om Coiba to Uraba, the province of his ally
Hojeda. Some days later, being on board one of the large merchant
vessels called by the Spaniards caravels, he ordered the other ships
to follow at a distance, keeping with him two vessels with double sets
of oars, of the type called brigantines. I may here say that during
the rest of my narrative it is my intention to give to these
brigantines as well as to the other types of ships the names they bear
in the vulgar tongue. I do this that I may be more clearly understood,
regardless of the teeth of critics who rend the works of authors. Each
day new wants arise, impossible to translate with the vocabulary left
us by the venerable majesty of antiquity.

After Nicuesa's departure Hojeda was joined by a ship from Hispaniola
with a crew of sixty men commanded by Bernardino de Calavera, who had
stolen it. Neither the maritime commander, or to speak more plainly
the Admiral,--nor the authorities had consented to his departure. The
provisions brought by this ship somewhat restored the strength of the
Spaniards.

The complaints of the men against Hojeda increased from day to day;
for they accused him of having deceived them. He alleged in his
defence, that by virtue of the powers he held from the King he had
directed the bachelor Enciso, who was chief justice and whom he had
selected because of his great legal abilities, to follow him with a
shipload of stores; and that he was much astonished that the latter
had not long since arrived. He spoke the truth, for at the time of
his departure, Enciso had already more than half completed his
preparations. His companions, however, who considered they had been
duped, did not believe in the sincerity of his affirmations about
Enciso, and a number of them secretly planned to seize two brigantines
belonging to Hojeda, and to return to Hispaniola. Upon discovering
this plot, Hojeda decided to anticipate their plan and, leaving
Francisco Pizarro, a nobleman[6] who commanded the forts he had built,
he took some of his men and went on board the ship we have mentioned.
His intention was to go to Hispaniola, not only to recover from the
wound in his hip, but also to learn the causes of Enciso's delay. He
promised his companions to return in less than fifty days. Out of the
three hundred there only remained about sixty men, for the others had
either perished of hunger or had been slain by the natives. Pizarro
and his men pledged themselves to remain