o the government of Tierra Firma, and arrived with him at
Nombre de Dios. A pestilence raged in the colony at our arrival, of which
many of the soldiers died, and most of the survivors were invalids. De
Avila gave his daughter in marriage to a gentleman named Vasco Nunez de
Balboa, who had conquered that province; but becoming afterwards
suspicious that Balboa intended to revolt, he caused him to be beheaded.
As troubles were likely to take place in this colony, several of us who
were men of good families, asked permission from Avila to go over to Cuba,
which had been lately settled under the government of Diego Velasquez. He
readily granted this request, as he had brought more soldiers from Spain
than were needed in his province, which was already subdued. We went
accordingly to Cuba, where we were kindly received by Velasquez, who
promised to give us the first lands that fell vacant; but, after waiting
three years, reckoning from the time of leaving Spain, and no settlements
offering, an hundred and ten of us chose Francisco Hernandez de Cordova
for our captain, a wealthy gentleman of Cuba, and determined to go on a
voyage of discovery under his command. For this purpose, we bought two
vessels of considerable burthen, and procured a bark on credit from
Velasquez, who proposed as a condition, that we should make a descent on
the islands called _Los Guanages_, between Cuba and Honduras, to seize a
number of the inhabitants as slaves, in order by their sale to repay the
expence of the bark: But when this proposal was made known to the soldiers,
we unanimously refused, as it was unjust, and neither permitted by God nor
the king to make slaves of freemen. Velasquez assented to the justice of
our objections, and gave us all the assistance in his power in regard to
provisions. We accordingly laid in a store of hogs at three crowns each,
there being no oxen or sheep at that time in Cuba, and a quantity of
_cassava_ bread, as flour was not to be had for biscuits. With these sorry
provisions, and some trifling toys and ornaments to barter with the
Indians, we assembled at a port named _Agaruco_, on the north side of Cuba,
eight leagues from the town of St Christopher, the inhabitants of which
removed two years afterwards to the Havanna. Our chief pilot was Antonio
de Alaminos of Palos, and two others named Comacho de Triana, and Juan
Alvarez. We got also a priest, named Alonso Gonzales to go with the
expedition; and appointed a so