They now began to find themselves in considerable doubt as to their position.

The Admiral said he was seventy-five leagues to the south of Flores; Vincenti Pinzon and the pilots thought that they had passed the Azores and were in the neighbourhood of Madeira.

In other words, there was a difference of 600 miles between their estimates, and the Admiral remarks that "the grace of God permitting, as soon as land is seen, it will be known who has calculated the surest." A great quantity of birds that began to fly about the ship made him think that they were near land, but they turned out to be the harbingers of a storm.

On Tuesday, February 12th, the sea and wind began to rise, and it continued to blow harder throughout that night and the next day.

The wind being aft he went under bare poles most of the night, and when day came hoisted a little sail; but the sea was terrible, and if he had not been so sure of the staunch little Nina he would have felt himself in danger of being lost.