Note 3 — LETTER FROM FRANCISCO DE ORTEGA TO THE VICEROY

It is also just that your Excellency should show all possible favor to the sargento-mayor, Joan de Moron, who is going to that country under arrest on grounds which seem very slight, besides being imprisoned here for ten months in his house and being burdened by the expenses of the suit. Everybody thinks that there has been more passion than reason or justice in this case, as may be seen there by the report of the process.3 He is a man of very good qualities, and though he is not at all a courtier, he is prudent and very careful and diligent in the service of his Majesty, and very useful. There is no one in this region who has seen more service than he. If your Excellency is about to send forces to this country, he might well be put in command of them, because he is one of the first who came to this region, and because he has served his Majesty so well in it, as is well known to all, and as your Excellency will already have received report. If it should be necessary for your Excellency to appoint a new captain of experience in matters here, I think it would be the best thing for your Excellency to assign to him and to the inferior captains whatever your Excellency may be able to provide here, for there are many of them and few soldiers. In this and in all other matters will your Excellency decide upon that which is most for the advantage of the service of God and of his Majesty.