The expedition of Ortiz de Zárate or the voyage from San Lucar to Santa Catalina is described in the eighth canto. It was carried in two small and three larger vessels. In receiving his appointment as governor of Paraguay Zárate had agreed to introduce into the colony a number of labourers as colonists, a quantity of arms, and also a large number of horses, cows, sheep and goats within a period of three years. The greater part of the animals were to be brought from the ranges near Charcas and Tarija. The little fleet halted at Gomera, the Cape Verde Islands, and Santa Catalina; and on this passage from Santa Lucar and during the stay at Santa Catalina the expedition lost three hundred persons. Among the survivors was the Franciscan missionary, Luis Bolanos, who was the first to apply grammatical rules to the Guaraní language, and the first dictionary of the language is attributed to him. [Sidenote: Famine at Santa Catalina] In spite of storms, the voyage was fortunate until the vessels passed into the calm and heat of the tropics, where all suffered to such a degree that they would gladly have returned to Spain. But their sufferings were greatly intensified after they reached the island of Santa Catalina, where scores of Spaniards died of starvation. The ninth canto sets forth the horrors of this episode, and it is dedicated to “las damas.” El canto vuestro es, pues que contiene De damas y galanes la caída: Centenera exposes the details of the famine, pointing out that every animal and reptile, however repugnant at first, was at last found to be as savoury as the flesh of a kid, for La gran hambre prestaba salmorejo. The extremes to which men were driven by hunger are narrated at length, the crimes committed to obtain food, and the unusual punishments meted out to the criminals who were detected. But many escaped detection. Some persons encountered a dog alone. They killed him immediately, and without waiting to have him well cooked or roasted, devoured him, in order to avoid being recognized as the offenders by the arrival of the owner. Another person, having stealthily entered an inn kept by two women, was apprehended by them; then without pity they cut off his ears, and nailed them up on the house, either for decoration or as a warning to other thieves. Recognizing that they had acted without justice, and that they ran a risk of being punished, they returned the ears to their owner accompanied by a quantity of food sent “to shut up his mouth.” [Sidenote: Last stage of the voyage]