Dlego Flores saw the letter of your Majesty, in which reference was made to the favours your Majesty had granted, in which he was incited to the prosecution of the enterprise, and in which the necessity for it was impressed upon him. He was told of the great service to his Majesty that would be secured by doing this work, in words which would have moved even an enemy, and would have put courage into a coward, how much more into a knight who had been ennobled and enriched by the royal hand of your Majesty. But all was not sufficient to make him do his duty, or to undertake that which every well-born man would have looked upon as great good fortune to be entrusted with ; as well as an honour and a felicity to be given the chance of risking a thousand lives, one after the other, to serve your Majesty. All this was not enough to move his torpid and shameless will. He was silent with those who spoke of the enterprise, but he was ready to eat and to dance with those who advised him to return. He was mute on the subject of fighting at sea, but he became a talker on shore. His final answer respecting your Majesty's letter was that he did not want to go to the Strait, but to return to Spain, making an excuse that he wanted to turn the five lame Frenchmen out of Paraiba.