During this time, some went gathering shell-fish in the coves and creeks of the sea, at which the Indians twice attacked them, and killed ten of our men in sight of the camp, without our being able to afford them succor. We found them traversed from side to side by the arrows; and, although some had on good armor, it did not afford sufficient protection against the nice and powerful archery, of which I have spoken before.... Before we embarked, there died, without enumerating those destroyed by the Indians, more than forty men, of disease and hunger. By the 22d of the month of September, the horses had been consumed, one only remaining; and on that day we embarked in the following order,――in the boat of the governor there went forty-nine men; in another, which he gave to the controller and the commissary, went others as many. The third he gave to Capt. Alonzo del Castillo and Andres Dorantes, with forty-eight men; and another he gave to two captains, Tellez and Beñalosa, with forty-seven men. The last he gave to the assessor and me, with forty-nine men. After the provision and clothes had been taken in, there remained not over a span of the gunwales[87] above the water; and, more than this, we went so crowded, we could not move. So much can necessity do, which drove us to hazard our lives in this manner, running into a sea so turbulent, with not a single one that went there having a knowledge of navigation. The haven we left has for its name La Baya de Cavallos.[88] We passed waist-deep in water through sounds for seven days, without seeing any point of the coast; and at the close of them we came to an island near the land. My boat went first; and from her we saw Indians coming in five canoes, which they abandoned, and left in our hands. The other boats, seeing us go towards them, passed ahead, and stopped at some houses on the island, where we found many mullet and mullet-roes dried,――a great relief to the distress in which we were. After taking these, we went on, and, two leagues thence, we discovered a strait the island makes with the land, which we named San Miguel, from having passed through it on his day.[89] Having come out, we went to the coast, where, with the five canoes I had taken from the Indians, we somewhat improved the boats, making waist-boards, and securing them so that the sides rose two palms above the waters. With this we turned to travel along the coast in the direction of the River Palmas, every day increasing our hunger and thirst; for the provisions were very scant, and getting near their end, and the water was gone, because the bottles we made from the legs of the horses soon rotted, and were useless. Sometimes we entered coves and creeks that lay far in, and found them all shallow and dangerous. Thus we travelled thirty days among them, where we sometimes found Indian fishermen, a poor and miserable people.