JOURNAL OF GALLEGO. 233 



islands that we had visited were aroused, and the provisions hidden. 

 They asked for my opinion as to returning to Peru, whence we 

 had come ; and I told them that we should not sail to the south of 

 the Equinoctial, as we should be lost, on account of there being 

 many people, scanty provisions, and but little water. I also said 

 that if we were to direct our course to positions in latitudes which 

 we should have time to reach, we should not have time to find land 

 to the south-south-west and south, which would be a work of diffi- 

 culty ; and that such a new navigation, with 1,700 leagues of sea to 

 cross on our return voyage, did not seem prudent. I therefore gave 

 it as my opinion that we should steer north to reach the latitude of 

 the first land we ibund, because it would be necessary, in order to 

 shape a course from Peru, to go beyond the south tropic for thirty 

 degrees and more ; and I also said that when they should venture 

 to make the return voyage, they should carry an abundance of water 

 and provisions, because, otherwise, they would run the risk of all 

 perishing. And so the pilots came to my view, which satisfied the 

 protest that had been made ; and I gave my opinion in the presence 

 of a clerk who was Antonio de Cieza. Concerning the idea of my 

 asking to found a settlement in these islands, I said that in that 

 matter I did not know what the General intended to do, since the 

 instructions con3erning it were in his keeping. To this opinion 

 thev all came, and were of one mind without one that did not 

 assent.^ 



" At midnight on the following Monday, when all were asleep, 

 the General ordered Gabriel Munoz and myself to go with some 

 soldiers and make an entrance into a town in order to seize some 

 Indians for interpreters (para lenguas). We went with 30 men, and 

 took an Indian with his wife and young son ; and all the rest of the 

 Indians fled. We then returned to the ships ; and straightway we 

 made preparations for prosecuting our vayage, 



" On the llth of August of the same year, we left the Puerto de 

 Nuestra Senora, which is in 11° south of the Equinoctial, in 

 order to follow our voyage to Peru. Sailing to windward, at the 

 end of 7 days after we had left the port, we weathered the island of 

 San Christobal with the two islands of Santa Catalina and Santa 



^ The impression, which this interesting passage leaves on my mind, is that the Chief- 

 Pilot prefers in his narrative to gloss over an incident which must have been full of disap- 

 pointment to himself. Further on in the narrative, he writes more freely on the subject 

 (page '237). In Note IX. of the Geographical Appendix, I have given some further remarks on 

 this passage. 



