Pedro Ponce de León, 1596 
341 
command you that from whatever revenues and profits that I may have 
in the said kingdoms you shall give and pay him every year the said 12,000 
ducats, from the day when, by a deposition signed by a public clerk, you 
will be informed that he has set sail from one of the ports, San Lucar, 
Barrameda, or Cádiz, to go on the said exploration, for all the days of his 
life or for the time that he shall remain there. With the memorandum 
which my accountants who are employed in my royal Council of the 
Indies shall make of his receipt of payment, the said deposition, and this 
my decree, I order that you prepare and transmit a report upon what you 
thus give and pay him from the said products and revenues, for if there 
are none I am not under obligations to pay him anything at all. The same 
date. Etc. 
The King. My president and official judges of the Casa de Contrata¬ 
ción of Seville: Since, as you have been informed, I have ordered a con¬ 
tract to be made . . . and among other things it has been agreed that he 
shall take from these kingdoms to that province 230 persons, including 
soldiers, and servants, besides tools, provisions, arms, and munitions, and 
for this purpose it has been granted to him to charter such vessels up to 
five hundred tons burden, as he may wish, provided that they are not 
hookers or launches or esterlinas but Biscayan boats or fly boats or others 
of good model that are suitable for the voyage, and since it is very im¬ 
portant to the service of God and myself that this expedition shall be 
accomplished as soon as possible, because of its bearing upon the salvation 
of the souls of the natives of those provinces, the propagation of the holy 
gospel, and the increase of my crown, I command you that as soon as 
the said Don Pedro Ponce reaches [Seville] ready to go, or the person 
whom I shall send in advance with this decree, you shall admit the vessels 
up to the said tonnage named by the said Don Pedro Ponce and inspect 
them and issue the necessary clearance so that they may set sail without 
waiting for the flota 34 but may go as soon as they enter, the said Don 
Pedro to go on them and take the said 230 persons and the sailors that he 
needs, all of whom he is to command as their chief and head. [I com¬ 
mand you] also to permit him to embark and take all the things for their 
support—food and drink, clothing, jewelry and ornaments, arms and 
munitions, tools, and everything else for which he has my permission, and 
[I command you] to name one of the inspectors to go to San Lucar to 
clear him and see what is taken on board and that no other kind of mer¬ 
chandise is taken on the said vessels. I charge you especially to give him 
all the assistance, favor, and help necessary so that he may depart with 
the least delay possible, by which I shall be pleased. Done at San Lorenzo, 
October 26. Etc. 
The King. By this writing I give permission to you, Don Pedro Ponce 
de León ... to name a cosmographer to make the description of the 
said provinces and designate the sites that seem suitable to you for the 
towns, to whom you will assign a sufficient salary, as I order by this my 
decree. It is also my will that my officials of the said provinces shall be 
paid from the products of the land and not from any other source, and 
