and the raising of the great siege of Sevilha, and
many other battles in which the Portuguese added luster
to their name in the service of the said kings, demand—and,
in our own times, those fleets of ours which participated
in the capture of Tunes, in the island of Dargel,
or again in the taking of Pinhao, [118] and in many
other public and private undertakings in which, with
both money and arms, we greatly aided the kings of
Castella. In spite of all this, his grace will
not grant me a thing so reasonable and pleasing, both
to God and to the kings our lords, and to the advantage
of their army; but, on the contrary, so obstinately
refuses to accept the offer of this fleet, and will
not depart from our land, but steadily continues building
fortifications and throwing up new breastworks, from
which he attacked the fleet of the king our lord in
this his port, and fired several shots at us from the
fortress, as if we were Moors and pagans. And
yet I did not allow him to be bombarded, in reply,
from this galley “San Francisco,” although
I had cannon with which I could have caused him much
anxiety; but rather retired, in accordance with my
constant desire, past and present, for peace—as
is seen in my reluctance to make war upon him or to
be the cause of shedding Christian blood. Thus
I have acted very differently from his grace, who
had ambuscades laid at the fords, whither I sent my
boat, peaceably, without any soldiers aboard, in order
to show in all respects my great desire to avoid war.
As for his grace’s saying that I opened fire
on his fort, it was only after I had sent him word
beforehand not to make this necessary; so that the
desire which has since been made evident by him was
shown therein also. And a few bombardments from
the boats, moreover, were not sufficient either to
deter his people on land from continuing their work
upon our land and sea or his grace from breaking out
in open war against me with great ardor and desire;
while I, on the contrary, had very little desire to
injure him, but allowed many vessels, people, and provisions
to go into the fortress, wherewith he could fortify
himself against this peaceful fleet of the king our
lord. And with regard to the clauses of his instructions
which his grace had shown to me in his defense, I
would say that this was of service to me; for although,
it is true, one of them says that he shall go among
the Filipinas islands, yet, immediately thereafter
follows a contrary clause to the effect that he shall
in no way transgress the treaty and agreement between
Castella and Purtugual, which has the more force to
prevent him from going to the Filipinas, in virtue
of the more effectual words contained in the solemn
covenant of the treaty aforesaid. Moreover, in
regard to his grace’s saying that the desire
entertained by his majesty was not to enter our demarcation,
and that he thought the Filipinas were in his, I would
say that in all kingdoms, when it happens that doubt
arises in the instructions, letters, provisions, or