ABSTRACT
It is right to call to mind, so that it should not be forgotten, another fleet which the Adelantado Don Pedro de Alvarado fitted out in the year fifteen hundred and thirty-seven in the province of Guatemala, where he was Governor, at a port called Acajutla on the South Coast, and it was done to fulfil certain contracts made with His Majesty during the second time that he returned to Castile and returned married to the lady named Doña Beatriz de la Cueva, the sister of a certain Doña Francisca de la Cueva, who was extremely beautiful (and had been the first wife of Don Pedro de Alvarado), who died at Vera Cruz in New Spain. The contract arranged with His Majesty was that Don Pedro de Alvarado should provide certain ships, pilots, sailors and soldiers, provisions and all that was needed for that fleet at his own cost, and it was proposed that he was to send and explore the western route to China and the Moluccas, or any other of the Spice Islands, and according to what he should discover His Majesty promised to grant him certain favours in these same lands. However, as I have not seen the contract I omit it, and for that reason I do not include it in this narrative. To go back to my story he cleared for sea twelve ships of considerable size, well provisioned with bread and meat, barrels of water, and everything that could be provided at that time, well armed with cannon and with good pilots and sailors. It was indeed a powerful fleet, although the port of Vera Cruz was so far off, a matter of one hundred and fifty leagues from where the ships were built, for at that time the iron for the nails, and anchors and casks and other things necessary for the fleet, were brought from Vera Cruz ; for as yet there was no question of Puerto de Caballos.
