ABSTRACT
When His Majesty returned to Castile after punishing Ghent, he prepared a great fleet to go against Algiers, and the Marquis del Valle went to serve in it and took with him his firstborn son, who was heir to his estate ; and he also took Don Martin Cortés, his son by Doña Marina, and many esquires and servants, and horses and a great company and attendance, and embarked in a fine galley in company with Don Enrique Enriquez. It pleased God to cause such a fierce storm to arise that a great part of the Royal fleet was lost and the galley in which Cortés and his sons sailed was wrecked, and they and most of the other gentlemen who were in her escaped with great risk of their lives. At the same time, when there was not such [calm] reflection as there ought to have been, especially when death stares one in the face, the servants of Cortés alleged that they saw him tie in a handkerchief twisted round his arm certain jewels of very precious stones which he carried 1 as a great Lord, and in the confusion of escaping in safety from the galley, among the great crowd of persons who were present, all the jewels and precious stones which he carried, and which were reported to be worth many 2 pesos de oro, were lost.
