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Updated: May 15, 2025
At dawn the Almiranta was 3 leagues to windward, and at three in the afternoon she and the launch were near the port...The force of the wind was increasing, and the night was near, owing to which the pilot* ordered that if they could not reach the port, they were to anchor wherever it was possible. The night came on very dark. The Almiranta and the launch appeared to have anchored.
The men begged the governor Dona Ysabel Barreto to take them out of the country. All agreed to embark, and by the mercy of God, we left this port on Saturday, the eighteenth of the said month, and sailed southwest by west toward the island of San Cristoval or rather in search of it, to see whether we could find it or the almiranta, in accordance with the governor's orders.
Having entered the South Sea through the strait of Magallanes, three of the five ships had been lost, and these two, the flagship and the almiranta coasted along Chile, where they captured two vessels.
He took four ships, two large ones a flagship and an almiranta a frigate, and a galliot, with four hundred men in all. He was also accompanied by his wife, Dona Ysabel Barreto and his three brothers-in-law. The adelantado, two of his brothers-in-law, and many of his people died there.
With these winds we continued to sail always in the said direction, never going above eleven or below ten degrees, until Tuesday, August twenty-nine, when we discovered a round islet, of about one legua in circumference, surrounded by reefs. We tried to land there, so that the almiranta could take on wood and water, of which there was great need, but could find no landing-place.
The flagship, in which Don Rodrigo de Mendoca was sailing as general and captain, reached Nueva Espana quickly with this news. The almiranta, notwithstanding that it left the islands at the same time, delayed more than six months. Eighty persons who perished from disease were buried in the sea, while many others stricken by the disease died of it upon landing at the port of Acapulco.
All the natives of this island were not equally well disposed towards the Spaniards, for the boatswain's mate of the Almiranta was wounded in one cheek by an arrow: certain natives being envious of the friendship of the others, or being enraged because, when they called to the Spaniards, they did not care to stop and speak with them, shot off arrows, and had an answer from muskets.
Four canoes with unarmed natives came to the Almiranta, and made signs to offer to take him into port. Seeing that the Spaniards did not wish it, they made presents of cocoanuts and other fruits. Having received a good return, they went back to their island.
De Quiros carried the king's instructions to Peru, and two ships were soon prepared and filled with suitable crews the Capitana and the Almiranta, with a smaller vessel called the Zabra to act as tender.
The almiranta, after having been refitted, left Cagayan, made the same voyage in the same storm, and anchored near the flagship, where it was lost with some men and its entire cargo. The flagship did its best to rescue those who escaped from the almiranta, and although the former kept afloat several days, at length it grounded near the coast.
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