If your Majesty desires to have this land explored, I am at your service provided I be given two ships of about two hundred and fifty tons each, with forty soldiers to each vessel, and all the artillery, ammunition, and provisions that will be necessary. Then, with our Lord's help, and bearing some power of ambassador to the lord of the land, I will enter the country myself, returning by way of Nueva España after having explored the coast. I will ascertain how both trade and conquest must be carried on there. I will carry out all other orders that your Majesty may be pleased to give me, as well as whatever your service shall demand.
Southeast [S: west] by east from the island of Zubu are the islands of Maluco, where cloves are found; and it is not known whether they exist in any other regions. They lie below the equatorial line The names of the islands in which cloves are found are: Maluco, Gigolo [S: Jilolo], Maquian, Motel, and Momoy. Near those islands [it is said is one called Sunda, which contains pepper. To the east of those islands], at a distance of one hundred and twenty-five leagues, is Nueba Guinea, and three hundred and thirty-two leagues west of them is the island of Burney. This island is well-provisioned; and according to what some Moros, natives of Burney, told me, it belongs to one lord. It is said that there are a great many pearls of enormous size, even as large as pigeon's eggs; but my opinion is that all the natives of that land are great liars, and exaggerate things.
All these islands with more than two hundred and fifty leagues hereabout, are included in the compact which the sacred Majesty now in glory made with the most serene king, Don Juan of Portugal. Even if it were outside of the compact, if your Majesty does not wish to continue the spice trade, on account of the great expense and the little profit that it now yields, or will yield in the future, I think that it would be advisable to withdraw the people from the islands, as your Majesty can hope to draw no other profit from this land. I say this as a loyal subject of your Majesty, for it grieves me to see so much money wasted on a land which can be of no profit whatever.
If your Majesty prefers the spices, I think that it would be better to break the agreement, since it is for so small an amount, that three hundred and fifty thousand ducats [71] would be gained in two ships going from Nueba España to those regions. When this is done, your Majesty's domains will extend as far as Maluco, according to what was told me by the Augustinian friar, by name Fray Martin de Herrada, a native of Navarra, who was prior at the time when I left the Western Islands. He is a great arithmetician, geometrician, and astrologer [--one of the very greatest in the world]. He has measured this, and told me so. He has also written a book on navigation and the measurement of the earth and the sea, east and west. I believe that he will send the book by Fray Diego de Herrera, prior of the aforesaid islands of your Majesty. Then we shall be able to trade in spices with the whole world; for as I have said before, cloves cannot be found save in the five islands of Maluco.