Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/228

 I have fitted out by land and sea and in providing ammunition and artillery in this city, and in many other expenses and outlays which daily occur; for all our provisions are expensive and of such excessive prices that, although the country is rich, the income I obtain does not correspond to the outlays, costs, and expenses which I have — yet repeating all I have said before, and setting all personal interest aside, I have determined to prepare three caravels and a brigantine, of which the cost will reach more than ten thousand pesos of gold which I swear to Your Majesty I shall have to borrow. I add this new service to those I have already rendered, for I hold it to be the most important, hoping as I do to find the strait; and even if this should not be found, certainly many good and rich countries will be discovered, where Your Cæsarian Majesty will be served, and other dominions in considerable number will be brought under Your Imperial Crown. If there be no such strait, then it will be useful that this be known, so that other means may be discovered by which Your Caesarian Majesty may draw profits from the Spicelands and other countries bordering on them. Thus I hold myself at Your Majesty's service, very happy if you will so command me, and, in the absence of the strait, I hope to conquer these countries at less expense than anyone else; but I pray the Lord, nevertheless, that my armada may attain the object I pursue, which is to discover the strait, for that would be the happiest of all results. Of this I am well convinced, because, to the royal good fortune of Your Majesty, nothing can be denied, and diligence and good preparation and zeal will not be wanting on my part to achieve it.

I likewise expect to send the ships I have built on the South Sea, which vessels — our Lord being willing — will sail down the coast at the end of July of this year 1524 in search of the same strait; for if it exists it cannot