matter in any account until he has feathered his nest, which he is in great haste to do.  Gold which is for melting diminishes at the fire:  some chains which would weigh about twenty marks have never been seen again.

     “I have been more distressed about this matter of the gold than even
     about the pearls, because I have not brought it to her Highness.

“The Commander at once set to work upon anything which he thought would injure me.  I have already said that with six hundred thousand I could pay every one without defrauding anybody, and that I had more than four millions of tenths and constabulary [dues] without touching the gold.  He made some free gifts which are ridiculous, though I believe that he began by assigning the chief part to himself.  Their Highnesses will find it out when they order an account to be obtained from him, especially if I should be present thereat.  He does nothing but reiterate that a large sum is owing, and it is what I have said, and even less.  I have been much distressed that there should be sent concerning me an inquisitor who is aware that if the inquisition which he returns is very grave he will remain in possession of the government.

“Would that it had pleased our Lord that their Highnesses had sent him or some one else two years ago, for I know that I should now be free from scandal and infamy, and that my honour would not be taken from me, nor should I lose it.  God is just, and will make known the why and the wherefore.

“They judge me over there as they would a governor who had gone to Sicily, or to a city or town placed under regular government, and where the laws can be observed in their entirety without fear of ruining everything; and I am greatly injured thereby.

“I ought to be judged as a captain who went from Spain to the Indies to conquer a numerous and warlike people, whose customs and religion are very contrary to ours; who live in rocks and mountains, without fixed settlements, and not like ourselves:  and where, by the Divine Will, I have placed under the dominion of the King and Queen, our Sovereigns, a second world, through which Spain, which was reckoned a poor country, has become the richest.

“I ought to be judged as a captain who for such a long time up to this day has borne arms without laying them aside for an hour, and by gentlemen adventurers and by custom, and not by letters, unless they were from Greeks or Romans or others of modern times of whom there are so many and such noble examples in Spain; or otherwise I receive great injury, because in the Indies there is neither town nor settlement.

“The gate to the gold and pearls is now open, and plenty of everything—­precious stones, spices and a thousand other things—­may be surely expected, and never could a worse misfortune befall me:  for by the name of our Lord the