On the following morning (the 13th) another island was discovered (la
Antigua); thence the fleet proceeded in a northwesterly direction to
San Martin, without landing at any place, because, as Chanca observes,
"the Admiral was anxious to arrive at 'la Espanola.'"

After weighing anchor at San Martin on the morning of Thursday the
14th, the fleet experienced rough weather and was driven southward,
anchoring the same day off the island Aye-Aye (Santa Cruz).

Fernandez, the Admiral's son, in his description of his father's
second voyage, says that a small craft (a sloop) with twenty-five men
was sent ashore to take some of the people, that Columbus might obtain
information from them regarding his whereabouts. While they carried
out this order a canoe with four men, two women, and a boy approached
the ships, and, struck with astonishment at what they saw, they never
moved from one spot till the sloop returned with four kidnaped women
and three children.

When the natives in the canoe saw the sloop bearing down upon them,
and that they had no chance of escape, they showed fight. Two
Spaniards were wounded--an arrow shot by one of the amazons went clear
through a buckler--then the canoe was overturned, and finding a
footing in a shallow place, they continued the fight till they were
all taken, one of them being mortally wounded by the thrust of a
lance.

To regain the latitude in which he was sailing when the storm began to
drive his ships southwestward to Aye-Aye, the Admiral, after a delay
of only a few hours, steered north, until, toward nightfall, he
reached a numerous group of small islands. Most of them appeared bare
and devoid of vegetation. The next morning (November 15th) a small
caravel was sent among the group to explore, the other ships standing
out to sea for fear of shallows, but nothing of interest was found
except a few Indian fishermen. All the islands were uninhabited, and
they were baptized "the eleven thousand Virgins." The largest one,
according to Navarrete, was named Santa Ursula--"la Virgin Gorda" (the
fat Virgin) according to Angleria.

During the night the ships lay to at sea. On the 16th the voyage was
continued till the afternoon of the 17th, when another island was
sighted; the fleet sailed along its southern shore for a whole day.
That night two women and a boy of those who had voluntarily joined the
expedition in Sobuqueira, swam ashore, having recognized their home.
On the 19th the flee