The reason is that I had scarcely finished composing and dictating the story of the adventures of Vasco Nunez and his companions during their exploration of the South Sea, and had hardly despatched that narration to Your Holiness by Giovanni Ruffo di Forli, Archbishop of Cosenza and Galeazzo Butrigario, Apostolic nuncios and stimulators of my somnolent spirits, than new letters[1] arrived from Pedro Arias whose departure last year as commander of a fleet bound for the new continent we have already announced.  The General duly arrived with his soldiers and his ships.  These letters are signed by Juan Cabedo whom Your Holiness, upon the solicitation of the Catholic King, appointed Bishop of the province of Darien, and his signature is accompanied by those of the principal officials sent to administer the government, viz.:  Alonzo de Ponte, Diego Marques, and Juan de Tavira.  May Your Holiness, therefore, deign to accept the narrative of this voyage.

[Note 1:  If still in existence these letters have yet to be found.]

On the eve of the ides of April, 1514, Pedro Arias gave the signal to start and sailed from the port of San Lucar de Barrameda, a fortified place at the mouth of the Boetis, called by the Spaniards the Guadalquivir.  From the mouth of the Boetis, to the seven Canary Islands the distance is about four hundred miles.  Some people think these islands correspond to the Fortunate Isles, but others hold a contrary opinion.  These islands are named as follows:  Lancelota and Fortaventura are the first sighted, after which the Grand Canary, followed by Teneriffe:  Gomera lies a short distance to the north of Teneriffe and the islands of Palma and Ferro seem to form a rear-guard.  After a voyage of eight days, Pedro Arias landed at Gomera.  His fleet consisted of seventeen vessels, carrying fifteen hundred men, to which number he had been restricted; for he left behind him more than two thousand discontented and disconsolate men, who begged to be allowed to embark at their own expense; such was their avidity for gold and such their desire to behold the new continent.

Pedro Arias stopped sixteen days at Gomera, to take on a supply of wood and water, and to repair his ships damaged by a storm, especially the flag-ship, which had lost her rudder.  The archipelago of the Canaries is indeed a most convenient port for navigators.  The expedition left the Canaries the nones of May, and saw no land until the third day of the nones of June, when the ships approached the island of the man-eating cannibals which has been named Domingo.  On this island, which is about eight hundred leagues from Gomera, Pedro Arias remained four days and replenished his supply of water and wood.  Not a man or a trace of a human being was discovered.  Along the coast were many crabs and huge lizards.  The course afterwards passed by the islands of Madanino and Guadeloupe and Maria Galante, of which I have spoken at length in my First Decade.  Pedro Arias also sailed over