en made by
different kinds of loadstones; for until they had arrived at that
longitude they all varied a point from the true north, and some of them
continued to do so even there, while those constructed at Genoa, now
pointed due north, and the same remarkable discrepancy continued upon the
twenty-fourth of May.

They thus continued their course, all the pilots going on with blind
confidence, till on Wednseday the 8th of June they came in sight of
Odemira, between Lisbon and Cape St Vincent; but the admiral, confident
that they were near that cape, slackened sail the night before, though
laughed at by many, some affirming that they were in the English channel,
while those who erred least believed themselves on the coast of Galicia.
The scarcity was now become so great that many objected to shortening sail,
alleging that it were better to run the risk of perishing at once by
running on shore than to starve miserably on the sea; and many, like the
canibals, were for eating the Indians who where on board, or at least were
for throwing them overboard, on purpose to make some small saving of the
provisions which remained; and this would certainly have been done if the
admiral had not exerted his whole authority to save them, as human
creatures who ought not to be worse used than the rest. At length it
pleased God to reward him with the sight of land in the morning, according
to his promise the preceding evening; for which he was ever afterwards
considered by the seamen as most expert and almost prophetical in maritime
affairs.

Having landed in Spain the admiral went to Burgos, where he was very
favourably received by their Catholic majesties, who were then at that
place celebrating the marriage of their son Prince John with Margaret of
Austria, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian. That princess was conducted
into Spain with great splendour, and received by most of the nobility and
by the greatest concourse of persons of quality that ever had been seen
together in Spain. But though I was present on the occasion as page to
prince John, I shall not enter into the particulars of this solemnity,
since it does not belong to the history I have undertaken to write, and
because the royal historiographers will have doubtless taken care to
record this event.

On his arrival at Burgos, the admiral presented their majesties, with many
curious specimens of the productions of the Indies, as birds, beasts,
trees, plants, instruments, and