During the three months that we remained at St. Lucar de Barameda, there arrived a patache,[35] coming from Porto-rico, to inform the king of Spain that the army of England was at sea, with the design of taking the said Porto-rico: upon which advice, the said king of Spain, in order to succour it, had an armament prepared, of the number of twenty ships, and of two thousand men, soldiers, and mariners; among which ships, that named the St. Julian was retained, and my uncle was commanded to make the voyage in it, by which I received extreme joy, promising myself by this means to satisfy my desire: and for that purpose I readily resolved to go with him; but whatever diligence could be made to repair, victual, and equip the said ships, to enable them to put to sea, when at the point of departure, there arrived news by another patache, that it had been taken by the English; in consequence of which, the said voyage was broken off, to my great regret, to find myself thus frustrated in my hope. [35] "Patache"--advice-boat. Now, at the same time, the armament of the king of Spain, which was accustomed to go every year to the Indies, was getting ready at the said St. Lucar, where there arrived, by command of the king, a noble named Don Francisque Colombe, a knight of Malta, to be general of the said armament, who, seeing our vessel prepared and ready for service, and knowing, by the report which had been made to him, that it was strong and very good under sail for its burthen, resolved to make use of it, and take it at the ordinary freight, which is one crown per ton per month; so that I had occasion to rejoice seeing my hopes revive, and the more so that the Provençal captain, my uncle, having been retained by General Soubriago to serve elsewhere, and thus not able to make the voyage, committed to me the charge of the said ship, to have the care of it, which I accepted very willingly: and upon that we sought the said Seigneur, General Colombe, to know if he would have it for agreeable that I should make the voyage, which he freely granted, with evidence of being well pleased, promising me his favour and assistance, which he has not since denied me upon occasion. The said armament set sail in the beginning of the month of January, in the year 1599, and the wind blowing always very fresh, in six days after we arrived in sight of the Canary Isles. Leaving the said Canary Islands, we passed by the Gulf of Las Damas, having the wind astern, so that in two months and six days after our departure from St. Lucar, we got sight of an island named La Deseade, which is the first island that pilots must necessarily recognise in going to all the other islands and ports of the Indies. This island is round and tolerably high from the sea, and is seven leagues in circumference, full of wood and uninhabited, but there is good anchorage on the eastern side. [Illustration: ISLAND OF GUADALOUPE.]