On receiving this intelligence, although the wind was adverse, the admiral set sail immediately; and on the following Sunday the sixteenth of December, while plying between Tortuga and Hispaniola, he found one man alone in a small canoe, which they all wondered was not swallowed up by the waves, as the wind and sea were then very tempestuous. This man was taken into the ship and carried to Hispaniola, where he was set on shore with several gifts. He told the Indians how kindly he had been treated, and spoke so well of the Spaniards that numbers of the natives came presently on board; but they brought nothing of value, except some small grains of gold hanging from their ears and noses, and being asked whence they procured the gold, they made signs that there was a great deal to be had higher up the country.

Next day, while the cacique or lord of that part of Hispaniola was on the beach bartering a plate of gold, there came a large canoe with forty men on board from the island of Tortuga to near the place where the admiral lay at anchor. When the cacique and his people saw the canoe approach, they all sat down on the ground, as a sign that they were unwilling to fight. Almost all the people from the canoe immediately landed; on which the Hispaniola chief started up alone, and with threatening words and gestures made them return to their canoe. He then threw water after them, and cast stones into the sea towards the canoe; and when they had all most submissively returned into their canoe, he delivered a stone to one of the Spanish officers, making signs to him to throw it at those in the canoe, as if to express that he took part with the Spaniards against the Indians of Tortuga; but the officer, seeing that they retired quietly, did not throw the stone24. While afterwards discoursing the friendly cacique affirmed that it contained more gold than all Hispaniola; but that in Bohio, which was fifteen days journey from the place they were then in, there was more than in any other land.

On Tuesday the eighteenth of December, the cacique who came the day before to where the canoe of Tortuga was, and who lived about five leagues from where the ships lay, came in the morning to a town near the sea, where some Spaniards then were by order of the admiral to see if the natives brought any more gold. These men came off to the admiral to acquaint him of the arrival of the king, who was accompanied by above 200 men, and who though very young, was carried by four men in a kind of palanquin. Having rested a little, the king drew near the ships with all his people, but I shall give an account of the interview in the admiral's own words addressed to their Catholic majesties.

"There is no doubt that your highnesses would have been much pleased to have seen the gravity of his deportment, and the respect with which he was treated by his people, though all we saw were entirely naked. When he came on deck and understood that I was below at dinner, he surprized me by sitting down at my side without giving me time to go out to receive him or even to rise from table. When he came down, he made signs to all his followers to remain above, which they did with the utmost respect, sitting down quietly on the deck, excepting two old men who seemed to be his councillors, who came down along with him and sat down at his feet. Being informed of his quality, I ordered some meat which I was eating at the time to be offered him. He and his councillors just tasted it, and then sent it to their men upon deck, who all eat of it. The same thing they did in regard to drink; for they only kissed the cup, and then handed it about. Their deportment was wonderfully grave, and they used but few words, which were uttered very deliberately and with much decorum. After eating, one of his attendants brought him a girdle not much unlike those used in Castile, but wrought of different materials, this they very respectfully delivered into his hand, and he presented it to me with two very thin pieces of wrought-gold. Of this gold I believe there is but little here, though I suspect there is a place at no great distance which produces a great deal, and whence they procure it. Believing he might like a carpet or counterpane which lay on my bed, I presented it to him, together with some fine amber beads which I wore about my neck, a pair of red shoes, and a bottle of orange-flower water, with all of which he seemed very much pleased. The two old men who sat at his feet, seemed to watch the motions of the kings lips, and spoke both for and to him; and both he and they expressed much concern because they did not understand me or I them, though I made out that if I wanted any thing all the island was at my command. I brought out a casket in which was a gold medal weighing four ducats, on which were the portraits of your highnesses, and shewed it to him, endeavouring to make him sensible that your highnesses were mighty princes, and sovereigns of the best part of the world. I shewed him likewise the royal standard, and the standard of the cross, which he made great account of. Turning to his councillors, he said that your highnesses must certainly be great princes, who had sent me so far as from Heaven thither without fear. Much more passed between us which I did not understand; but could easily perceive that they greatly admired every thing they saw. It being now late, and seeming anxious to be gone, I sent him on shore very honourably in my boat, and caused several guns to be fired. When ashore, he got into his palanquin attended by above two hundred people, and a son whom he had along with him was carried on the shoulders of one of his principal people. He ordered all the Spaniards who were on shore to have provisions given to them, and that they should be very courteously used.

"Afterwards I was told by a sailor who met him on his way into the country, that every one of the things I had given him were carried before him by a person of note; that his son did not accompany him on the road, but was carried at some distance behind with as many attendants as he had; and that a brother of his, with almost as many more followed on foot, led by two principal people supporting him under the arms. The brother had been on board along with the king, and to him likewise I had made some trifling presents."

In continuance of the foregoing account of his proceedings, the admiral gives the following narrative of the unfortunate loss of his own caravel the St Mary:

"Having put to sea, the weather was very calm on Monday the twenty-fourth December, with hardly any wind; but what little there was carried me from the sea of St Thomas to Punta Santa or the Holy Cape, off which we lay at about the distance of a league. About eleven at night, being very much fatigued, as I had not slept for two days and a night, I went to bed; and the seaman who was at the helm left it to a grummet25, although I had given strict injunctions that this should never be done during the whole voyage, whether the wind blew or not. To say the truth I thought we were perfectly safe from all danger of rocks and shoals; as on that Sunday when I sent my boats to the king of the island, they went at least three leagues and a half beyond Punta Santa, and the seamen had carefully examined all the coast, and noted certain shoals which lie three leagues E.S.E. of that cape, and observed which way we might sail in safety, a degree of precaution which I had not before taken during the whole voyage. It pleased God at midnight, while all the men were asleep, that the current gently carried our ship upon one of the shoals, which made such a roaring noise that it might have been heard and discovered at the distance of a league. Then the fellow who felt the rudder strike and heard the noise, immediately began to cry out, and I hearing him got up immediately, for no one had as yet perceived that we were aground. Presently the master whose watch it was came upon deck, and I ordered him and other sailors to take the boat and carry out an anchor astern, hoping thereby to warp off the ship. Thereupon he and others leapt into the boat, as I believed to carry my orders into execution; but they immediately rowed away to the other caravel which was half a league from us. On perceiving that the boat had deserted us, and the water ebbed apace to the manifest danger of our ship, I caused the masts to be cut away, and lightened her as much as possible in hopes to get her off. But the water still ebbed, and the caravel remained fast in the shoal, and turning athwart the stream the seams opened and all below deck became filled with water."