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immense regions embraced under the name of New Spain. He recently asked the investiture as knight of St. Iago. Ponce, whose departure is at hand, takes with him the insignia to confer upon him. He has already taken leave of the Emperor and sails with a fleet of twenty-two ships. If, on the contrary, Ponce finds upon his arrival, that Cortes has already joined his ancestors, he must adopt another policy. Certainly no other captain will dare to raise his head, and if the natives do not revolt, everything will go well and the whole will be laid at the feet of Your Holiness.

In this great town of the lakes, which begins to take on the appearance of a city, fifty thousand houses have been built, and thirty-seven churches, in which the natives, mixed with the Spaniards, most piously attend the Christian ceremonies; for they have abandoned their ancient rites and odious human sacrifices, which they now even regard with horror. This blessed harvest will be astonishingly increased by the apostolic fervour of the Franciscan friars who have undertaken to instruct the natives, that is, if our internal dissensions do not create obstacles to such progress. Enough, however, of this subject.

Let us return to Esteven Gomez, of whom I have spoken at the close of the book beginning with the word PRIUSQUAM. I have said that he had been sent with a caravel to seek for a strait which may exist between Florida and the country called Baccalaos. Gomez, who returned ten months after his departure, found neither the strait nor Cathay, as he had promised to do. I had always thought this good man's ideas were groundless, and I openly told He is not without supporters. He nevertheless discovered agreeable and useful countries, corresponding exactly with our latitude and polar degrees. The licenciate Ayllon, a member of the council of Hispaniola, accompanied by his friends and servants, has explored

him so.

the same countries with two ships. These countries are north of Hispaniola, Cuba, and the Lucayan islands, and not distant from the Baccalaos, Chicora, and Duraba, of which I have above spoken at length.

After having described the manners and customs of these nations, after having enumerated the excellent ports and immense rivers, the Spaniards say they found plains overgrown with ilex, oaks, and olives, where wild grape vines rioted over the forest trees, and all other trees common in Europe. They give these particulars, not in an ordinary summary, but in a voluminous heap of letters. But what need have we of what is found everywhere in Europe? It is towards the south, not towards the frozen north,' that those who seek fortune should bend their way; for everything at the equator is rich.

Your Holiness will learn a laughable fact and a singular rumour concerning this voyage, which rapidly exploded. Esteven Gomez found nothing he expected to discover, but rather than return with empty hands, he violated our instructions which forbade him to use violence against any natives and filled his ship with people of both sexes, all innocent and half naked, who had lived contentedly in huts. Hardly had he reached the port whence he had sailed, than an individual, hearing of the ship's arrival with a cargo of slaves, mounted his horse and without waiting for further information galloped to us, and quite out of breath exclaimed: "Esteven Gomez has returned with a ship-load of cloves and precious stones." He hoped to be well rewarded, and, without comprehending the stupidity of this man, the partisans of Gomez went about the court with exclamations of joy. They loudly proclaimed that Gomez had brought not slaves (esclavos)

'How erroneous was this forecast, the development of the earth's resources in Canada, the Klondike and Alaska, to say nothing of the vast wealth produced by the grain and lumber industries of the North and West overwhelmingly proves.

but cloves (clavos), cutting off the first half of the word. In the Spanish tongue serfs are called esclavos, while the stems of cloves are clavos. When this transformation of esclavos into clavos was later discovered, everybody derided the partisans of Gomez and their gleeful exultation. Had they only stopped to consider that the celestial exhalations transferred to terrestrial substances adapted to receive them only produce aromatic odours in the countries lying beneath or near to the equator, they would have remembered that Gomez could have found no cloves during the ten months of his voyage.

I was writing this appendix when the wheel of fortuneas is usual-gave a turn; so true is it that she never concedes an ounce of honey, to which she does not add as much, or more, gall. The streets of the illustrious city of Toledo echoed with trumpet blasts, the roll of drums, and the piping of flutes in honour of the renewed alliance with the King of Portugal, already brother-in-law and cousin of the Emperor. This is the result of the Emperor's betrothal to the King's sister, after refusing alliance with the young English princess-a thing esteemed by all Castile to be important. In the midst of the festivities, serious and deplorable news, filling the Emperor's heart and those of the Castilians with disgust, was heard.

In my book describing the voyage around the world, dedicated to Pope Adrian, I said that the ship called La Trinidad, which accompanied the Victoria, was damaged and had remained behind at the island of Tidor, one of the Moluccas which produces spices; there were seventy men on board that ship besides their officers. I knew all their names, from our account books. The Trinidad had been repaired, loaded with cloves and precious stones, and was on her way to Europe, when she encountered a Portuguese fleet. The captain of this fleet, Jorge de Brito, surprised and conquered it, and took it to Malacca, a place supposed to be the Golden Cherso

nesus. He was careful to strip the vessel of everything it carried, but the saddest of all to recount is the melancholy fate of the sailors. They encountered such terrific seas that, buffeted by incessant storms, almost all of them perished of hunger and exhaustion. It is said that Jorge de Brito, after the capture of the Trinidad, went to the Moluccas and took possession of our islands, which are seven in number, building a fortress on one of them. He likewise seized everything that had been left on the island for the needs of trade. The produce of those two robberies exceeds in value two hundred thousand ducats. Such at least is the report of the sailors and officers who survived and returned with the Victoria.

Cristobal de Haro was the director general of this enterprise for buying spices. He is a man in whom our council had great confidence. He has given me the names of the five ships which accompanied the Victoria, and those of all our sailors down to the humblest members of the crew. He demonstrated to our council, which assembled to hear him, his reasons for estimating our losses at that value, indicating in detail the quantity of spices on board the Victoria, the amount of merchandise they left for buying, either at Maquiana, King Zabazulla's country, which is one of the seven where spices grow, or at Tidor, belonging to another native king and his son, and which is controlled by the administrators and principal lords of both sovereigns. This merchandise had been left in the charge of Juan de Campo, who remained in the archipelago. But Haro made an inventory of the steel and copper blades, the different kinds of hempen and flaxen cloth, pitch, quicksilver, mineral oil, Turkish candles, artists' colours, coral, red umbrellas, hats, mirrors, glass beads, little bells, spoons, and chairs worthy of royalty, not to mention the firearms with their necessary ammunition, which the royal officials in the archipelago, such as the auditor and the treasurer, exchanged for

spices to load our vessels. What the Emperor's decision will be is not yet known.' I think he will hardly disclose it for a few days, because of the renewed alliance with Portugal. Even had twins been born, it would be sufficiently unpleasant to allow such an insult to remain unpunished. I think the affair will be treated first by diplomatic negotiations; but I also hear a piece of news that will not please the King of Portugal.

In spite of his good intentions, the Emperor will be unable to conceal his opinion when the owners of the cargoes petition him for satisfaction. To refuse justice to his enemies would be dishonourable. How then can he refuse it to his own subjects? It is said the elder Portuguese do not conceal their fear of seeing the kingdom destroyed by these audacious attacks. They are also excessively arrogant towards the Castilians, without whose products they would perish of hunger, for that kingdom originally began as a small county of Castile. The Castilians therefore foam with rage. They want the Emperor to bring Portugal again under the domination of Castile, as his father, King Philip, once openly declared was his intention. Time will decide what verdict is to be given. Meanwhile, I wish Your Holiness good health, and humbly kiss your feet.

The agreement between the Spanish and Portuguese signed in Zaragoza by which Charles V. ceded and sold to the King of Portugal the Spanish possessions in the Moluccas may be found in Navarrete, op. cit., tom. iv., p. 389.

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