salaries here.

"[Their Highnesses order 20,000 maravedis besides his salary
assigned to him each year, as long as he remains yonder, and
that it shall be paid him when his salary is paid.]

"Item. You will say to their Highnesses, although it is already
written in the letters, that I do not think it will be possible to
go to make discoveries this year, until these rivers in which gold
is found are placed in the most suitable condition for the service
of their Highnesses, as afterwards it can be done much better.
Because it is a thing which no one can do without my presence,
according to my will or for the service of their Highnesses, however
well it may be done, as it is doubtful what will be satisfactory to
a man unless he is present.

["Let him endeavour that the amount of this gold may be known
as precisely as possible.]

"Item. You will say to their Highnesses that the Squires who came
from Granada showed good horses in the review which took place at
Seville, and afterward at the embarkation I did not see them because
I was slightly unwell, and they replaced them with such horses that
the best of them do not appear to be worth 2000 maravedis, as they
sold the others and bought these; and this was done in the same way
to many people as I very well saw yonder, in the reviews at Seville.
It appears that Juan de Soria, after he had been given the money for
the wages, for some interest of his own substituted others in place
of those I expected to find here, and I found people whom I had
never seen. In this matter he was guilty of great wickedness, so