_ 27 _ The following Saturday we passed by the final padrão, and just as we were sailing along the coast, we saw two men running on the beach, in the opposite direction to the route we were following. This country is very pleasing and quiet, and we saw a lot of cattle wandering about ashore, and the more we advanced the better the land became and the taller the trees. The following night we lay to, since we were beyond the Rio do Infante [Great Fish River], which was the last place that Bartolomeu Dias discovered. The next day we sailed with the wind astern, skirting the coast until the hour of vespers when the wind sprang up to the east of us and we made out to sea. We proceeded to tack seaward and landward until nearly sunset on Tuesday, when the wind veered to the west. Because of this we lay to that night, so that the next day we might recognise the land or in what roadstead we were. When morning came, we made straight for land and at ten o'clock we found ourselves off the island of St. Croix, which was sixty leagues short of where we were heading. This was caused by the currents, which are very strong there. That same day, we again proceeded by the route that we had already sailed, helped by a strong following wind that lasted three or four days, and we overcame the currents, which we had greatly feared would not allow us
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy