Having at length procured the necessary orders, he proceeded to Seville, and there the fitting out of his fleet was retarded very unprofitably through the negligence and ill management of the public officers, especially Juan de Fonseca, the archdeacon of Seville, who was afterwards bishop of Burgos, and always was a bitter enemy to the admiral and his affairs, and became the chief leader among those who afterwards brought him into disgrace with their Catholic majesties. While engaged at Seville in superintending the equipment, that my brother and I might not suffer by the delays, we having both served as pages to Prince John, who was now dead, he sent us back to court in November 1497 to serve as pages to her majesty Queen Isabella of glorious memory.

The admiral forwarded the equipment of this expedition with all possible care, and set sail from the bay of San Lucar de Barameda on the thirtieth of May 1498, having six ships loaded with provisions and other necessaries for the relief of the colonists in Hispaniola, and for the farther settlement and peopling of that island. On the seventh of June he arrived at the island of Puerto Santo, where he heard mass, and took in wood and water and other necessaries, yet he sailed that same night for Madeira, where he arrived on Sunday the ninth of June, and was courteously received and entertained at Funchal by the governor of the island. He remained in this place until Saturday the fifteenth of June, providing all manner of refreshments, and arrived at Gomera on Wednesday the nineteenth of the same month. At this place there was a French ship which, had captured three Spanish vessels; on seeing the admirals squadron, the Frenchman stood out to sea with two of his prizes: and the admiral supposing them to be three merchant vessels which mistook his squadron for French, took no care to pursue till too late, and when informed of what they were, he sent three of his ships in pursuit but they got clear off. They might have carried away the third prize likewise, if they had not abandoned her in the consternation they were in on first noticing our fleet; so that there being only four Frenchmen on board and six Spaniards belonging to her original crew, the Spaniards on seeing assistance at hand, clapt the Frenchmen under the hatches and returned into port, where the vessel was restored to her former master. The admiral would have executed these French prisoners as pirates, but that Don Alvaro de Lugo the governor interceded for them, that they might be given in exchange for six of the inhabitants who had been carried away.

The admiral sailed from Gomera for Ferro on Thursday the twenty-first of June, whence he resolved to send three of his ships direct to Hispaniola, and going with the rest to the islands of Cabo Verde to sail directly over from thence to discover the continent. He therefore appointed a captain to each of the ships which he sent to Hispaniola. One of those was Pedro de Arana, cousin to that Arana who died in Hispaniola, the second was Alonzo Sanchez de Caravajal, and the third his own kinsman John Anthony Columbus. To these captains he gave particular instructions for the conduct of their voyage, directing that each of them should have the command a week in his turn. Having dispatched these three ships for Hispaniola, he set out with the other three for the Cape Verde islands; but the climate he was then entering upon being unhealthy at that season, he had a terrible fit of the gout in one leg, and four days afterwards he fell into a violent fever; but, notwithstanding this sickness he was still himself, and diligently observed the course made by the ship, the alterations of the weather, and all other circumstances as in his first voyage.

On the twenty-fifth June he discovered the island de Sal, one of the Cape Verdes, and passing it he came to another very improperly named Bona vista, which signifies good prospect, yet the place is dull and wretched. Here he cast anchor in a channel near a small island in which there are six or seven houses appointed for persons who are afflicted with the leprosy, who come there to be cured. And as sailors rejoice when they discover land, so do these wretches much more when they discover any ship; wherefore they immediately ran down to the shore to speak with the people whom the admiral sent on shore to take in water and salt. There are likewise abundance of goats in that island. Understanding that our people were Spaniards, the Portuguese who had charge of this island for the owner went on board to wait upon the admiral, and made offer of every assistance in his power, for which the admiral thanked him and ordered him to be well treated, and to have some provisions given him, for by reason of the barrenness of the island the inhabitants live very miserably. Being desirous to know what methods were used for curing the leprosy, this man told the admiral that the excellent temperature of the air was one principal cause, and the next the diet of the infected; for there came to this island vast numbers of turtles, on which the sick chiefly feed, and anoint themselves with the blood of these animals, and are by these means speedily cured; but that such as are born with the distemper are longer of being cured. The reason assigned for the great numbers of turtle was, that the shores of the island being all sandy, these creatures resort thither from the west coast of Africa in the months of June, July, and August, to deposit their eggs. They are mostly as large as an ordinary target, and come every night on shore to sleep and to lay their eggs in the sand. The people go along the shore at night with lanterns and other lights, seeking the tracks which the turtle leaves in the sand, which they follow till they find the animal, which being tired with the exertion, sleeps so soundly as not to waken on their approach. Having found a turtle it is turned on its back, and without doing any more harm they go on to seek more, which are treated in the same manner. Having got as many as they think fit, they come back in the morning to choose those they like best, as they cannot possibly recover their feet when once turned over. They then carry off such as they think fit, turning up the smaller ones upon their belly and allowing them to go away. The island being very dry and barren, without either trees or springs, the wretched sick inhabitants have no other sustenance, and are entirely without employment, and they are necessitated to drink of the thick and brackish water of certain wells, there being none else to be found.

Besides the sick, the only inhabitants of the island consisted of the man who had the charge and four more, and their only employment was to kill and salt goats to be sent to Portugal. There were such multitudes of goats on the island, all derived from eight left there originally, that some years they killed to the value of three or four thousand ducats. The proprietor was Roderick Alfonzo, secretary of the customs to the king of Portugal, by whom the original stock of goats had been carried to this place. These goat-hunters are often four or five months without bread or any thing to eat but goats flesh and fish; for which reason this man made great account of the provisions which the admiral had given him. This man and his companions, with some of the admirals men, went out to hunt goats for the use of the ships, but finding that it would require much time to kill all he had need of, and being anxious to proceed on his voyage, the admiral would not protract his stay in this place.

On Saturday the 30th of June, he sailed for Santiago, the principal of the Cape Verde islands, where he arrived the next evening, and cast anchor near a church, sending on shore to purchase some bulls and cows, which he wished to carry alive to Hispaniola. But finding it difficult to procure them so soon as he wished, and considering how prejudicial delays might prove to the safety and success of his voyage, he would not remain. He was the more induced to get away with all expedition on account of the unhealthiness of the country, lest his men might fall sick; as during all the time he lay among these islands he never saw the sky or any star, in consequence of a perpetual thick hot fog; insomuch that three fourths of the inhabitants were sick, and all of them had a most unhealthy colour.