"Excellency!"--
"Juan Lepe, I am as glad of you as of a brother!--And
what do you do, senors, here?"
Luis Mendez related. "I think it false news about the
Portuguese," said the Admiral and gave reasons why. "Then
shall we keep with you, sir?"
"No, since you are sent out by my brother and must give
him account. Have you water to spare? We will take that
from you. I am bound still south. I will find out what is
there!"
Further talk disclosed that he had left Spain with six
ships, but at the Canaries had parted his fleet in two, sending
three under Alonzo de Caravajal upon the straight
course to Hispaniola, and himself with three sailing first to
the Green Cape islands, and thence southwest into an unknown
sea.
So desolate, wide and blue it looked when the next day we
parted,--two ships northward, three southward! But Juan
Lepe stayed with the _Esperanza_ and the Admiral. As long
since, between the _Santa Maria_ and the _Pinta_, there had been
exchange of physicians, so now again was exchange between
the _Santa Cruz_ and the _Esperanza_.
Days of blue sea. The _Esperanza_ carried a somewhat
frank and friendly crew of mariners and adventurers. Now
he would sail south, he said, until he was under the Equator.
Days of stark blue ocean. Then out of the sea to the south
rose a point of land, becoming presently three points, as it
were three peaks.
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