Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 11).djvu/269

tice and be careful of this, I charge and command you to be always very vigilant in foreseeing the troubles which may require your attention and which may arise in the said islands, even if it be under pretext of trade by foreigners. You will give a hospitable reception to friends, and maintain amicable relations with them, keeping the ports and frontiers of the said islands in the necessary security, and taking special care that the expenses to be met by my royal exchequer in the precautions to be taken, the manning of vessels for searching out and punishing pirates, and the rest, be no more than are absolutely necessary—since you see the many things which need attention; and, above all, the limited resources of these islands.

When you informed me that in order to punish the pirates who resort to the coast of the Philipinas Islands, it would be well to arm and man some galleys, I granted you by my letter bearing the date of April 8 of this year, that if you saw that the galleys could be of service and usefulness you might cause them to be built and manned. But through a letter of July 12 in the said year, 1599, the said Don Francisco Tello informs me that since the galleys are not suited for those seas—as they had learned by experience, on account of the swift current and their inability to enter a bay while pursuing the enemy—and on account of the difficulties which the religious oppose to his collecting rowers, and as those whom they get possess little skill, he had decided to build four galizabras; these were already being built, and when well armed and equipped would, with three galliots, constitute a sufficient force for the clearing and pacification of those seas. It is therefore desir-