In their urge to write historical accounts, a number of authors have fallen far short in the way they have set about writing history. That is because they have totally omitted, without even mentioning them, matters which it is essential to know and because they have only lightly touched on other matters which remained laden with doubt. If their accounts were both accurate and short, then they would have merited a degree of praise, but when they write little while greatly deviating from the truth, it would be preferable by far for them to eschew saying such things, especially when what they write damages certain people's good name. Lest you should conclude that we are saying this solely to enhance our own work and denigrate that of others, let us first examine the senseless way they write, for anyone believing in it or relying on it would be out of his mind.

Let us begin by looking at Martim Afonso de Melo, in the chronicle which he set down about these events: writing in a certain passage about the marriage of King Fernando to Princess Leonor of Aragon, he says that the king dispatched Count João Afonso Telo to Aragon, that he took with him 18 quintais of smelted gold to donate to the King of Aragon for the marriage, that he returned without ratifying this marriage, leaving the gold on the sea shore at Valencia, and that there it remained for a long time; he maintains that the count did this because King Fernando later married the count's niece, the wife of João Lourenço da Cunha, as in fact he did.

Another great historian, whose narrative involved a broader coverage than that of Martim Afonso, says in a certain book that King Fernando, after being betrothed to the Princess of Aragon, sent two galleys there, one of which was very well equipped and in which she was due to travel to Portugal along with other naos and galleys which the king, her father, was due to send to accompany her. He states that aboard one of the galleys, King Fernando sent 18 quintais of gold and some 70 quintais of silver and that this treasure was taken by Count João Afonso Telo, who was the principal confidant that the king had at that time.