Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/116

96 than fifteen, I desire, and it is my will, that he remain under control of the guardianship and care of such tutors and administrators as I herein name for my children, until they attain the age of twenty-five years completed. During the interim, let him not withdraw from or evade the guardianship and control, so that, until he complete the said age, as I have herein established, his property and estate may be the more advantageously increased, and administered, and all that I direct and dispose by this testament may be the better and more quickly complied with. Thus from the direction and administration of the properties of my son, the said Don Martin, as well as for the control and care of the persons and goods of my legitimate daughters, Doña Maria, Dona Catalina, and Dona Juana, I name and appoint for tutors and guardians, the most illustrious gentlemen, Don Juan Alonso de Guzman, Duke of Medina Sidonia; Don Pedro Alvare Osorio, Marques de Astorga; and Don Pedro de Arellano, Count de Aguilar. I entreat the same to graciously accept the said tutelage and guardianship, and, in accepting and receiving it, they may remember and respect what I beg and entreat them, for these my said children are of their blood and lineage, by protecting whom they do but fufill their duty as gentlemen, and profit their own lineage and quality. In recognition of their services and of their rights conformably to the law to be recompensed from my estate for the said tutelage and guardianship, I direct that, for each year during which their lordships exercise their functions, they shall receive fifty marks of silver, which I entreat them to agree to, and to accept in consideration of the causes and reasons above mentioned. I direct that my son and successor, the said Don Martin, shall, until he has completed his twenty-fifth year, receive twelve thousand ducats yearly for his support, and that of his servants. The remainder of my income may thus more fully and quickly provide for all that I have ordered and directed in this my testament. As the towns, properties, engineering works, mines, and other works belonging to my estate, to which, after my death, the said Don Martin, my son, will succeed, are divided and scattered through different provinces of New Spain, distant one from another, it is necessary that I, as one who knows