Having arrived at the Isle of Palms they were very puzzled over the means to be adopted for finding the port. They found an inscription cut in large letters on a rock in the island, to the following effect: _Whoever comes in search of the port of Buenaventura should sail for six leagues to the west, and on the beach at which he will arrive he will see a large cross, and on digging at the foot of it will find a calabash containing a letter which tells where the port is_. They were all much pleased at finding this writing, and Vaca de Castro ordered a sailor who understood navigation to go in the boat and seek for the letter at the cross, for then they could not possibly go wrong. He ordered Merlo to go with him in the boat. They started, and presently arrived where the letters on the rock directed. They found the cross cut down by the coast Indians, but, after a diligent search, could not find the letter. As the cross had been cut down, they decided to go towards a bay or roadstead that the coast forms. They wandered about for eight days without being able to find anything, nor any sign of a port. After those eight days the boat returned to the galleon, where the crew had suffered much from hunger, and must have succumbed if it had not been for the Nicaraguan ship which supplied them out of the stores she had brought. CHAPTER XXVII _How the President Vaca de Castro was in great need and danger from being unable to find the port of Buenaventura; and how, at the end of some days during which they were seeking the port, they sighted a ship in which there came Don Juan de Andagoya, who told them where the port was._