1773. Carta de fray Rafael María de Sevilla para Raimundo de Sobremonte, marqués de Sobremonte.

Letter from Fray Rafael María de Sevilla to Raimundo de Sobremonte, marquis of Sobremonte.

The author presents his apologies for not being able to take care of Diego Hurtado any longer and asks him for the money to pay his debts.

In 1770 an action against Diego Hurtado de Mendoza was brought by the Hospital de San Juan de Dios on the grounds of lack of payment of some maravedis. Diego Hurtado became indebted with the aforementioned institution after staying there, together with a black slave, due to a venereal disease. The litigation includes not only the case files with the rejoinders and surrejoinders from the involved parties, but also a bundle of letters written between 1772 and 1773. After reading the letters and the medical reports, one can glimpse the health journey this young man from Lima went through. The proceedings continued in the Real Audiencia, where its president, Raimundo de Sobremonte, marquis of Sobremonte, assumed Diego´s care and managed his material and physical well-being. Diego moved to Arcos de la Frontera and to Cadiz, where slowly recovered in the care of Nicolás de Lanuza and the religious from a convent in Cadiz. Once he slightly recovered, he decided to go back to Lima, given that his mother had passed away and his inheritance and hacienda were being handled by his sister. The epistolary trace takes us to the previous moment before embarking to America, since the management of his departure is mentioned in the letters.