_ 568 _ unimportant, nor that I dare and make bold to do it because D. Estévão dislikes me so much and insults and harms me every day. I do not know how I can write to Your Highness about a person who detests me so much, because it will go against me with Your Highness and you will think little of me; but if Your Highness wishes to know whether these things of which I write do happen here, no person or fidalgo who leaves here will fail to confirm these things to Your Highness in far greater detail. It is God's will that I should receive abuse for the things which I speak truly, in Your Highness's interest and for the good of this country. The chief reason why I suffer every day is that I was the first person to speak against his expedition to the Strait, which seemed to me a great disservice to Your Highness, and from this arose the hatred he bears towards me. I assure Your Highness that I paid well for it in the Strait, for when he saw me there and remembered what I had said to him, his hatred doubled. The fidalgos who are going to PortugaI are good witnesses of this. It would be a great favour to me if Your Highness will hear these things from the Chief Treasury Officer(A), who is going to Portugal this year, and D.João de (A) This was Fernão Rodrigues de Castelo Branco, who was on bad terms with D.Estévão. (Correia, Lendas IV, p.210).
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