The Admiral Desired All His Ships Company To Bear Witness To This, And Then Calling Out To The Portuguese, Declared He Would Not Leave His Caravel Till He Had Taken An Hundred Portuguese To Carry Prisoners To Castile, And That He Would Utterly Destroy The Whole Island.

This said, the Portuguese went away to the land, and the admiral came to anchor in the port where he had first arrived, being obliged by the wind to do so.

But the wind increasing next day and the place being unsafe, he lost his anchors and was obliged to stand out to sea towards the island of St Michael; resolving, in case he might be unable to come to anchor there, to stand out to sea notwithstanding the danger, and that he now had only three able seamen left and some grummets, all the rest of the crew being landsmen and Indians who knew nothing of sea affairs. Supplying the want of the absent hands by his own continual personal attention, he passed the whole of that night in much danger and anxiety, and when day appeared he perceived that the had lost sight of the island of St Michael. The weather being now calmer, he resolved to return to St Mary that he might endeavour to recover his men, anchors, and boat.

On Thursday the twenty-first of February in the afternoon he got back to the island of St Mary, and a boat soon afterwards came off with five men and a notary, who all came on board upon assurance of safety, and staid all night, it being then too late to return safely to the shore. Next day the notary declared that they came from the governor to be certainly informed whence the ship came, and whether it had a commission from their Catholic majesties, and that being fully satisfied on these points the admiral might depend upon receiving every friendly assistance; but all this was merely because they could not succeed in seizing the ship and the admiral, and were therefore afraid of the consequences of what they had already done. The admiral suppressed his resentment and thanked them for their civil offers; and since they now proceeded according to the maritime rules and customs, declared his readiness to satisfy them. He accordingly shewed them the letters of their Catholic majesties directed to all their own subjects and to those of other princes, and his own commission for the voyage; upon which the Portuguese went on shore quite satisfied, and soon dismissed the Spanish boat and all the seamen. From them the admiral learnt that it was reported in the island, that the king of Portugal had sent orders to all his subjects to secure the person of the admiral wherever he might be found.

The admiral sailed from the island of St Mary for Spain on Sunday the twenty-fourth of February, being still much in want of wood and ballast, which he could not take in because of the badness of the weather; but the wind being fair he was unwilling to make any longer delay.

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