In this letter, dated September 12, 1570, two Spanish Jesuits update Juan de Hinistrosa, the royal treasurer of Cuba, on their mission to the Chesapeake Bay (the Spanish understood the general area to be called Ajacán). Father Luis de Quirós is the letter’s primary author, referring to Juan Baptista de Segura as “Father Vice-Provincial.” Segura follows with a brief note, and Quirós adds a note after that. With the Jesuits was a Virginia Indian, Don Luís de Velasco (Paquiquineo), who over the previous decade had visited Spain, Mexico, and Cuba, and converted to Christianity. Don Luís later killed Quirós, Baptista, and the other missionaries. The letter appears to have been lost. This version is a transcription made from the original in Seville, Spain, on July 14, 1889, by a B. Smith. It is now archived at the New York Historical Society. What follows is Smith’s transcription of the original Spanish and an English translation made for Encyclopedia Virginia by Susan M. Smith, the Elliott Professor of Modern Languages at Hampden-Sydney College in Hampden-Sydney.
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