Pedro Arias sailed from Seville on the Guadalquivir to the sea, in the first days of the year 1514.[2] His departure took place under evil auspices, for such a furious storm broke over the fleet that two vessels were shattered to pieces, and the others were obliged to lighten themselves by throwing overboard some of their stores.  The crews which survived returned to the coast of Spain, where the King’s agents promptly came to their assistance and they were enabled again to set forth.  The pilot of the flagship appointed by the King was Giovanni Vespucci, a Florentine, nephew of Amerigo Vespucci, who had inherited his uncle’s great ability in the art of navigation and taking reckonings.  We recently learned from Hispaniola that the crossing had been favourable, and a merchant ship, returning from the neighbouring islands, had encountered the fleet.

[Note 2:  The expedition sailed on April 14, 1514.]

As Galeazzo Butrigario and Giovanni Accursi who, to please Your Holiness, constantly urge me on, are sending a courier who will deliver my ocean Nereids, however imperfect they may be, to Your Beatitude, I shall save time by leaving out many particulars and shall only mention what, in my opinion, is worthy to be recorded and which I have not reported at the time it happened.

The wife of the captain Pedro Arias, by name Elizabeth Bobadilla, is the grandniece on the father’s side of the Marchioness Bobadilla de Moia, who opened the gates of Segovia to the friends of Isabella when the Portuguese were invading Castile, thus enabling them to hold out and later to take the offensive against the Portuguese; and still later to defeat them.  King Henry, brother of Queen Isabella, had in fact taken possession of the treasures of that town.  During her entire life, whether in time of war or in time of peace, the Marchioness de Moia displayed virile resolution, and it was due to her counsels that many great deeds were done in Castile.  The wife of Pedro Arias, being niece of this marchioness, and inspired by courage equal to that of her aunt, spoke to her husband on his departure for those unknown lands, where he would encounter real perils, both on sea and on land, in the following terms: 

“My dear husband, we have been united from our youth, as I think, for the purpose of living together and never being separated.  Wherever destiny may lead you, be it on the tempestuous ocean or be it among the hardships that await you on land, I should be your companion.  There is nothing I would more fear, nor any kind of death that might threaten me, which would not be more supportable than for me to live without you and separated by such an immense distance.  I would rather die and even be eaten by fish in the sea or devoured on land by cannibals, than to consume myself in perpetual mourning and in unceasing sorrow, awaiting—­not my husband—­but his letters.  My determination is not sudden nor unconsidered; nor is it a woman’s caprice that moves me to