Having At Length Procured The Necessary Orders, He Proceeded To Seville,
And There The Fitting Out Of His Fleet Was
Retarded very unprofitably
through the negligence and ill management of the public officers,
especially Juan de Fonseca, the archdeacon of
Seville, who was afterwards
bishop of Burgos, and always was a bitter enemy to the admiral and his
affairs, and became the chief leader among those who afterwards brought
him into disgrace with their Catholic majesties. While engaged at Seville
in superintending the equipment, that my brother and I might not suffer by
the delays, we having both served as pages to Prince John, who was now
dead, he sent us back to court in November 1497 to serve as pages to her
majesty Queen Isabella of glorious memory.
SECTION IX.
Account of the Admirals third Voyage, during which he discovered the
Continent of Paria; with the occurrences to his arrival in Hispaniola.
The admiral forwarded the equipment of this expedition with all possible
care, and set sail from the bay of San Lucar de Barameda on the thirtieth
of May 1498, having six ships loaded with provisions and other necessaries
for the relief of the colonists in Hispaniola, and for the farther
settlement and peopling of that island. On the seventh of June he arrived
at the island of Puerto Santo, where he heard mass, and took in wood and
water and other necessaries, yet he sailed that same night for Madeira,
where he arrived on Sunday the ninth of June, and was courteously received
and entertained at Funchal by the governor of the island. He remained in
this place until Saturday the fifteenth of June, providing all manner of
refreshments, and arrived at Gomera on Wednesday the nineteenth of the
same month. At this place there was a French ship which, had captured
three Spanish vessels; on seeing the admirals squadron, the Frenchman
stood out to sea with two of his prizes: and the admiral supposing them to
be three merchant vessels which mistook his squadron for French, took no
care to pursue till too late, and when informed of what they were, he sent
three of his ships in pursuit but they got clear off. They might have
carried away the third prize likewise, if they had not abandoned her in
the consternation they were in on first noticing our fleet; so that there
being only four Frenchmen on board and six Spaniards belonging to her
original crew, the Spaniards on seeing assistance at hand, clapt the
Frenchmen under the hatches and returned into port, where the vessel was
restored to her former master. The admiral would have executed these
French prisoners as pirates, but that Don Alvaro de Lugo the governor
interceded for them, that they might be given in exchange for six of the
inhabitants who had been carried away.
The admiral sailed from Gomera for Ferro on Thursday the twenty-first of
June, whence he resolved to send three of his ships direct to Hispaniola,
and going with the rest to the islands of Cabo Verde to sail directly over
from thence to discover the continent.
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