told them that what was most wanting for the voyage
was water; that they would go near the coast to
take it, and thence they would proceed on their
course; that the negro Babo agreed to it; and
the deponent steered towards the intermediate ports,
hoping to meet some Spanish, or foreign vessel that
would save them; that within ten or eleven days
they saw the land, and continued their course
by it in the vicinity of Nasca; that the deponent
observed that the negroes were now restless and mutinous,
because he did not effect the taking in of water,
the negro Babo having required, with threats,
that it should be done, without fail, the following
day; he told him he saw plainly that the coast was
steep, and the rivers designated in the maps were not
to be found, with other reasons suitable to the
circumstances; that the best way would be to go
to the island of Santa Maria, where they might
water easily, it being a solitary island, as the foreigners
did; that the deponent did not go to Pisco, that
was near, nor make any other port of the coast,
because the negro Babo had intimated to him several
times, that he would kill all the whites the very
moment he should perceive any city, town, or settlement
of any kind on the shores to which they should
be carried: that having determined to go
to the island of Santa Maria, as the deponent
had planned, for the purpose of trying whether, on
the passage or near the island itself, they could
find any vessel that should favor them, or whether
he could escape from it in a boat to the neighboring
coast of Arruco, to adopt the necessary means he immediately
changed his course, steering for the island; that the
negroes Babo and Atufal held daily conferences,
in which they discussed what was necessary for
their design of returning to Senegal, whether
they were to kill all the Spaniards, and particularly
the deponent; that eight days after parting from the
coast of Nasca, the deponent being on the watch
a little after day-break, and soon after the negroes
had their meeting, the negro Babo came to the
place where the deponent was, and told him that he
had determined to kill his master, Don Alexandro Aranda,
both because he and his companions could not otherwise
be sure of their liberty, and that to keep the
seamen in subjection, he wanted to prepare a warning
of what road they should be made to take did they
or any of them oppose him; and that, by means of the
death of Don Alexandro, that warning would best
be given; but, that what this last meant, the
deponent did not at the time comprehend, nor could
not, further than that the death of Don Alexandro was
intended; and moreover the negro Babo proposed
to the deponent to call the mate Raneds, who was
sleeping in the cabin, before the thing was done,
for fear, as the deponent understood it, that the
mate, who was a good navigator, should be killed
with Don Alexandro and the rest; that the deponent,
who was the friend, from youth, of Don Alexandro,
prayed and conjured, but all was useless; for