ined there fifteen
days, kept in by stress of weather, and when I fancied my troubles were
at an end, I found them only begun. It was then that I changed my
resolution with respect to proceeding to the mines, and proposed doing
something in the interim, until the weather should prove more favorable
for my voyage.[399-4] I had already made four leagues when the storm
recommenced, and wearied me to such a degree that I absolutely knew not
what to do; my wound reopened, and for nine days my life was despaired
of; never was the sea seen so high, so terrific, and so covered with
foam; not only did the wind oppose our proceeding onward, but it also
rendered it highly dangerous to run in for any headland, and kept me in
that sea which seemed to me as a sea of blood, seething like a cauldron
on a mighty fire. Never did the sky look more fearful; during one day and
one night it burned like a furnace, and every instant I looked to see if
my masts and my sails were not destroyed; these flashes came with such
alarming fury that we all thought the ships must have been consumed. All
this time the waters from heaven never ceased, not to say that it rained,
for it was like a repetition of the deluge. The men were at this time so
crushed in spirit that they longed for death as a deliverance from so
many martyrdoms. Twice already had the ships suffered loss in boats,
anchors, and rigging, and were now lying bare without sails.

When it pleased our Lord, I returned to Puerto Gordo,[400-1] where I
recruited my condition as well as I could. I then once more turned
towards Veragua; for my voyage, although I was [ready] for it, the wind
and current were still contrary.[400-2] I arrived at nearly the same spot
as before, and there again the wind and currents still opposed my
progress; and once again I was compelled to put into port, not daring to
await the opposition of Saturn[400-3] with Mars so tossed on an exposed
coast; for it almost always brings on a tempest or severe weather. This
was on Christmas-day, about the hour of mass.

Thus, after all these fatigues, I had once more to return to the spot
from whence I started; and when the new year had set in, I returned again
to my task: but although I had fine weather for my voyage, the ships were
no longer in a sailing condition, and my people were either dying or very
sick. On the day of the Epiphany,[400-4] I reached Veragua in a state of
exhaustion; there, by our Lord's goodness, I found a