As to the reward of one hundred pounds a man, and the articles about keeping together, obeying orders, gathering up gold, and the like, I did not read to them till they were all on shore, and till I was ready to leave them; because, if the rest of the men had heard it, I should have kept nobody with me to have sailed the ships. There was as stout a company of bold, young brisk fellows of them, as ever went upon any expedition, fifty-three in number; among them a surgeon and his mate, very skilful and honest men both of them, a trumpeter and a drummer, three ship-carpenters, a cook, who was also a butcher by trade, and a barber, two shoemakers who had been soldiers among the pirates, a smith, and a tailor of the same, so that they wanted no mechanics, whatever might happen to them. Give the fellows their due, they took but little baggage with them; but, however, what they had, I took care, with the assistance of my patron, the Spaniard, should be as much carried for them as possible. I provided them three large tents made of a cotton stuff, which I bought in the country, and which we made up on board, which tents were large enough to cover them all, in case of rain or heat; but as for beds or bedding, they had only seven hammocks, in case any man was sick; for the rest, they were to shift as well as they could; the season was hot, and the climate good. Their way lay in the latitude of 40 to 50°, and they set out in the latter end of the month of October, which, on that side of the line, is the same as our April; so that the covering was more to keep them from the heat than the cold. It was needful, in order to their defence, to furnish them with arms and ammunition; so I gave to every man a musket or fuzee, a pistol, and a sword, with cartouches and a good stock of ammunition, powder and shot, with three small barrels of fine powder for store, and lead in proportion; and these things were, indeed, the heaviest part of their baggage, excepting the carpenters' tools and the surgeon's box of medicines. As for the carrying all these things, they might easily furnish themselves with mules or horses for carriage, while they had money to pay for them, and you may judge how that could be wanting, by what has been said of the country. We gave them, however, a good large pack of European goods, to make agreeable presents where they received favours; such as black baize, pieces of say, serge, calamanco, drugget, hats and stockings; not forgetting another pack of hatchets, knives, scissors, beads, toys, and such things, to please the natives of the plain country, if they should meet with any. They desired a few hand granadoes, and we gave them about a dozen; but, as they were heavy, it would have been very troublesome to have carried more.