me not to be the most harmful vanity. I desire exceedingly that the manner in which I manage this matter be known, for there is a great difference in faithfulness, in good administration alone. [_Marginal note_: "Council. You have already been informed in another letter that God was pleased to let the reenforcement be lost because of a bad storm. Nevertheless, all possible care is being taken to prepare another. May our Lord be pleased to direct it, since it is so important for the things of His service. By the despatches that you will receive from the hand of the castellan Pedro de Heredia, you will understand about the two hundred infantrymen, with which your present need will be supplied, until the more important aid is made ready. Inasmuch as you are advised of other things touching this matter in the despatch of the said castellan, nothing more will be told you of it, as I refer you to what it contains."] 6th. For this purpose, very acceptable aid has come to me with the arrival of the factor, Diego de Castro Lison. For the favor that your Majesty granted him in this--both to him and to me--I kiss your royal feet with the humility and acknowledgment that is fitting. It seems to me that with the commission borne by the above-mentioned, it will be very well if, during his execution of it, he be relieved somewhat of the many onerous duties of the office of factor; and for that purpose I shall endeavor to give him the aid and leisure that should appear necessary. If the treasurer--who has not yet arrived and whom I do not know--is such as I believe and have proved the factor to be, I shall have no need of carrying memoranda in my pocket of what is paid into the royal treasury, as I have done sometimes, even constraining this present treasurer so that he might ordain that those warrants for whose despatch and payment he did not have my decrees should not be honored. Consequently, I would not be sorry to see here two or three men for the accountancy of this treasury and for that of Terrenate; but, although the governors are accustomed to make that appointment, I cannot find many to choose here. [_Marginal note_: "It is well. With the arrival of the treasurer and that of the treasury accountant, he is relieved of his anxiety about the matter of accounts."] 7th. I have equalized the pay of the captains, officers, and soldiers here and at Terrenate, by increasing that of some and diminishing that of others, as your Majesty has ordered. In order that they may have an equal amount of work, and comfort also, I am having part of them changed every year, so that their exile may not be perpetual, nor desperation compel them to go over to the enemy, as many have done. Accordingly, for this reason, and so that the smaller and larger boats, in which the reenforcements are conveyed, may go and come in safety, I cause some infantry to go in all of them.