9th of August
1586, consisted of nothing more valuable than five vines, an orchard,
some household furniture, four beehives, forty-five hens and chickens,
one cock and a crucible.

It had become evident that Cervantes could not gain his bread by
literature, and in 1587 he went to Seville to seek employment in
connexion with the provisioning of the Invincible Armada. He was placed
under the orders of Antonio de Guevara, and before the 24th of February
was excommunicated for excessive zeal in collecting wheat at Ecija.
During the next few months he was engaged in gathering stores at Seville
and the adjacent district, and after the defeat of the Armada he was
retained as commissary to the galleys. Tired of the drudgery, and
without any prospect of advancement, on the 21st of May 1590 Cervantes
drew up a petition to the king, recording his services and applying for
one of four posts then vacant in the American colonies: a place in the
department of public accounts in New Granada, the governorship of
Soconusco in Guatemala, the position of auditor to the galleys at
Cartagena, or that of _corregidor_ in the city of La Paz. The petition
was referred to the Council of the Indies, and was annotated with the
words:--"Let him look for something nearer home." Cervantes perforce
remained at his post; the work was hard, uncongenial and ill-paid, and
the salary was in constant arrears. In November 1590 he was in such
straits that he borrowed money to buy himself a suit of clothes, and in
August 1592 his sureties were called upon to make good a deficiency of
795 _reales_ in his accounts. His thoughts turned to literature once
more, and on the 5th of September 1592, he signed a contract with
Rodrigo Osorio undertaking to write six plays at fifty ducats each, no
payment to be made unless Osorio considered that each of these pieces
was "one of the best ever produced in Spain." Nothing came of this
agreement, and it appears that, between the date of signing it and the
19th of September, Cervantes was imprisoned (for reasons unknown to us)
at Castro del Rio. He was speedily released, and continued to
perquisition as before in Andalusia; but his literary ambitions were not
dead, and in May 1595 he won the first prize--three silver spoons--at a
poetical tourney held in honour of St Hyacinth at Saragossa. Shortly
afterwards Cervantes found himself in difficulties with the exchequer
officials. He entrusted a sum of 7400 _reales_ to a merchant