From Thence We Departed For Cartagena, Where
The Governor Was So Strait That We Could Not Obtain Any Traffic There,
And so for that our trade was near finished, our General thought it
best to depart from thence the rather
For the avoiding of certain
dangerous storms called the huricanoes, which accustomed to begin there
about that time of the year, and so the 24th of July, 1568, we departed
from thence, directing our course north, leaving the islands of Cuba
upon our right hand, to the eastward of us, and so sailing towards
Florida, upon the 12th of August an extreme tempest arose, which dured
for the space of eight days, in which our ships were most dangerously
tossed, and beaten hither and thither, so that we were in continual
fear to be drowned, by reason of the shallowness of the coast, and in
the end we were constrained to flee for succour to the port of St. John
de Ullua, or Vera Cruz, situated in nineteen degrees of latitude, and
in two hundred and seventy-nine degrees of longitude, which is the port
that serveth for the city of Mexico. In our seeking to recover this
port our General met by the way three small ships that carried
passengers, which he took with him, and so the 16th of September, 1568,
we entered the said port of St. John de Ullua. The Spaniards there,
supposing us to have been the King of Spain's fleet, the chief officers
of the country thereabouts came presently aboard our General, where
perceiving themselves to have made an unwise adventure, they were in
great fear to have been taken and stayed; howbeit our General did use
them all very courteously.
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