All the people in the squadron being utterly unacquainted with the seas they now traversed, fearful of their danger at such unusual distance from any relief, and seeing nothing around but sky and water, began to mutter among themselves, and anxiously observed every appearance. On the nineteenth September, a kind of sea-gull called alcatraz flew over the admiral's ship, and several others were seen in the afternoon of that day, and as the admiral conceived that these birds would not fly far from land, he entertained hopes of soon seeing what he was in quest of. He therefore ordered a line of 200 fathoms to be tried, but without finding any bottom. The current was now found to set to the south-west.

On Thursday the twentieth of September, two alcatrazes came near the ship about two hours before noon, and soon afterwards a third. On this day likewise they took a bird resembling a heron, of a black color with a white tuft on its head, and having webbed feet like a duck. Abundance of weeds were seen floating in the sea, and one small fish was taken. About evening three land birds settled on the rigging of the ship and began to sing. These flew away at day-break, which was considered a strong indication of approaching the land, as these little birds could not have come from any far distant country; whereas the other large fowls, being used to water, might much better go far from land. The same day an alcatraz was seen.

Friday the twenty-first another alcatraz and a rabo de-junco were seen, and vast quantities of weeds as far as the eye could carry towards the north. These appearances were sometimes a comfort to the people, giving them hopes of nearing the wished-for land; while at other times the weeds were so thick as in some measure to impede the progress of the vessels, and to occasion terror lest what is fabulously reported of St. Amaro in the frozen sea, might happen to them, that they might be so enveloped in the weeds as to be unable to move backwards or forwards; wherefore they steered away from those shoals of weeds as much as they could.

Next day, being Saturday the twenty-second September, they saw a whale and several small birds. The wind now veered to the south-west, sometimes more and sometimes less to the westwards ; and though this was adverse to the direction of their proposed voyage, the admiral to comfort the people alleged that this was a favorable circumstance ; because among other causes of fear, they had formerly said they should never have a wind to carry them back to Spain, as it had always blown from the east ever since they left Ferro. They still continued, however, to murmur, alleging that this south-west wind was by no means a settled one, and as it never blew strong enough to swell the sea, it would not serve to carry them back again through so great an extent of sea as they had now passed over. In spite of every argument used by the admiral, assuring them that the alterations in the wind were occasioned by the vicinity of the land, by which likewise the waves were prevented from rising to any height, they were still dissatisfied and terrified.

On Sunday the twenty-third of September, a brisk gale sprung up W. N. W. with a rolling sea, such as the people had wished for. Three hours before noon a turtle-dove was observed to fly over the ship; towards evening an alcatraz, a river fowl, and several white birds were seen flying about, and some crabs were observed among the weeds. Next day another alcatraz was seen and several small birds which came from the west. Numbers of small fishes were seen swimming about, some of which were struck with harpoons, as they would not bite at the hook.

The more that the tokens mentioned above were observed, and found not to be followed by the so anxiously looked-for land, the more the people became fearful of the event, and entered into cabals against the admiral, who they said was desirous to make himself a great lord at the expense of their danger. They represented that they had already sufficiently performed their duty in adventuring farther from land and all possibility of succor than had ever been done before, and that they ought not to proceed on the voyage to their manifest destruction. If they did they would soon have reason to repent their temerity, as provisions would soon fall short, the ships were already faulty and would soon fail, and it would be extremely difficult to get back so far as they had already gone. None could condemn them in their own opinion for now turning back, but all must consider them as brave men for having gone upon such an enterprise and venturing so far. That the admiral was a foreigner who had no favor at court; and as so many wise and learned men had already condemned his opinions and enterprise as visionary and impossible, there would be none to favor or defend him, and they were sure to find more credit if they accused him of ignorance and mismanagement than he would do, whatsoever he might now say for himself against them. Some even proceeded so far as to propose, in case the admiral should refuse to acquiesce in their proposals, that they might make a short end of all disputes by throwing him overboard; after which they could give out that he had fallen over while making his observations, and no one would ever think of inquiring into the truth. They thus went on day after day, muttering, complaining, and consulting together; and though the admiral was not fully aware of the extent of their cabals, he was not entirely without apprehensions of their inconstancy in the present trying situation, and of their evil intentions towards him. He therefore exerted himself to the utmost to quiet their apprehensions and to suppress their evil design, sometimes using fair words, and at other times fully resolved to expose his life rather than abandon the enterprise; he put them in mind of the due punishment they would subject themselves to if they obstructed the voyage. To confirm their hopes, he recapitulated all the favorable signs and indications which had been lately observed, assuring them that they might soon expect to see the land. But they, who were ever attentive to these tokens, thought every hour a year in their anxiety to see the wished-for land.

