on the subject. Some were for falling upon them in the hut,
others thought it would be better to attack them in the
field, and others that we should not commence the strife
until we saw what they wished to do. We agreed, at length,
to go out of the hut and take our way quietly to the ships.
As soon as we did this they followed at a stone's-throw
behind us, talking earnestly among themselves, and I think
no less afraid of us than we were of them; for whenever we
stopped they did the same, never coming nearer to us. In
this way we at length arrived at the shore, where the boats
were waiting for us. We entered them, and as we were going
off in the distance they leaped forward and shot many arrows
after us; but we had little fear of them now. We discharged
two arquebuses at them, but more to frighten them than
injure, and on hearing the report they all fled to the
mountain. Thus we parted from them, and it appeared to us
that we had escaped a perilous day's work. These people were
quite naked, like the others we had seen, and on account of
their large stature I called this island the Island of
Giants. We proceeded onward in a direction parallel with the
main-land, on which it happened that we were frequently
obliged to fight with the people, who were not willing to
let us take anything away.

"When we had been at sea about a year, our minds were fully
prepared for returning to Castile, as we had then but little
provision left, and that little damaged, in consequence of
the great heat through which we had passed. From the time we
left Cape de Verde until then we had been sailing
continually in the torrid zone, having twice crossed the
equinoctial line (as before stated), having been five
degrees beyond it to the south, and then fifteen degrees
north of it. Being thus disposed for our return, it pleased
the Holy Spirit to give us some repose from our great
labors.

"Going in search of a harbor, in order to repair our ships,
we fell in with a people who received us with friendship,
and we found that they had a great quantity of Oriental
pearls, which were very good. We remained with them
forty-seven days and procured from them one hundred and
nineteen marks of pearls, in exchange for mere trifles of
our merchandise, which