“Africa, America, the Philippines, Italy, Germany or Flanders... A pike or a musket on the shoulder, a bag with meager supplies on the back, a sword on the belt, and they went, went, went to where again the most Christian king of Spain needed them blood, their lives, their courage. Without grumbling, doubt or fear, they walked day after day, through battles and battles, through mountain steeps and passes, through deserts and fertile river valleys, through impenetrable jungles, dense forests or swampy swamps, under the scorching sun or in pouring rain, through cities and villages, sometimes extinct from smallpox or plague. They walked... Dying in skirmishes, dying from epidemics, from snake and insect bites, from hunger or bad water, they walked... Just forward! Forward! They are expected there, they are needed there! Their courage is needed there!”