neglected to do; and, punishing the guilt that I shall find, I shall inform your Majesty of everything.  I do not see how the master-of-camp, Don Luis Bracamonte, who had charge of that reenforcement, can entirely clear himself; for after I had appointed captains and private persons to whom the ships could be entrusted, he committed the one that was lost to an accountant, one Don Alonso Fajardo de Villalobos, when neither he nor I knew that man sufficiently to entrust such a ship to him.  But until I have heard the reasons on which he based that action, I do not dare to blame him.

[Marginal note:  “What investigation you make in this will be very suitable.  You have also well understood the matter, and reason on it in such a manner that there is nothing to add to what you propose, except to await your reply with the suitable execution of it, for the good example that must emanate from it in similar matters.”]

9th.  I believe that your Majesty will already have learned of the occasion for sending the said master-of-camp to those places, by letters that I sent via India.  By them will be seen the causes that preceded, and the pressing efforts made by the castellan Lucas de Vergara Gaviria, in order that he might be permitted to come here.  A son of Doctor Quesada, ex-auditor of Mexico, a man respected for his learning and integrity, went to take his residencia.  I gave him charge of one of the companies that I sent to those places and which had to be reorganized in them, for that purpose, and because of his rank, the services of his father, and his wish to follow a military life.  When the residencia and acquittal are made, I shall inform your Majesty of that also.  It will have so much that is good or evil, as the religious shall have aided or opposed him; since their friendship is the greatest advantage here, and their hostility the greatest evil.  For if they desire to grant honors, even to one who does not merit them, the documents, vouchers, and negotiations are drawn up as may be desired; and the governor has to give in payment what they demand, even if he be unable.  If he do not act thus, woe to him; for they reach him in conversations and pulpit in his most vulnerable spot, his honor.  Consequently, as I know that to be usual here, I am resolved not to credit what they have written of Lucas de Vergara Gaviria; on the other hand, I am meanwhile not sure of the contrary.  I consider him a good soldier, although he has something of the harshness of temper that is reported.  I also wrote to your Majesty when I informed you of his coming and of the departure of Don Luis de Bracamonte, asking you to be pleased to send a governor for those places, for Don Luis said that he would remain there only until the arrival of your Majesty’s appointee—­a thing that was self-evident, even had he not said it.  Had it not been for placing a captain before one whom your Majesty had honored with the title of master-of-camp, I would have given those forts in