NO. 1 6 CALDERON LETTER WEN HOLD 3 



Council of the Indies. Dr. Wenhold has supplied the following transla- 

 tion of this epistle : 



My Lord : 



In the despatch-ship which went out from here last month, I gave you felicita- 

 tions on your elevation to the Secretaryship, then hoping to give them to you 

 [also] as Secretary of State. 



With this goes a packet to Her Majesty with my brief summary account of 

 all that I have discovered in the territory of the provinces of Florida, conver- 

 sions that I have made and characteristics of the Indians, [I] being by the Divine 

 Mercy the first to tread those lands. And to the hands of the President went 

 my map of the country. It is duplicated by this; and in the one [go] the 

 original aufos that have resulted from the visitation, and in the other an authen- 

 ticated copy of them. 



I remain at your service for all that you may be pleased to command me, to 

 which I shall respond with good will. May God keep you many j^ears. 



Your humble servant kisses your hands, 



Gabriel, Bishop of Cuba. 

 Havana, 



January 4, 1676, 

 To Senor Don Antonio de Rojas. 



From the annotations accompanying this document it appears that 

 it was " received with the galleons ", taken up at the April session of 

 the Council of the Indies, and referred to the attorney general, who 

 stated that no report need be made in connection with it but that it 

 should be kept in the office of the secretary. The Council took the 

 action recommended on July 12, 1676, and it was furthermore com- 

 manded " that the Bishop be thanked for the work he has accomplished 

 and urged to continue it." 



From the same body of material Dr. Wenhold has obtained another 

 letter from the Bishop, this one written in the same hand as the main 

 document, presumably by that of the Bishop's secretary. It bears 

 an earlier date than the above and was probably prepared immediately 

 after Calderon returned to Cuba. 



Se.nor.\ : 



Your Majesty is pleased to command me, by the royal cedula of June 24, of 

 this year, to apply some financial aid to the repairing of the convent of San 

 Lorenzo el Real del Escurial. 



The financial obligations, Senora, which I have, with the expenditures I made 

 during the visit to the provinces of Florida, where I maintained eight months, 

 at my own expense, a company of Spanish infantry of the Post [of St. Augus- 

 tine], and two of Indians, arquebusiers and archers, because I had to traverse 

 the frontier of the country of the Chiscas and Chichimecos, barbarous and 

 warlike heathen, and with the construction of the main bastion of the wall of this 

 city which I have done at my expense and that of the ecclesiastics, have made it 

 impossible for me to do at this time what I shall do when my debts are paid. 



