as we have lost so many great realms in Yndia, which have so strengthened and fortified themselves that little or nothing remains of them.[1] And these benefits, in particular, will be lost.
Of other especial advantages
First: Not only is that country sufficient for its own maintenance, but his Majesty can also, with what he will obtain from it, check and menace all our old enemies. For he can easily exact every year, without injury to any one, five galleons—built and rigged, equipped with artillery and munitions, and even loaded with materials and military supplies. Further, if the Chinese are well treated and paid, from them will go the men necessary to work the ships; they are no less industrious and capable than our seamen, as we consider them very expert in the Portuguese ships.
Second: Those vessels, or as many others, can be loaded every year with gold, raw silk, and all sorts of silken fabrics—taffetas, satins, damasks, etc.; with musk, chests inlaid with ivory, boxes, wrought and gilded curtains, and whatever kinds of furniture, appliances, ornaments, and jewels are used by man; and many a web of linen cloth, of every sort and kind.
- ↑ A somewhat blind allusion to the decline of the Portuguese power in India, which began in the first decade of the sixteenth century, with the conquests of Albuquerque and others (see note 8 ante). The arbitrary and tyrannical rule of the Portuguese exasperated the natives, many of whom revolted. It will be remembered that in 1580 Portugal was subjected to the dominion of Spain—including, of course, its Oriental colonial possessions. The statement in the text evidently means that, of the Indian states subdued by the Portuguese, many have acquired so much strength that they have been able successfully to resist their conquerors, and little therefore remains for the Spaniards, who are now in possession of the Portuguese domains.
