La Relación - page 107

La Relación - page 107

we departed from them. The Governor had given them orders that they should then all assemble in the ships and continue their journey directly in the direction of Panuco, always sailing along the coast and looking for the harbor the best way they could, so that, once they had found it, they could anchor in it and wait for us. At the time they were assembling on the ships, they say that everyone there clearly heard that woman tell the other women, whose husbands were going inland and exposing themselves to such great danger, that they should not count on their returning and ought to look for someone else to marry as she intended to do. She did so, and she and the other women married and cohabited with the men who remained on the ships.

After they departed from there, the ships sailed and followed their course, but did not find the harbor and turned back. Five leagues below where we had landed they found the harbor which stretched seven or eight leagues inland. It was the same one we had explored, where we had found the boxes from Castile mentioned above, containing the bodies of the men who were Christians. In this harbor and along this coast, the three ships, the brig and the other one that came from Havana went looking for us for nearly a year. Since they did not find us, they proceeded to New Spain. This harbor that we are talking about is the best in the world, stretching inland for a distance of seven or eight leagues. It is six fathoms deep at the entrance and five fathoms deep near land, with a fine sandy bottom. Within it there are no rough seas or strong storms, and it can accommodate many ships. There is a great quantity of fish in it. It is 100 leagues from Havana, a town of Christians in Cuba, on a north-south axis with this town. Here the winds are always fair and ships come and go from one place to the other in four days, with the wind on the quarter.

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