the embassy sent by the emperor the year before. My lord the emperor
called me, and asked me why I had not fulfilled his orders--to which
I replied that I had gone to do so, but that, while at the seaport,
I had been taken sick; and in order not to miss sending his embassy,
I had entrusted it to one of my vassals, a Christian. Then my lord
the emperor ordered me to go with father Fray Juan Cobos to visit your
Excellency in his name, and to deliver my letters and try to establish
lasting relations of friendship and amity; and finally sent me away,
after having given me full instructions as to what I was to say and
do. To father Fray Juan Cobos my lord the emperor gave a sword of great
worth and value, as a token of friendship, for your Excellency; and a
letter, wherein it was written that we were to be friends and brothers.

Father Fray Juan Cobos and I departed for the port, but on arriving
there he would not embark on my vessel. So we set sail, he on his
vessel and I on mine. Upon leaving I told father Fray Juan Cobos that
it would be better to wait for the tide, and until the moon came out;
but he answered: "Your people do not know or understand the sea." I
am a pilot, and, seeing that the high tide was against us, I waited
until the moon arose; but the father would not wait, and so left,
and I have never since seen him. The advice I gave him before leaving
was so that the emperor my lord might not ask me why I had not advised
him, and so that the father himself might not have reason to complain
against me. I gave him two of my kinsmen to accompany him, since he
would not sail on my vessel. Before he left, I asked the father to
give me a letter for your Excellency, because the ocean was not safe;
and I asked also for some one who would come with me to these islands,
and who could tell who I was, and state the reasons why I came. He
gave me Antonio, a Christian Sangley. The said Antonio asked the
father for a letter to your Excellency, and he gave it to him; and