because of the little care which the Casa de Contratacion at Seville used for their transport from the Azores. All the objects which were sent were so rich and so strange that I greatly desired Your Majesty might see them, for, besides the profit Your Highness would have from them, my services would have become more apparent; and I was much grieved for their loss. I do rejoice, however, that they were taken, because Your Majesty has but small need of them and I will endeavour to send others much richer and more curious, judging from the information I have about provinces I have now sent to conquer, and others which I will conquer when I have people for the purpose. The French and the other princes to whom those things may become known will also know through them the reason why they are subjected to the Imperial Crown of Your Cæsarian Majesty, as, besides many great kingdoms which Your Highness has in these parts, so far and distant, from these, I, the humblest of Your vassals, come rendering such and so many services. In fulfilment of my offers, I now send by Diego de Soto my servant some trifles, which were formerly left behind as not worthy to accompany the others, and some which I have since then obtained, which, although as I have before said, they were refused as unworthy, bear some resemblance to the others. I likewise send a silver culverin,[1] which in its smelting required two thousand four hundred and fifty pounds, in which I believe there was even some gold,
- ↑ It weighed about twenty-three hundred-weight; the ornamen-
one of the Azores, where Quiñones was killed in a brawl; Avila was captured off Cape St. Vincent, by a French corsair, Florin, who, after robbing the ship of the precious freight, allowed it to continue its voyage to Seville, where it arrived on November 7, 1522. Avila was carried by Florin to La Rochelle, but found means to send his despatches to the Emperor. The Aztec spoils went to enrich the treasury of Francis I. of France, who justified their capture by saying he knew of no provision in father Adam's will which made his brother of Spain sole heir to all the earth's treasures.
