er came; so that we were very much
dissatisfied, and the people who remained with me in the
ship were in such great fear that I could not console them.
On the eighth day we saw the ship coming, off at sea, and
for fear those on board might not see us, we raised anchor
and went towards it, thinking they might bring me my boat
and men. When we arrived alongside, after the usual
salutations, they told us that the captain had gone to the
bottom, that all the crew had been saved, and that my boat
and men remained with the fleet, which had gone farther to
sea. This was a grievous thing to us, as your magnificence
may well think, for it was no trifle to find ourselves far
distant from Lisbon, in mid-ocean, with so few men. However,
we bore up under adverse fortune, and, returning to the
island, supplied ourselves with wood and water, using the
boat of my consort.

"This island we found uninhabited. It had plenty of fresh
water, and an abundance of trees filled with countless
numbers of land and marine birds, which were so simple that
they suffered themselves to be taken with the hand. We took
so many that we loaded a boat with them. We saw no other
animals, except some very large rats, some snakes, and
lizards with two tails. Having taken in our supplies we
departed for the southwest, as we had an order from the king
that if any vessel of the fleet, or its captain, should be
lost, I should make for the land of my last voyage. We
discovered a harbor which we called the bay of All Saints,
and it pleased God to give us such good weather that we
arrived at it in seventeen days. It was distant three
hundred leagues from the island we had left, and we found
neither our captain nor any other ship of the fleet in the
course of the voyage. We waited full two months and four
days in this harbor, and, seeing that no orders came for us,
we agreed, my consort and myself, to run along the coast. We
sailed two hundred and sixty leagues farther and arrived at
a harbor, where we determined to build a fortress. This we
accomplished, and left in it the twenty-four men that my
consort had received from the captain's ship that was lost.

"In this port we stayed five months, building the fortress
and loading our ships with dye-woods. We could not procee