His demands for himself were very modest, although there is reason to fear that they were never properly fulfilled.

He was curiously anxious to be remembered chiefly by his plucky canoe voyage; and in giving directions for his tomb, and ordering that a stone should be placed over his remains, he wrote: "In the centre of the said stone let a canoe be carved, which is a piece of wood hollowed out in which the Indians navigate, because in such a boat I navigated three hundred leagues, and let some letters be placed above it saying: Canoa." The epitaph that he chose for himself was in the following sense: Here lies the Honourable Gentleman DIEGO MENDEZ He greatly served the royal crown of Spain in the discovery and conquest of the Indies with the Admiral Don Christopher Columbus of glorious memory who discovered them, and afterwards by himself, with his own ships, at his own expense.
He died, etc.
He begs from charity a PATERNOSTER and an AVE MARIA.
Surely he deserves them, if ever an honourable gentleman did..