How the Licenciado Gil Gonzalez Dávila went to audit or examine the accounts of the justices and officers of the island of Jamaica by command of Their Majesties.

Translated by Onyx Beytia ‘22

In the year 1533, a learned gentleman, Gil Gonzalez Dávila, a native of Toledo and a man of generous and clear lineage, arrived in this city of Santo Domingo of this island of Hispaniola; by command of Their Majesties he had accompanied Captain Diego de Ordás in the conquest of the Marañón River, which in on the Mainland coast, an unfortunate enterprise both in its unfolding and its conclusion. This same Ordás, after all his travails, died at sea on his return to Spain, bringing those labors to a close, as will be discussed at length in the second part of this Natural History. And among those who survived it was every man for himself; and so this gentleman came to this city, from which he left for Santiago the very same year at the behest of His Majesty and the Royal Council of the Indies to audit the work of the lieutenant and justices working there on behalf of Don Luis Columbus, and to examine the accounts of the Hacienda Real from Juan de Mazuelo, the treasurer, and Juan Lopez de Torralva, the Contador, because it was said that there was great need to do so; and His Majesty, informed of this, had sent this licenciado to do as has been described. In truth, officers left for a long time in positions where interest and earnings flow continuously need to be visited and inspected, and this Audiencia Real had received a lot of complaints about them. And thus, the licenciado Gil Gonzalez went to the island for the reasons I explained here, to reform the system of justice and to rectify the accounts and admonish the officials, which he undertook when the cases merited it. And with this I bring the history of Jamaica, or the island we now call Santiago, to its conclusion. And so, this very same licenciado, Gil Gonzalez Davila, lived the remainder of his life on the island, fulfilling his duty and serving his King.