Sacred royal Catholic Majesty:
Inasmuch as when Don Antonio de Mendoça, your viceroy of Nueva
España, went to Piru, he ordered me to go to those kingdoms of
España, in order to inform your Majesty of affairs touching this
western region, I being one who understood them and had had experience
in them, and had come to these districts as your accountant in the
fleet under command of Rruy Lopez de Vyllalobos: I went to those
kingdoms in order to kiss your Majesty’s feet, and gave the most
detailed relation and information possible concerning the islands and
provinces of these districts, the character and number of the people,
their trade, means of gain, and mode [of life]. Your Majesty ordered
that the fleet for the expedition be equipped immediately; that ships
be built and the necessary things prepared for it in the sea west of
Nueva España. I busied myself in that work and despatch from the time
of my return; also as soon as I returned to Nueva España, I went, by
order of your viceroy of that country, Don Luis de Velasco, to explore
the coast and ports of Florida where I had to go afterward when the
fleet sailed of which Don Tristan de Arellano was commander. [28] After
my return from that expedition, I continued in the despatch and
equipment of this fleet, in which I occupied myself most sedulously.
When it was quite ready for the sea, I embarked in it as your
treasurer. When I was in España, your Majesty assigned me four hundred
pesos de minas payable in acquittances in Nueva España. But they have
been poorly collected, and there are none from which I can be paid. I
humbly beseech your Majesty to have me paid from the royal treasury for
the support of my wife and family whom I left in Mexico. Besides this,
as is well known to your Majesty, when I left Yndia, I brought pepper
and carried away ginger from Yndia at a very great risk, because of the
ordinances and penalties passed and imposed by the most serene king of
Portugal, which are executed without remission upon transgressors. The
pepper was lost, but there is a great quantity of the ginger in your
Nueva España today, all of which has come from the roots which I took
there with the purpose and design that your kingdoms might enjoy so
many profits and a common usufruct. I communicated in regard to it with
Don Francisco de Mendoça, asking him to treat with, your Majesty, so
that some favor might be shown me from the profits that would result
from the ginger. Don Francisco negotiated it for himself and not for me
as he had agreed. Consequently, he obtained the reward for my services
without having performed any work or labor on his own part, while order
was given to give me three hundred pesos de minas of acquittances with
the injunction that they be conferred. I wrote your Majesty in regard
to the matter, and although I intended to go to ask for justice from
your Majesty, as from a most just prince, after the despatch of the
fleet, in whose preparation I had been occupied, I did not go, because
I thought that if I failed to sail in the fleet, I would not be
performing my duty to your royal service; and that since I was one who
knew the land and the season in which to return for the discovery of
the return passage, and that success might be had now in that in which
so many fleets have not been able to succeed, it was important for me
to come. Therefore on account of coming (as I did), I did not go to
España, being confident in the liberality and grandeur of your
Majesty, and that if I petitioned you from here, you should show me
justice and thorough favor. Also [I did this] because it is well for me
to end my life in your Majesty’s service, since most of my life has
been spent in serving you. With that motive, I embarked, and we set
sail at Puerto de la Navidad. After a sixty-four days’ voyage we made
the Filipinas. While some masts were being prepared in the island of
Bohol for the fleet, your general sent me to the province back of the
island to attend to other things. There I traded for the samples of
gold, wax, and cinnamon which are being sent to your Majesty, with the
greatest care possible. I returned to Bohol, where the fleet was
stationed, and where, at the last resolution taken, it was determined
that the fleet should come to this island of Cubu, because of the
information that we heard of it, and for other reasons. We arrived here
on the twenty-seventh of April of this year sixty-four (or rather
sixty-five). We are located in the best center of the country although
there is no other advantage in this island than that it is well
settled, and consequently we can maintain ourselves until your Majesty
have us informed of what is best for your royal service and that we
should support ourselves. We are stationed here at the gateway of great
kingdoms and Maluco is very near, where our holy faith will be exalted
and your royal patrimony increased, for there is a natural fitness for
it. I am busying myself and shall continue to busy myself in your royal
service, and there will be no lack of service. Will your Majesty aid us
with the wherewithal, so that trade may be maintained and introduced
among many of these nations. It is a fact that entrance must be made in
your royal name, and by force of arms. We are not well equipped, and
consequently, it is necessary that the aid that we are now sending to
ask from Nueva España be sent with promptness. In the matter of the
ginger it is already clear to your Majesty, that I brought it and that
Don Francisco did not treat in my favor as he ought to have done, and
that I was notably injured in this, and that the three hundred pesos de
minas in acquittances have not been collected because of the difficulty
in doing so. I beg your Majesty that I be given warrants on the
treasury reserving the right of the rest that makes for my justice in
this matter, until it is pleaded in my name and until amends may be
made to me; since before nor since no one else has done such a service
in which there is an annual sum of more than fifty thousand ducados
involved (or rather more than one hundred and fifty thousand). In that
I will receive grace and justice. May our Lord happily prosper your
sacred royal Catholic Majesty with the increase of life and greater
kingdoms that is desired by your servants. Cubu, May 30, 1565. Your
royal Catholic Majesty’s faithful servant, who humbly kisses your
royal feet and hands.