Virgin has worked and continues to work many and great
miracles. The lot having fallen this time upon a sailor of the harbor of
Santa Maria, named Pedro de Villa, the Admiral promised to give him all
the money necessary for the expenses. He decided that a third pilgrim
should be sent to watch one night at Santa Clara of Moguer, and to have
a mass said there. For this purpose, they again shook up the dry peas,
not forgetting that one which was marked with the cross, and the lot
fell once again to the Admiral himself. He then took, as did all his
crew, the vow that, on the first shore which they might reach, they
would go in their shirts, in a procession, to make a prayer in some
church in invocation of Our Lady."

"Besides the general vows, or those taken by all in common, each man
made his own special vow, because nobody expected to escape. The storm
which they experienced was so terrible, that all regarded themselves
as lost; what increased the danger was the circumstance that the vessel
lacked ballast, because the consumption of food, water and wine had
greatly diminished her load. The hope of the continuance of weather
as fine as that which they had experienced in all the islands, was
the reason why the Admiral had not provided his vessel with the proper
amount of ballast. Moreover, his plan had been to ballast it in the
Women's Island, whither he had from the first determined to go. The
remedy which the Admiral employed was to fill with sea water, as soon as
possible, all the empty barrels which had previously held either wine or
fresh water. In this way the difficulty was remedied.

"The Admiral tells here the reasons for fearing that our Saviour would
allow him to become the victim of this tempest, and other reasons which
made him hope that God would come to his assistance, and cause him to
arrive safe and sound, so that intelligence such as that which he was
conveying to the king and queen would not perish with him. The strong
desire which he had to be the bearer of intelligence so important, and
to prove the truth of all which he had said, and that all which he
had tried to discover had really been discovered, seemed to contribute
precisely to inspire him with the greatest fear that he could not
succeed. He confessed, himself, that every mosquito that passed before
his eyes was enough to annoy and trouble him. He attributed this to his
little faith, and his lack of confidence in Divine Providence. On the
other