On Tuesday the twenty-fifth of September near sun-set, as the admiral was discoursing with Pinzon, whose ship was then very near, Pinzon suddenly called out, "Land! land, Sir! let not my good news miscarry ; and pointed out a large mass in the S. W. about twenty-five leagues distant, which seemed very like an island. This was so pleasing to the people, that they returned thanks to God for the pleasing discovery; and, although the admiral was by no means satisfied of the truth of Pinion's observation, yet to please the men, and that they might not obstruct the voyage, he altered his course and stood in that direction a great part of the night. Next morning, the twenty-sixth, they had the mortification to find the supposed land was only composed of clouds, which often put on the appearance of distant land; and, to their great dissatisfaction, the stems of the ships were again turned directly westwards, as they always were unless when hindered by the wind. Continuing their course, and still attentively watching for signs of land, they saw this day an alcatraz, a rabo-de-junco, and other birds as formerly mentioned.

On Thursday the twenty-seventh of September they saw another alcatraz coming from the westwards and flying towards the east, and great numbers of fish were seen with gilt backs, one of which they struck with a harpoon. A rabo-de-junco likewise flew past; the currents for some of the last days were not so regular as before, but changed with the tide, and the weeds were not nearly so abundant.

On Friday the twenty-eighth all the vessels took some of the fishes with gilt backs ; and on Saturday the twenty-ninth they saw a rabo-de-junco, which, although a sea-fowl, never rests on the waves, but always flies in the air, pursuing the alcatrazes. Many of these birds are said to frequent the Cape de Verd islands. They soon afterwards saw two other alcatrazes, and great numbers of flying-fishes. These last are about a span long, and have two little membranous wings like those of a bat, by means of which they fly about a pike-length high from the water and a musket-shot in length, and sometimes drop upon the ships. In the afternoon of this day they saw abundance of weeds lying in length north and south, and three alcatrazes pursued by a rabo-de-junco.

On the morning of Sunday the thirtieth of September four ratio-de-juncos came to the ship; and from so many of them coming together it was thought the land could not be far distant, especially as four alcatrazes followed soon afterwards. Great quantities of weeds were seen in a line stretching from W. N. W. to E. N. E. and a great number of the fishes which are called emperadores, which have a very hard skin and are not fit to eat. Though the admiral paid every attention to these indications, he never neglected those in the heavens, and carefully observed the course of the stars. He was now greatly surprised to notice at this time that the Charles's Wain or Ursa Major constellation appeared at night in the west, and was N. E. in the morning: He thence concluded that their whole night's course was only nine hours, or so many parts in twenty-four of a great circle; and this he observed to be the case regularly every night. It was likewise noticed that the compass varied a whole point to the N. W. at nightfall, and came due north every morning at day-break. As this unheard-of circumstance confounded and perplexed the pilots, who apprehended danger in these strange regions and at such unusual distance from home, the admiral endeavored to calm their fears by assigning a cause for this wonderful phenomenon : He alleged that it was occasioned by the polar star making a circuit round the pole, by which they were not a little satisfied.

Soon after sunrise on Monday the first of October, an alcatraz came to the ship, and two more about ten in the morning, and long streams of weeds floated from east to west. That morning the pilot of the admiral's ship said that they were now 578 leagues west from the island of Ferro. In his public account the admiral said they were 584 leagues to the west; but in his private journal he made the real distance 707 leagues, or 129 more than was reckoned by the pilot. The other two ships differed much in their computation from each other and from the admiral's pilot. The pilot of the Nina in the afternoon of the Wednesday following said they had only sailed 540 leagues, and the pilot of the Pinta reckoned 634. Thus they were all much short of the truth; but the admiral winked at the gross mistake, that the men, not thinking themselves so far from home, might be the less dejected.