ON the last day of April, in the year fifteen hundred and three, we left Veragua, with three ships, intending to make our passage homeward to Spain; but, as the ships were all pierced and eaten by the teredo,[62] we could not keep them above water. We abandoned one of them after we had proceeded thirty leagues: the two which remained were even in a worse condition than that; so that all the hands were not sufficient, with the use of pumps and kettles and pans, to draw off the water that came through the holes made by the worms. In this state, with the utmost toil and danger, we sailed for thirty-five days, thinking to reach Spain; and at the end of this time we arrived at the lowest point of the island of Cuba, at the province of Homo, where the city of Trinidad now stands; so that we were three hundred leagues farther from Spain than when we left Veragua for the purpose of proceeding thither,――and this, as I have said, with the vessels in very bad condition, unfit to encounter the sea, and our provisions nearly gone. It pleased God that we were enabled to reach the island of Jamaica, where we drove the two ships on shore, and made of them two cabins, thatched with straw, in which we took up our dwelling; not, however, without considerable danger from the natives, who were not yet subdued, and who might easily set fire to our habitation in the night, in spite of the greatest watchfulness. It was there that I gave out the last ration of biscuit and wine. I then took a sword in my hand, three men only accompanying me, and advanced into the island; for no one else dared go to seek food for the admiral and those who were with him. It pleased God that I found some people who were very gentle, and did us no harm, but received us cheerfully, and gave us food with hearty good-will. I then made a stipulation with the Indians who lived in a village called Aguacadiba, and with their cacique, that they should make cassava bread, and that they should hunt and fish to supply the admiral every day with a sufficient quantity of provisions, which they were to bring to the ships, where I promised there should be a person ready to pay them in blue beads, combs and knives, hawks-bells and fish-hooks, and other such articles, which we had with us for that purpose. With this understanding, I despatched one of the Spaniards whom I had brought with me to the admiral, in order that he might send a person to pay for the provisions, and secure their being sent. From thence I went to another village, at three leagues’ distance from the former, and made a similar agreement with the natives and their cacique, and then despatched another Spaniard to the admiral, begging him to send another person with a similar object to this village. After this I went farther on, and came to a great cacique named Huarco, living in a place which is now called Melilla, thirteen leagues from where the ships lay. I was very well received by him. He gave me plenty to eat, and ordered