s they read
it some weeks later. Their comments, written in the margin of the
original, are printed in italics at the end of each paragraph. It was
drawn up in the form of a memorandum, and entrusted to Antonio de Torres,
who was commanding the return expedition.

"What you, Antonio de Torres, captain of the ship Marigalante and Alcalde
of the City of Isabella, are to say and supplicate on my part to the King
and Queen, our Lords, is as follows:--

"First. Having delivered the letters of credence which you carry
from me for their Highnesses, you will kiss for me their Royal feet
and hands and will recommend me to their Highnesses as to a King and
Queen, my natural Lords, in whose service I desire to end my days:
as you will be able to say this more fully to their Highnesses,
according to what you have seen and known of me.

["Their Highnesses hold him in their favour.]

"Item. Although by the letters I write to their Highnesses, and
also the father Friar Buil and the Treasurer, they will be able to
understand all that has been done here since our arrival, and this
very minutely and extensively: nevertheless, you will say to their
Highnesses on my part, that it has pleased God to give me such
favour in their service, that up to the present time. I do not find
less, nor has less been found in anything than what I wrote and said
and affirmed to their Highnesses in the past: but rather, by the
Grace of God, I hope that it will appear, by works much more clearly
and very soon, because such signs and indications of spices have
been found on the shores of the sea alone, without having gone
inland, that there is reason that very much better results may be
hoped for: and this also may be hoped for in the mines of gold,
because by two persons only who went to investigate, each one on his
own part, without remaining there because there was not many people,
so many rivers have been discovered so filled with gold, that all
who saw it and gathered specimens of it with the hands alone, came
away so pleased and say such things in regard to its abundance, that
I am timid about telling it and writing it to their Highnesses: but
because Gorbalan, who was one of the discoverers, is going yonder,
he will tell what he saw, although another named Hojeda remains
here, a servant of the D