rom the
country, and should command anew what might be for their service. He
excited their enmity against me, and he seems, from what took place and
from his behavior, to have come as my enemy and as a very vehement one;
or else the report is true that he has spent much to obtain this
employment. I do not know more about it than what I hear. I never heard
of an inquisitor gathering rebels together and accepting them, and others
devoid of credit and unworthy of it, as witnesses against their governor.

If their Highnesses were to make a general inquisition there, I assure
you that they would look upon it as a great wonder that the island does
not founder.

I think your Ladyship will remember that when, after losing my sails, I
was driven into Lisbon by a tempest, I was falsely accused of having gone
there to the King in order to give him the Indies. Their Highnesses
afterwards learned the contrary, and that it was entirely malicious.
Although I may know but little, I do not think anyone considers me so
stupid as not to know that even if the Indies were mine I could not
uphold myself without the help of some prince. If this be so, where could
I find better support and security than in the King and Queen our Lords,
who have raised me from nothing to such great honor, and are the most
exalted princes of the world on sea and on land, and who consider that I
have rendered them service, and preserve to me my privileges and rewards;
and if anyone infringes them, their Highnesses increase them still more,
as was seen in the case of Juan Aguado; and they order great honor to be
conferred upon me, and, as I have already said, their Highnesses have
received service from me, and keep my sons in their household;[379-1] all
which could by no means happen with another prince, for where there is no
affection, everything else fails.

I have now spoken thus in reply to a malicious slander, but against my
will, as it is a thing which should not recur to memory even in dreams;
for the Commander Bobadilla maliciously seeks in this way to set his own
conduct and actions in a brighter light; but I shall easily show him that
his small knowledge and great cowardice, together with his inordinate
cupidity, have caused him to fail therein.

I have already said that I wrote to him and to the friars, and
immediately set out, as I told him, almost alone, because all the people
were with the Adelantado, and likewise in order to prevent suspicion on