1546
y 1547._ This was first printed in 1548, and becoming very popular was
translated into French, Dutch, German, Italian and Latin. As may be
expected from the author's intimacy with Charles, the book is very partial
to the emperor, and its misrepresentations have been severely criticized.

AVILES, PEDRO MENENDEZ DE (1519-1574), Spanish seaman, founder of St
Augustine, Florida, was born at Aviles in Asturias on the 15th of February
1519. His family were gentry, and he was one of nineteen brothers and
sisters. At the age of fourteen he ran away to sea, and was engaged till he
was thirty in a life of adventure as a corsair. In 1549 during peace
between France and Spain he was commissioned by the emperor Charles V. to
clear the north coast of Spain and the Canaries of French pirates. In 1554
he was appointed captain-general of the "flota" or convoy which carried the
trade between Spain and America. The appointment was made by the emperor
over the head and against the will of the Casa de Contratacion, or
governing board of the American trade. In this year, and before he sailed
to America, Aviles accompanied the prince of Spain, afterwards Philip II.,
to England, where he had gone to marry Queen Mary. As commander of the
flota he displayed a diligence, and achieved a degree of success in
bringing back treasure, which earned him the hearty approval of the
emperor. But his devotion to the imperial service, and his steady refusal
to receive bribes as the reward for permitting breaches of the regulations,
made him unpopular with the merchants, while his high-handed ways offended
the Casa de Contratacion. Reappointed commander in 1557, and knowing the
hostility of the Casa, he applied for service elsewhere. The war with
France in which Spain and England were allies was then in progress, and
until the close of 1559 ample occupation was found for Aviles in bringing
money and recruits from Spain to Flanders. When peace was restored he
commanded the fleet which brought Philip II. back from the Low Countries to
Spain. In 1560 he was again appointed to command the flota, and he made a
most successful voyage to America and back, in that and the following year.
His relations with the Casa de Contratacion were, however, as strained as
ever. On his return from another voyage in 1563 he was arrested by order of
the Casa, and was detained in prison for twenty months. What the charges
brought against him were is not known. Aviles in a letter