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Text of a letter from Erneste Amsteljaxter to Grav Saint-Geroczy di Santo-Germano, Campo San Luca, Venezia, written in scholars&039; Latin and delivered by private courier twenty-two days after it was dispatched

To reeting of Erneste Amsteljaxter on this, the 29thday of March, 1532

My dear Grav, Iyou for the kindness you have shown my brother! To sponsor a school for him to teach in in the New World, and to provide him with an annual stipend is more than he could have ever achieved on his own Onfroi is beside hied to dedicate himself to the people of the New World as well as to the fa in that remote place Fro co to the New World every year and have done so for more than a decade I cannot tell you how this sparesfor Onfroi&039;s living Whether or not you intended it to be so, you have helped enerosity to my brother

You have also contributed to my happiness in another way: Mercutius Christermann has infore, and agreed to abide by the tere: that I shall retain ard to your house; that I shall be able to continue to offer shelter to women who are in need of it; that I shall not be stopped fro more books for publication-this, in fact, Christeres, which is one of the reasons I am inclined to accept his offer; that I shall keep half of the ranted ht to provide education to any children he and I may have, be they male or female It is to Christermann&039;s credit that he, himself, has added a proviso: that I am to have my full share from sales of my work to do with as I please When Eschen has made a proper contract, ill choose a time I fear we must wed in a Catholic church or the Spanish e null and void, and all the provisos abolished, which neither of us want

I was much saddened to hear of the death of the Venezian wo to me as a companion To have the ship on which she sailed blown up when only a day out of port must be a most dreadful sorrow for you You say the official report ruled that the Golden Sunset was fired upon by accident, and that the war-galley mistook a small merchant-ship out of Tyre on course for Venezia for a corsair, anddown on your ship That the firing was an error does not provide a lessening of grief, as I know from , and I will continue to fulfillas there is breath in rateful for, to my own benefit and the benefit of others

With ratitude,

Your most devoted,

Erneste Amsteljaxter