“Having put to sea, the weather was very calm on Monday the twenty-fourth December, with hardly any wind; but what little there was carried me from the sea of St Thomas to Punta Santa or the Holy Cape, off which we lay at about the distance of a league.  About eleven at night, being very much fatigued, as I had not slept for two days and a night, I went to bed; and the seaman who was at the helm left it to a grummet[6], although I had given strict injunctions that this should never be done during the whole voyage, whether the wind blew or not.  To say the truth I thought we were perfectly safe from all danger of rocks and shoals; as on that Sunday when I sent my boats to the king of the island, they went at least three leagues and a half beyond Punta Santa, and the seamen had carefully examined all the coast, and noted certain shoals which lie three leagues E.S.E. of that cape, and observed which way we might sail in safety, a degree of precaution which I had not before taken during the whole voyage.  It pleased God at midnight, while all the men were asleep, that the current gently carried our ship upon one of the shoals, which made such a roaring noise that it might have been heard and discovered at the distance of a league.  Then the fellow who felt the rudder strike and heard the noise, immediately began to cry out, and I hearing him got up immediately, for no one had as yet perceived that we were aground.  Presently the master whose watch it was came upon deck, and I ordered him and other sailors to take the boat and carry out an anchor astern, hoping thereby to warp off the ship.  Thereupon he and others leapt into the boat, as I believed to carry my orders into execution; but they immediately rowed away to the other caravel which was half a league from us.  On perceiving that the boat had deserted us, and the water ebbed apace to the manifest danger of our ship, I caused the masts to be cut away, and lightened her as much as possible in hopes to get her off.  But the water still ebbed, and the caravel remained fast in the shoal, and turning athwart the stream the seams opened and all below deck became filled with water.”

“Meanwhile, the boat returned from the other caravel to our relief, for the people in the Nina, perceiving they had fled, refused to receive them, and obliged them to return to our ship.  No hopes of saving the ship appearing, I went away to the other caravel to save the lives of the people; and great part of the night was already spent, while yet we knew not which way to get from among the shoals, I lay to with the Nina till daylight, and then drew towards the land within the shoals.  I then dispatched James de Arana the provost, and Peter Gutieres, your highnesses secretary, to acquaint the king with what had happened, and to inform him, that as I was bound to his own port to pay him a visit, according to his desire, I had lost my ship on a flat opposite his town.  On receiving this intelligence, with tears in his