Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/29

Rh beads for bartering. We hired three pilots and some sailors, and supplied ourselves, all at our own cost and risk, with ropes and anchors, casks for water, and other needs.

That we might not want for anything right and useful, by fair words and promises we persuaded a priest to join us, and also a treasurer appointed In the name of the king, so that, if we should discover new lands where gold, silver, and pearls were to be had, there might be among us a person to take charge of our king's fifth.

After we had met together, the one hundred and ten of us, and when everything had been properly ordered, we commended ourselves to God, and set out on our voyage from a harbor on the north coast of Cuba, on the 8th day of February, in the year 1517.

For a twelve days' sail we hovered near the coast, but afterwards we doubled Cape San Antonio and made for the open sea, steering toward the setting sun, wholly ignorant of the depth and currents of the water. We knew nothing, moreover, of what winds might prevail, until a terrible storm came down upon