t the south. Although by the result [of Magallanes's
expedition] one could recognize the great difficulty and danger of
the voyage, his Majesty would not desist from the undertaking. On the
contrary, he immediately sent, in the year 25, two other fleets by
that way while, at the same time, he sent a ship under command of an
intelligent man to find a new entrance by the coast of Labrador and
the Bacallaos. [62] Following up the attempt, he ordered Don Fernando
Cortes, conqueror of Nueva-Espana, to attempt this expedition from
Nueva-Espana. He would not have ceased like means until attaining it,
had not he made that contract or agreement concerning those islands
with the king of Portugal in the year 29. [63] That put an end to
the enterprise until afterward, when Don Antonio de Mendoza, viceroy
of Nueva-Espana, took up again the same search in the year 42, and
continued to persevere in it, so that it was realized during the
latter years of the governorship and life of Don Luis de Velasco,
who succeeded the said Don Antonio in that office.

I would, Sire, narrate in minute detail to your Majesty these labors,
and those of many others, who lost their lives and possessions at
various times to see the accomplishment of so important a matter,
if I were not afraid of making a history of this letter--in order to
entreat you that, since God our Lord ordained that a good desired
by so many should be enjoyed with so great quietness in these most
fortunate days of your Majesty, you will not permit the glory of
this happiness to be disturbed and obscured; for the motives and
efforts of so suspicious a people embarrass it. They, in order to
gain their own private interests, try to cover them with this cloak
of convenience and conservation of so superior authority. And although
it appears that a great part of the former injuries are lacking today,
since the kingdom of Portugal (although by light of a separate crown)
is under the universal domain of your Majesty, still, the zeal and
affection that your Majesty has always felt in greater proportion
for the inhabitants of Castilla ought not on that account to cease;
since there is also no cessation of the rancor and hostility with
which the Portuguese, in all the Indias where they rule, withhold the
friendly intercourse that they owed to the Castilians as the vassals
of the same sovereign.

I am quite persuaded that there is little difference between these two
routes as regards the weat