On Monday the 7th of October, the admiral continued his voyage for the West Indies, having first delivered sealed orders to every ship in the fleet, with strict injunctions that they were not to be opened unless separated from him by stress of weather.  In these he gave directions for the course which they were to steer for attaining the town of the Nativity in Hispaniola, and he did not wish that course should be known by any one without urgent necessity.  Having sailed on with a fair wind until Thursday the 24th of October, when they were by estimation 400 leagues west from Gomera, all were astonished at not finding any of the weeds which had been met with on the former voyage when only 250 leagues advanced into the Atlantic.  On that day and the next a swallow was seen flying about the fleet.  On the night of Saturday the 26th, the body of St Elmo, with seven lighted candles, was seen on the round top, which was followed by prodigious torrents of rain and frightful thunder and lightning.  I mean those lights were seen which the seamen affirm to be the body of St Elmo, to whom they sing litanies and prayers upon these occasions, and they firmly believe that there can be no danger from those storms in which that phenomenon occurs.  According to Pliny, when such lights appeared to the Roman sailors they were said to be Castor and Pollux, of which Seneca likewise makes mention in the beginning of his Book of Nature.[4]

On Saturday the 2d of November, the admiral observed a great alteration in the appearance of the sky and in the winds, and concluded from these, and the prevalence of heavy rains, that he was certainly approaching the land, and therefore ordered most of the sails to be furled, and all the people to be on the watch, and to keep a strict look out.  This precaution was exceedingly necessary; for next morning, just as day began to dawn, a high mountainous island was discovered about seven leagues to the west, to which the admiral gave the name of Dominica, because discovered on Sunday.  Soon afterwards another island was seen to the north-east of Dominica, and then another, and another after that more to the northwards.[5] On this joyful occasion, all the crew assembled on the poop, and devoutly sung the salve regina, and other hymns, giving thanks to God that in twenty days after their departure from Gomera they had safely made the land, judging the distance between Gomera and Dominica to be between 750 and 800 leagues.  Finding no convenient place for anchoring on the east side of Dominica, the admiral stood over to another island which he named Marigalante after his own ship.  Landing here, he again confirmed with all due solemnity, the possession which he had taken in his first voyage of all the islands and continent of the West Indies for their Catholic majesties.