As soon as our wounds were healed, I and two other soldiers, desiring to go to the town of Trinidad, agreed for our passage with an inhabitant of the Havanna, who was going there in a canoe to sell a cargo of cotton, for which he was to be paid ten crowns in gold.  We accordingly embarked with him, and after coasting along for eleven days, we were driven on shore in a violent gale of wind, near an Indian town named Canarreon, the canoe being dashed to pieces, while we reached the shore with much difficulty naked, bruised, and wounded.  We were forced to adopt the clothing of our first parents, and tied sandals to our feet made of bark which we cut from the trees with sharp stones, fixing them on by means of the tough flexible roots of a plant called bejucos.  Travelling in this sorry plight, we came in two days to the village of Yaguarrama, where Fray Bartholome de las Casas was then parish priest, who was afterwards bishop of Chiapa.  I went next day to the town of Chipiona, belonging to Alonso de Avila, where I got myself decently clothed at the house of a friend named Antonio de Medina.  I then continued my journey to St Jago, where the governor, Velasquez, was preparing to fit out another expedition of discovery.  Being my relation, as well as governor, I went to wait upon him, when he asked if I was willing to undertake another expedition to Yucutan.  I answered, that it ought rather to be called the land of wounds and disasters.  He replied, he knew that we suffered much in the last voyage, but such was often the fate of those who sought fame and honour by new discoveries, and that he would take care to inform the king of our services, that we might be rewarded according to our merits.  “And now,” said he, “my son, if you will try your fortune once more, I will place you in a station where you may reap honour.”

[1] The present voyage of Cordova was in 1517:  that of Ponce de Leon in
    1512, only five years before.—­E.

[2] Nothing can be more ridiculous than this fancy of the Americans being
    descended from the Jews:  Without stopping to controvert this absurd
    opinion, it need only be noticed that the Jews, at least after their
    return from captivity, have uniformly rejected the use of images, even
    under the severest persecutions; except perhaps in Spain, where the
    modern Jews are said to worship the Catholic idols with much apparent
    devotion, to avoid the terrors of the Inquisition.—­E.

SECTION II.

Expedition of Juan de Grijalva in 1518.