Calling to their attention the distance they had sailed, he sent round a written declaration for the signature of every person on the ships.

Every man and boy put his name to it.

It expressed their certainty that they were on the cape which made the end of the eastern Indies, and that any one who chose could proceed thence westward to Spain by land.

This extraordinary declaration was attested officially by a notary, and still exists.
It was executed in a bay at the extreme southwestern corner of Cuba.

It has been remarked by Munoz, that at that moment, in that place, a ship boy at the masthead could have looked over the group of low islands and seen the open sea, which would have shown that Cuba was an island.
The facts, which were controlling, were these, that the vessels were leaky and the crews sick and discontented.