1. Aguirre, seeing that the provincial's people would not land, returned the same day to the fortress, whence he wrote the following letter to the friar:—

THE LETTER OF AGUIRRE TO THE PROVINCIAL

“Magnificent and Reverend Sir,—It would give us much greater pleasure to celebrate your paternity's reception with boughs and flowers, than with arquebusses and discharges of artillery, because it has been told to us, by many persons, that such would be more generous; and, if we are to judge by the proceedings we have this day observed, which are greater than we had been led to expect; it would seem that your paternity is a lover of arms and military exploits: and thus we see that you imitate the honour, virtue, and nobility, which our forefathers attained sword in hand. This I do not deny; neither do these señores who are here, and who came from Pirù by the river Marañon, to discover and settle new countries, some of us maimed, some halt, and some of sound body. Owing to the troubles in Pirù, we sought to find a land, miserable as it might be, to give rest to our poor bodies, which are covered with more seams than are pilgrims’ weeds, and we would have remained and settled there, had we not, after many troubles, passed from the river, and into the sea, hungry and menaced even by death; and let those who may come against us, take into account that they come to war with the ghosts of dead men.