and that the men should be saved, although with considerable risk of
life. Moreover, after both privations and shipwreck had happened to
them in a land where they had neither refuge nor refreshment, they
had to deal with the most brutish and least civilized tribe of people
ever seen hitherto. Our men experienced great difficulty with those
people, because of their utter barbarism and their savage manner of
fighting. God, who brought them to this port, protected them, showing
them his divine clemency and pity. May He give us grace to serve Him,
and may He keep us in your Majesty's service.

There arrived at this island, where we had settled in your Majesty's
name, Gonzalo Pereira with the fleet (of which we sent your Majesty
news by the _patache_ "San Juan"). He arrived on the second of October
of the year five hundred and sixty-eight; and he came thus, with
four galleons and six small galleys, which took position near this
your Majesty's camp, after having gone through certain formalities
and requisitions, as your Majesty will see by these letters. [4]
The said blockade lasted three months, during which they made war on
us, not as on Christians, and your Majesty's vassals, but as against
infidels and tyrants. They uttered all the insults and inflicted on
us all the humiliations that they could, taking away from us the
entrances to the harbors, whence came our provisions, and burning the
houses and possessions of our neighboring friends--which certainly
gave these pagan natives a great notion of cruelty, seeing that
with such wicked ways and such cruelty the Portuguese were trying
to hurt and annoy us. And in this way, seeing that by fighting they
might lose more than they would gain, they did not care to fight,
but resolved to take, on the side toward the sea, the harbor entrances
(which are two) with their ships, as they were fully aware that we had
nothing with which to resist them. Accordingly, they kept us shut up;