Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/106

86 division which is made of the rents from the said shops and buildings.

XX. Item: I direct that ten thousand ducats be paid to my wife, the Marquesa Doña Juana de Zuñiga, which sum I received as her dowry; forasmuch as I received and expended them, and they belong to her, I direct that they be paid without dispute or question from the first and best properties of my estate.

XXI. Item: I say that, since, between Don Pedro Alvarez Osorio, marques de Astorga, and myself, it has been arranged and concerted that his eldest son and heir, Don Alvaro Perez Osorio, should marry Doña Maria Cortes, legitimate daughter of myself and the Marquesa Doña Juana de Zuñiga, my wife, and the conditions of this marriage have been set forth in a contract, it is my will that it should be fulfilled according to the stipulations; and as I have agreed and promised one hundred thousand ducats as a dower for the said Doña Maria, my daughter, of which the marques de Astorga, conformably to the said stipulations, has already received twenty thousand ducats, I desire that before everything else the remaining eighty thousand ducats be paid from the estates of the said marquesa, my wife, and from my own to complete the said dower, at the time and in the manner provided in the said contract. These sums shall be charged against the legitimate share of our estates which would belong to my daughter Doña Maria.

XXII. As I am obliged to dower Doña Catalina and Doña Juana, the legitimate daughters of myself and my wife, the said marquesa, I direct that, in discharge of this obligation as best I can, each of them shall receive fifty thousand ducats, making one hundred thousand for both; for which purpose I transfer this sum irrevocably during my lifetime to Melchor de Mojica, my administrator and secretary, who is here present and accepts the same in my name. These hundred thousand ducats may be taken from the joint estate of the marquesa my wife, and mine, and charged against the share her legitimate daughters would have of our estate. Failing the necessary sum, at the time of my death, to pay these hundred thousand ducats, I desire that whatever is wanting shall be