The Governor, Don Gabriel Menendez Torres y Aviles, sets forth in the preceding petition that His Highness the King Don Felipe II (whom God grant may come to glory) agrees with the Governor Pedro Menendez y Aviles, Knight of the Order of Santiago, that his uncle, brother of his grandfather, had agreed about the year 1565, that he, the said Pedro Menendez, had to discover all the provinces of Florida, settle and build in them two or three towns, all at his own expense, for which service your Grace granted him the title of Governor of said Province and lands of Florida, with all the privileges and prerogatives that are granted the other Governors of Castile--and that having set sail to accomplish this, and make these settlements with a private galleon of his own, of 900 tons, and many other ships and vessels which he also carried at his own expense and having conquered, as he effectively did, the said Province, and having settled and established two towns in it, which are today flourishing and supplying this crown, even before completion of this conquest. Your Majesty has named him Captain-General of the Royal Fleet which is to be commanded and joined in Santander against the English, commanding him to assist in this military exploit, notwithstanding that he is under obligations in the first place, by the treaty and agreement he had made of discovering all the land of the Province of Florida within the given term of three years counting from the day he embarked and set sail in the Bay of the Port of Cadiz with the fleet he carried for said conquest. Being of the greatest importance the business for which the Royal Fleet was formed and arranged, and while he was preparing and getting it ready, the said Governor Menendez de Aviles died--and by his death the Duke of Medina Sidonia was immediately named Captain-General. Afterwards having been asked on the part of the legitimate heirs of the said Governor Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the accomplishment of all these services which your grant had offered him, it was contradicted by the Attorney-General of this Court--taking advantage of one of said agreements which reads: “That if in the expressed term of three years the Governor Pedro Menendez de Aviles should not have finished and completed in all the said conquest according to agreement, neither your Majesty nor any other Kings, your successors, should be bound to fulfil any of the rewards offered.” For this reason the heirs brought suit against the Attorney-General which was continued. For sentence, by revision of the Court it was ordered to be given to Don Martin Menendez, oldest brother of the petitioner, the title of perpetual Governor of said Provinces, as had been done with his uncle, and besides they were to give him forty thousand ducats of silver.