nd the whole of France was amazed at the treasures we
thus forwarded to our emperor. This very circumstance even created a
great desire in the mind of the French king to take possession of part
of the Caribbee islands; and it was upon this occasion he exclaimed that
our emperor could carry on the war with him solely with the riches he
drew from the West Indies! And yet at that time the Spaniards had not
subdued or even discovered Peru. The king of France on this occasion
also sent word to our great emperor, that as he and the king of Portugal
had divided the world between themselves, without offering him any part
of it, he should like them to show him our father Adam's will, that he
might convince himself whether he had really constituted them the sole
heirs to these countries. As long as they refused to comply with this,
he would consider himself justified to possess himself of everything he
could on the high seas: and indeed it was not long before he again sent
out Jean Florin with a small fleet, who took considerable prizes at sea,
between Spain and the Canaries; but as he was returning home with them
to France he fell in with three or four Biscay men of war, who attacked
him with such determination, that after a severe engagement he was
obliged to surrender, with the whole of his vessels, and he, with his
captains, was brought in a prisoner to Seville. These prisoners were
then immediately sent to the emperor, who, however, on the first
intelligence of their capture, ordered them to be tried, when they were
found guilty, and the whole of them were hung in the harbour of Pico.

Such was the miserable end of Jean Florin, who carried off to France all
the gold we had intended for our emperor! As for Avila, he was detained
a close prisoner in one of the French fortresses, as the king of France
expected a large ransom for a man who had been commissioned to convey so
vast a treasure from the new world to Spain; but Avila by some means or
other succeeded in bribing the commandant of the fortress, and secretly
sent intelligence to Spain of the object of his mission; he even managed
to forward Cortes' despatches, with all his papers and our letters,
either into the hands of the licentiate Nunez, who was a cousin of
Cortes, and reporter of the royal council of Madrid, or into those of
Cortes' father or of Diego de Ordas. These papers were instantly
despatched to his majesty in Flanders, without their being at all
noticed to th