he still had a sufficient number, not only to return to Seville,
but if need were to punish his treacherous conduct which he well deserved;
besides that he would be assuredly punished by his own king, for giving a
cause of war between Spain and Portugal.

The Portuguese captain and his men made answer, that they neither knew
their Catholic majesties or their letters, neither did they fear them, and
would make him to know what Portugal was. From this answer, the admiral
suspected that some breach had occurred between the crowns since his
departure, and therefore gave him such an answer as his folly deserved.
At last when about to depart, the captain stood up and said that the
admiral might go with his caravel to the harbour, as all he had done was
by order of the king his master. The admiral desired all his ships company
to bear witness to this, and then calling out to the Portuguese, declared
he would not leave his caravel till he had taken an hundred Portuguese to
carry prisoners to Castile, and that he would utterly destroy the whole
island. This said, the Portuguese went away to the land, and the admiral
came to anchor in the port where he had first arrived, being obliged by
the wind to do so. But the wind increasing next day and the place being
unsafe, he lost his anchors and was obliged to stand out to sea towards
the island of St Michael; resolving, in case he might be unable to come to
anchor there, to stand out to sea notwithstanding the danger, and that he
now had only three able seamen left and some _grummets_, all the rest of
the crew being landsmen and Indians who knew nothing of sea affairs.
Supplying the want of the absent hands by his own continual personal
attention, he passed the whole of that night in much danger and anxiety,
and when day appeared he perceived that the had lost sight of the island
of St Michael. The weather being now calmer, he resolved to return to St
Mary that he might endeavour to recover his men, anchors, and boat.

On Thursday the twenty-first of February in the afternoon he got back to
the island of St Mary, and a boat soon afterwards came off with five men
and a notary, who all came on board upon assurance of safety, and staid
all night, it being then too late to return safely to the shore. Next day
the notary declared that they came from the governor to be certainly
informed whence the ship came, and whether it had a commission from their
Catholic majesties, and that being full