ABSTRACT
At anchor in the port, we did not believe it could be true, thinking that what we were seeing with our eyes open was surely a dream. We were congratulating one another, still speaking fearfully of our past dangers and labours from the time we left India and the hopes we entertained for so long, the fulfilment of which we were now enjoying but did not fully believe to be true, finding ourselves in the port we had so much desired and for which we had yearned for so long a time. This day was a Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday, 48 days after we had set sail from the River of the Beach, during which time we experienced the variety of events and the adverse fortune which I have narrated up to this point. We sent word to the shore to report our misfortune to the Governor. 1 And since many of the ship were completely destitute, I offered all who would come to our college we had there a ration of bread flour, the ordinary food of all the people who live there, and fish or meat depending upon what day of the week it was. I felt bold enough to make this offer because of my desire to help those poor people, offering my services to find sustenance for them so that those whom God had preserved in the extraordinary dangers of the sea would not perish on land.
