Luís de Velasco , 1597 
427 
Godos, and Captain Don Luís de Velasco, for ourselves and what con¬ 
cerns each one of us, and in the name of the rest, the alféreces , sergeants, 
officers, and soldiers who are going on the expedition—declare, that hav¬ 
ing learned of the very ardent desire which the holy pontifical vicar of 
God in the land, and the most Christian king, our lord, Don Felipe, had 
and still have that our holy Catholic faith shall be preached and planted 
in those kingdoms and provinces, and that idolatries shall be extirpated 
and the high and mighty God be glorified, and the voice of the gospel 
sound in all the universe, [and that] he [the king] ordered, by his 
cédulas and capítulos de cartas , the Marquis of Villamanrique 71 and Don 
Luís de Velasco and the Count of Monterey, viceroys of this New Spain, 
to name some suitable person for this difficult business, and that, after 
having sought and searched with the greatest diligence, with the delibera¬ 
tion and agreement of the viceroys Don Luis de Velasco and the Count 
of Monterey, your lordship was elected and chosen for this difficult busi¬ 
ness—we, with the will and spirit to serve God and his Majesty in this 
holy expedition as we have done up to this time, left our countries and 
native lands, with our wives, children, servants, households, and families, 
and sold our property, at a loss, for the said purpose, to the amount of 
more than 200,000 ducats. This [we did] because of having seen the 
royal standard raised in the cities of Mexico and Zacatecas for your lord- 
ship to make the said expedition, and we brought a great quantity of 
munitions of war and other things for the said purpose. And, because 
at the time when Francisco de Esquivel, commissary of the expedition, 
made the list and general muster of us captains, officers, and soldiers 
who have moved to the valleys of La Apoana and Súchil and Fresnillo and 
he [was asked] to list in detail the women, children, and families, and 
goods which each one brought, he refused to do this, as being in excess 
of his duty and obligation; and because, when in the list and general 
muster of the rest of the people which he made at Santa Bárbara and 
Casco, your lordship asked and requisitioned the said commissary to take 
the complete muster similarly of all the rest of the captains and soldiers 
that were there, as appears in the autos which were passed upon it and to 
which we refer, he again refused to do it, preventing these great services 
from coming to light, as experience has shown, and because, in fulfill¬ 
ment of our offers we are actually come upon the expedition and are now 
four leagues from Casco, at the spring and place called Pedro de la Cruz, 
in view of [all] this we ask and supplicate and with proper respect urge 
your lordship to order the present secretary of this expedition to make an 
inventory of the women, children, family, and goods that each one of us 
is bringing on the expedition, so that it may be made clear to his Majesty 
with what we have served and are serving him, and that he give a certified 
copy to each one of us of what belongs to him, as it appears on the mani¬ 
fest, this petition, and the measures taken, to be placed as a heading, so 
that his Majesty and your lordship may give rewards according to the 
services to which we have referred and for which we ask justice. Fran¬ 
cisco de Sosa Peñalosa, Alonso Sánchez, Alonso de Sosa Albor¬ 
noz, Gerónimo Márquez, Marcos Farfán de los Godos, Don Luís 
de Velasco, Pedro Robledo. 
