of the power of your Majesty, entered our service.

This fleet, which I say your Majesty should have despatched, should have been sent with a previous warning to the governor of the Filipinas so that he could collect there as great a force as possible, and provisions with which to resupply the fleet which would go thither from here, the money for this purpose to be sent him from Piru or from Nueva Espana.
Yet besides this, on account of the straitened circumstances of your Majesty, and the need of attending to other pressing matters, it is indeed true, in view of the great importance to your Majesty of not allowing the enemy to get possession of that archipelago (for he would infallibly become master of the whole of India, and become more powerful than can be understood here), that there appears to be another measure less costly in the meantime; although it will not result in dislodging them, at least it will give them such diversion and do so much damage that the profit which they will secure will be dearly bought.