After a stop of a few days they ascended the river, and found some native villages, called in the language of the country mumu.  They set to work to construct a fort on the bank, and as the country round about seemed sterile, they sowed, as in Europe, a valley of which the soil seemed apt for cultivation.  While these things were happening in Veragua, one of the Spaniards, who was stationed on a high rock which served as a lookout, casting his eyes to the west, cried “A sail! a sail!” As the ship approached it was seen to be a barque under full sail.  The newcomers were joyfully welcomed.  The boat turned out to be a barque belonging to the caravel of Nicuesa, which could only carry five persons; but as a matter of fact there were only three men on board.  These men had stolen the barque because Nicuesa had refused to believe them when they assured him that he had passed beyond Veragua, leaving that place behind him to the east.  Seeing that Nicuesa and his men were perishing of hunger, they resolved to try their fortunes in that barque, and to attempt to discover Veragua by themselves, and they had succeeded.  They described Nicuesa as wandering aimlessly, after having lost his caravel in a storm, and that he was practically lost among salt marshes and desert coasts, being destitute of everything and reduced to a most miserable plight, since for seventy days he had eaten nothing but herbs and roots and drunk nothing but water, of which indeed he had not always enough.  This all came about because, in seeking Veragua, he persisted in his course towards the west.

The country had already been reconnoitred by that great discoverer of vast regions, Christopher Columbus, who had given it the name of Gracias a Dios; in the native tongue it was called Cerabaro.  The river which the Spaniards call San Mateo divides it into two portions, and it is distant about one hundred and thirty miles from western Veragua.  I do not give the native names of this river or of other localities, because the explorers who have returned to Spain do not themselves know them.  The report of these three sailors prompted Pedro de Olano, one of Nicuesa’s two captains and his deputy judge, to send one of the brigantines piloted by the same sailors, to find and bring back Nicuesa.  Upon his arrival, Nicuesa ordered Olano, who had been appointed governor pending his return, to be put into irons, and imprisoned, accusing him of treason for having usurped the authority of governor and not having concerned himself sufficiently, while enjoying the command, about the disappearance of his chief.  He likewise accused him of negligence in sending so late to search for him.