Although such might have been avoided, and I could have made stipulations for my comfort and rest, as I had opportunity to do in your royal Council of the Indias, I confess that I know not what interior force and natural inclination has always induced me to prefer the service of your Majesty, and the welfare and increase of that kingdom, to my own rest or comfort--which, in order to follow your service, I have never regarded as important, or given it any care.

Inasmuch as times change affairs, and considering the many casualties caused by the enemy from Olanda, things have come to a very different pass from that in which I then left them.

For that reason, that entire kingdom and its estates resolved that I should return again to confer with your Majesty and your royal councils concerning what was most advisable for your royal service and the welfare and relief of that land.

And although I found that I needed some rest in a corner, and it was a severe trial for me to consent again to undergo more arduous labors, and difficulties so much greater as are the gravity of affairs in those islands and the multitude of the enemies with whom the seas are infested, yet that desire and inclination [for your Majesty's service] had so much power over me that I postponed all my rest.
I offer your Majesty this relation, which, when I came to this court about three years ago, [33] I gave to his Majesty who is in heaven, so that he might be informed, as was desirable, of that kingdom so remote from his royal eyes.

I felt now that I was obliged to present it to your Majesty, and on this occasion I have taken the opportunity to extend it to greater length, and to give your Majesty a fuller account--being encouraged to do so by seeing the glorious beginnings that your Majesty has given to your monarchy, on which, in the name of that kingdom, I give your Majesty a thousand congratulations, and may you enjoy it very many years, with the greatest happiness and increasing prosperity.