All the men, counting those maimed, number two hundred and sixty. The number of men that I found in this island and those who should be brought from Zibu fell far short of what I expected.  All that I could gather together—­gunners, sailors, and maimed men—­do not number more than two hundred and sixty-four men.  Some of them have died.  I am sending there the crippled and maimed, who are useless, so that I shall have left in this river a trifle above two hundred men, many of whom are sick, because of past hardships and their wretched existence.

That medicines and delicacies be provided. The master-of-camp is sick, and I fear lest, with the advance of the rainy season, the sickness will continue to increase; for it cannot be alleviated by medicines and delicacies, because we have none.  This is a great pity.  I entreat your Lordship to have medicines and some delicacies provided for the sick, and clothing for the hospital.

That religious are not going there to furnish instruction.  Father Chirinos [40] came to this island with the sargento-mayor, and on his first sight of it was so discontented that for no other reason, he turned his back upon it, and was in so great a hurry to return that he declared that if a vessel were not given him immediately in which to leave, he would swim away.  He went away speaking ill of this place, and has caused great annoyance and wrong to these poor soldiers.  If a religious who ought to be happy with a hard life, and who ought to seek hardships in which to serve God better, refused those which might be offered him here, the soldiers, who are less perfect and less filled with God, will do but little.  Father Juan de Sanlucar asked me for leave likewise to go there with this vessel, in order to go to get a companion, as he could not stay here alone.  I did not grant it him.  If the fathers of the Society are to have this place in charge, it will be right for them to send religious.  If not, then they should say so, and your Lordship should request the ecclesiastical government to provide ministers.  The one here at present has labored to our great approbation and has set a good example.  But he is greatly grieved at being alone, and he is not without reason, for he has no one to whom to make his confession.

The ration given to these people is so small that it can only be endured in times of great stress.  Indeed it is doubtful whether a Spaniard could live on only one-half ganta of rice, without anything else; and even the Indian is unable to do so without having some fish with it.  For the future we need abundance of provisions; for, as I have noted, we cannot expect this land to furnish them, because it does not have any.  Your Lordship must have them provided in accordance with the accompanying memorandum.