lly reaches Bayona May 28, 1527, in a wretched condition
and very short of provisions. She carried "twenty-seven persons and
twenty-two Indians," and is without her proper captain Acuna, who had
been left in the hands of the French. Abandoned by the latter on the
Brazilian coast, he was rescued by a Portuguese vessel and carried
to Pernambuco "a trading agency of the King of Portugal," where he
was detained as prisoner for over eighteen months. In his letter to
the King of Portugal, Acuna upbraids him for treatment worse than the
Moors might user "but," he adds, "what can we expect when even the sons
of Portuguese are abandoned here to the fare of the savages? There are
more than three hundred Christians, the sons of Christians, abandoned
in this land, who would be more certain of being saved in Turkey than
here.... There is no justice here. Let your majesty take me from this
land, and keep me where I may have the justice I merit." Late in the
year 1528, Acuna is ordered to Portugal, as is learned from another
document, dated November 2 of that year. Before leaving Pernambuco he
desires that a testimony of everything that has happened since his
departure from Spain until his arrival at Pernambuco be taken down
by the notary-public, this testimony being taken from the men who had
come with him, "and the Frenchmen who were present at my undoing, and
others who heard it from persons who were in the ships of the French
who destroyed me." Acuna desires this in case any accident befall him
while on the way to Portugal, and "that the emperor may be informed of
the truth, and that I may give account of myself." This testimony is
much the same as that contained in the other documents. (Nos. xxiii,
pp. 225-241; and no, xv, pp. 313-323.)

June 11, 1528. Hernando de la Torre, captain-general and governor
in the Moluccas, sends the king a log of the fleet up to June 1,
1526, followed by the adventures of the flagship, "Sancta Maria de
la Victoria," after its separation from the rest of the fleet, with a
description of the lands and seas in its course. The log was made by
the pilot of the "Victoria," Martin de Uriarte. De la Torre prefaces
these accounts with a letter in which he asks for aid, "of which we are
in sore need." He says "all the captains of the ships, caravels, and
the tender, seven in number; the treasurer, accountants, and officials,
both general and private, ... are dead or lost, until now only the
treasurer of one of