In which we hope your wisdom will
be satisfied, considering that as much by us hath been brought to light
as by those small means and number of men we had could anyway have been
expected or hoped for.
The tenth of May in this present year we arrived at the Canaries, and
the tenth of June we were fallen with the islands of the West Indies,
keeping a more southwesterly course than was needful, because we doubted
about the current of the Bay of Mexico, disboguing between the Cape of
Florida and Havana, had been of greater force than afterward we found it
to be. At which islands we found the air very unwholesome, and our men
grew for the most part ill-disposed: so that having refreshed ourselves
with sweet water and fresh victual, we departed the twelfth day of our
arrival here. These islands, with the rest adjoining, are so well known
to yourself, and to many others, as I will not trouble you with the
remembrance of them.
The second of July we found shoal water, where we smelt so sweet and so
strong a smell, as if we had been in the midst of some delicate garden,
abounding with all kind of odoriferous flowers; by which we were assured
that the land could not be far distant. And keeping good watch and
bearing but slack sail, the fourth of the same month we arrived upon the
coast, which we supposed to be a continent and firm land, and we sailed
along the same one hundred twenty English miles before we could find any
entrance, or river issuing into the sea.
Pages:
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375