While writing his journal on the 30th of June, his ship ran so fast aground, that neither by means of anchors or any ether invention could she be got off; but it pleased GOD that she was at length drawn over the shoal a-head, though with some damage from beating on the sand.  He thence sailed on as the wind and shoal water would permit, always through a white sea of two fathoms regular depth, unless when he approached a shoal when the water became shallower.  Besides all this anxious fatigue, occasioned by these perpetual shoals, they were distressed every evening about sun-set by prodigious rains, which arose from the mountains and marshes of Cuba, and continued till he came off Cuba towards the east, the way he had come at first.  Thence as he had found before, came off a most refreshing scent as of fragrant flowers.  On the 7th of July, the admiral landed to hear mass, when there came to him an old cacique, who was very attentive to the service.  When it was ended, by signs, and the best methods which he could find to express himself, he said it was good to give thanks to GOD, because the souls of the good would go to Heaven, while the body remained on earth, whereas wicked souls would go to hell.  Among other things, this cacique said that he had been to Hispaniola, where he knew some of the chief men; that he had been to Jamaica, and a great way west in the island of Cuba, and that the cacique of that part was clothed like a priest[17].

Sailing thence on the 16th of July, and still attended by terrible rains and winds, he at length drew near to Cape Santa Cruz in Cuba, where he was suddenly assailed by so violent a squall of wind and furious rain, which laid his ship on her broad-side; but it pleased GOD that they immediately lowered all their sails and dropt their anchors, and the ship soon righted; yet the ship took in so much water at the deck that the people were not able to keep the hold clear, they were so much spent for want of provisions.  For some time they had been reduced to a pound of rotten biscuit daily with half a pint of wine, unless when they happened to catch fish, which could not be kept from day to day on account of the climate.  This want and short allowance was common to all, and the admiral speaks thus of it in his journal addressed to their Catholic majesties.  “I am myself at the same allowance, and I pray to GOD that it may be for his honour and the service of your highnesses, for I shall never again expose myself to such sufferings and dangers for my own benefit; and there never passes a day but we are all on the very brink of death.”