TWO years! It was March, 1496, when he sailed in the _Nina_.

It was the summer of 1498 when Juan Lepe was sent as physician with two ships put forth from San Domingo by the Adelantado upon a rumor that the Portuguese had trespassed, landing from a great carrack upon Guadaloupe.
Five days from Hispaniola we met a hurricane that carried us out of all reckoning.

When stillness came again we were far south.

No islands were in sight; there was only the sea vast and blue.

There seemed to breathe from it a strangeness.