e horizon, so that we had now lost sight not only of the Less but
of the Great Bear; and by the 3d of April we had got 500 leagues from the
place of our last departure[8]. On that day, 3d April, so fierce a tempest
arose at S.W. that we had to take in all our sails and scud under bare
poles, the sea running mountains high, and all our people in great fear.
The nights now were very long, as on the 7th April, when the sun is near
the sign of Aries, we found them to last fifteen hours, the winter now
beginning. While driving amid this tempest, we descried land on the 2d of
April[9] at about twenty leagues distance. We found this land altogether
barren, without harbours, and destitute of inhabitants, in my opinion
because the intense cold would render it almost impossible for any one to
live there[10].

We had undergone such fatigue and danger from this storm, that all now
agreed to return towards Portugal; yet on the following day we were
assailed by a fresh tempest of such violence that every one expected to be
overwhelmed by its fury. In this extremity, our sailors made many vows of
pilgrimages for their safety, and performed many ceremonies according to
the customs of sea-faring men. We were driven by this terrible storm for
five days without a single rag of sail in which time we proceeded 250
leagues on the ocean, approaching towards the equator, the temperature of
the sea and air always improving, till at length, by the cessation of the
storm, it pleased God to relieve us from our danger. In this course our
direction was towards the N.N.E. because we wished to attain the coast of
Africa, from which we were 1300 leagues distant across the Atlantic; and
by the blessing of the Almighty, we arrived on the 10th of May at that
province which is named _Sierra Leone_, where we remained fifteen days for
refreshments, and to rest ourselves from the fatigues of our long and
perilous voyage. From thence we steered for the Azores, distant 750
leagues from Sierra Leone, and arrived there near the end of July, where
likewise we stopped fifteen days for refreshments. We sailed hence for our
port of Lisbon, whence we were now 300 leagues distant to the west, and
arrived there by the aid of the Almighty in 1502[11], with two only of our
ships, having been forced to burn the other at Sierra Leone, as it was
incapable of being navigated any farther. During this third voyage we
were absent about sixteen months, eleven of which we had sailed