work, which
should be divided among so many. Consequently there is signal danger,
because the voyage is so long and difficult.

22. _Item_: That it be ordered that the common seamen who serve in
the said ships, who are always Indian natives, be all men of that
coast, who are instructed how to navigate; and that they be made to
wear clothes, with which to shelter themselves from the cold; for,
because they do not, most of them die in high latitudes, of which he
[the writer] is a witness. Inasmuch as the factor enrolls other Indians
who live in the interior, and who do not know the art of sailing,
and as they are a wretched people, they are embarked without clothes
to protect them against the cold, so that when each new dawn comes
there are three or four dead men (a matter that is breaking his heart);
besides, they are treated inhumanly and are not given the necessaries
of life, but are killed with hunger and thirst. If he were to tell
in detail the evil that is done to them, it would fill many pages. He
petitions your Majesty to charge your governor straitly to remedy this.

_Item_: That inasmuch as the kitchens where the food is cooked are
not located in the first part of the forecastle, as is seen in [ships
on] these seas, but in the waist; and inasmuch as at the first storm
the sea carries them away, after which each one cooks his food in
his messroom where he can make a fire (and it is a miracle from God
that the ships are not burned)--he petitions your Majesty to order
your governor to remedy that, since he is so excellent a sailor. The
reason for that abuse is that the officials appropriate the largest
storerooms of the ships.

23. _Item_: That slave women be not conveyed in the ships, by which
many acts offensive to God will be avoided. Although that is prohibited
by your royal decree, and it is also entrusted to the archbishop to
place upon them the penalty of excommunication and to punish them,
this evil has not been checked; and many sailors--and even others,
who should furnish a good example--take slave women and keep them as
concubines. He knew a certain prominent official who carried with him
fifteen of these women; and some were delivered of children by him,
while others were pregnant, which made a great scandal.

24. _Item_: That no sailor, and no passenger unless he be a person of
rank, be allowed to take more than one male slave; for they load the
ships with slaves who eat the provisions, and steal w