ht to commence occupying
yourself with our affairs; and reason strongly urges this. It
appears to me that a good copy should be made of the chapter of that
letter which their Highnesses wrote me where they say they will
fulfil their promises to me and will place you in possession of
everything: and that this copy should be given to them with another
writing telling of my sickness, and that it is now impossible for me
to go and kiss their Royal feet and hands, and that the Indies are
being lost, and are on fire in a thousand places, and that I have
received nothing, and am receiving nothing, from the revenues
derived from them, and that no one dares to accept or demand
anything there for me, and I am living upon borrowed funds. I spent
the money which I got there in bringing those people who went with
me back to their homes, for it would be a great burden upon my
conscience to have left them there and to have abandoned them. This
must be made known to the Lord Bishop of Palencia, in whose favour
I have so much confidence, and also to the Lord Chamberlain.
I believed that Carbajal and Jeronimo would be there at such a time.
Our Lord is there, and He will order everything as He knows it to be
best for us.

"Carbajal reached here yesterday. I wished to send him immediately
with this same order, but he excused himself profusely, saying that
his wife was at the point of death. I shall see that he goes,
because he knows a great deal about these affairs. I will also
endeavour to have your brother and your uncle go to kiss the hands
of Their Highnesses, and give them an account of the voyage if my
letters are not sufficient. Take good care of your brother. He has
a good disposition, and is no longer a boy. Ten brothers would not
be too many for you. I never found better friends to right or to
left than my brothers. We must strive to obtain the government of
the Indies and then the adjustment of the revenues. I gave you a
memorandum which told you what part of them belongs to me. What
they gave to Carbajal was nothing and has turned to nothing.
Whoever desires to do so takes merchandise there, and so the eighth
is nothing, because, without contributing the eighth, I could send
to trade there without rendering account or going in company with