Seville, Fernando de Guzman, for king: and we swore fealty to him, as
is done to thyself. I was named quarter-master-general: and because I
did not consent to all he willed, he wanted to kill me. But I killed
this new king, the captain of his guards, his lieutenant-general, his
chaplain, a woman, a knight of the order of Rhodes, two ensigns, and
five or six domestics of the pretended king. I then resolved to punish
thy ministers and thy auditors (counsellors of the audiencia). I named
captains and sergeants: these again wanted to kill me, but I had them
all hanged. In the midst of these adventures we navigated for eleven
months, till we reached the mouth of the river. We sailed more than
fifteen hundred leagues. God knows how we got through that great mass
of water. I advise thee, O great King, never to send Spanish fleets
into that accursed river. God preserve thee in his holy keeping."

This letter was given by Aguirre to the vicar of the island of
Margareta, Pedro de Contreras, in order to be transmitted to King
Philip II. Fray Pedro Simon, Provincial of the Franciscans in New
Grenada, saw several manuscript copies of it both in America and in
Spain. It was printed, for the first time, in 1723, in the History of
the Province of Venezuela, by Oviedo, volume 1 page 206. Complaints no
less violent, on the conduct of the monks of the 16th century, were
addressed directly to the pope by the Milanese traveller, Girolamo
Benzoni.)

Lopez de Aguirre, or as he is still called by the common people, the
Tyrant, was killed at Barquesimeto, after having been abandoned by his
own men. At the moment when he fell, he plunged a dagger into the
bosom of his only daughter, "that she might not have to blush before
the Spaniards at the name of the daughter of a traitor." The soul of
the tyrant (such is the belief of the natives) wanders in the