Not a thing from the ship has been lost…not a single plank or nail.…And I trust in the Lord that when I return from Castile, as is my intention, I shall find a great barrel of gold for which the people I am leaving here will have bartered, and that they will have found the gold mine and the spices, and all in such quantities that Your Majesties will be able to make your preparations to go to recover the Holy Sepulchre, for Your Majesties may remember my request to you that all the proceeds of this voyage of mine should be used for the conquest of Jerusalem. Your Majesties laughed and agreed, and told me that such was your ambition in any case.