The old man told me he had not been in the Brazils for about nine years; but that he could assure me that when he came away my partner was living, but the trustees whom I had joined with him to take cognisance of my part were both dead: that, however, he believed I would have a very good account of the improvement of the plantation; for that, upon the general belief of my being cast away and drowned, my trustees had given in the account of the produce of my part of the plantation to the procurator-fiscal, who had appropriated it, in case I never came to claim it, one-third to the king, and two-thirds to the monastery of St. Augustine, to be expended for the benefit of the poor, and for the conversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith: but that, if I appeared, or any one for me, to claim the inheritance, it would be restored; only that the improvement, or annual production, being distributed to charitable uses, could not be restored: but he assured me that the steward of the king’s revenue from lands, and the providore, or steward of the monastery, had taken great care all along that the incumbent, that is to say my partner, gave every year a faithful account of the produce, of which they had duly received my moiety.
Ő pedig, mert úgy gondolta, hogy már soha többé nem tartok rá igényt, egyharmadát a kincstárnak, kétharmadát pedig a szegények megsegítésén és az indiánok megtérítésén munkálkodó St. Augustine kolostornak rendelte. Ha visszatérek, vélte az öreg barátom, vagy bárki más jogos követeléssel áll elő a nevemben, akkor a járandóságokat visszaállítják, kivéve a jövedelemnek azt a részét, amit már elköltöttek jótékonysági és más célokra.