_ 108 _ Hope. Those of us who arrived thus far were strong and healthy though, at times, half dead from the chill of the powerful winds that we experienced there in that land. As the cold was intense, we felt it even more, having come from a hot country. We continued on our way, very keen to arrive home, and we sailed with a following wind that lasted for a good twenty-seven days, so that it left us at a fine roadstead on the island of Santiago. According to the navigation maps the furthest we could have been from home was a hundred leagues, and some thought we were already nearly there. Here the wind died down and the one that replaced it was very light and from the front. We were aware of where we were, because of the noise of the thunder that came to us from land, so we sailed as near the wind as we could, and on Thursday, 25 April, we had soundings of thirty-five fathoms. We followed this route the whole day and although the shallowest sounding was twenty fathoms, we were unable to see land. The pilots said we were among the shoals of the Rio Grande. [The narrative ends abruptly here].
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