on some sharp rocks we had not seen.' Then, as now, I take it,
vigilance was not a noticeable quality in Spanish sailors.
Just as the vessels were almost on the rocks, `a cricket commenced to sing,
which cricket a sick soldier had put into the ship at Cadiz, being anxious
to hear its music, and for the two months which our navigation had endured
no one had heard it, whereat the soldier was much enraged;
and as on that morning it felt the land [`sintio la tierra'],
it commenced to sing, and its music wakened all the people of the ship,
who saw the cliffs, which were distant almost a crossbow-shot
from where we were, so we cast out anchors and saved the ship,
and it is certain that if the cricket had not sung all of us,
four hundred soldiers and thirty horses, had been lost.' Some of the crew
accepted the occurrence as a miracle from God; but Nunez himself
is silent on that head, being a better observer of natural history
than a theologian. But `from there, and sailing more than a hundred leagues
along the coast, the cricket every evening gave us his music,
and thus with it we arrived at a little port beyond Cape Frio,
where the Adelantado landed and unfurled his flag, and took possession
for His Majesty.' The expedition disembarked at Santa Catalina in Brazil.
`There the Governor landed his men and twenty-six of the horses
which had escaped the sea, all that remained of forty-six embarked in Spain.'
The `odium theologicum' gave the Governor some work at once.
Two friars -- Fray Bernardo de Armenta and Fray Alonso Lebron, Franciscans --
had burnt the houses of some Indians, who had retaliated
in the heathen fashion by slaughtering two Christians.
The `people being scandalized', the Governor sent for the friars,
admonished them, and told them to restrain their zeal.
This was the first false step he made, and set all friars and priests
throughout America against him. Hearing at Santa Catalina
that Buenos Ayres was almost abandoned, and that the inhabitants had founded