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 _grummet_[6], 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."