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misfortunes by many who already were beginning to murmur that Narvaez had always been an ill-starred leader.17 Suffering many privations because of the lack of supplies and the torn condition of the country after the storm, the survivors were at last relieved by the appearance of Narvaez with four ships on November 5, 1527. He, too, had been through a severe storm, but the ships had managed to enter a safe port which saved them from destruction. The men were so filled with fear, that they begged the commander to postpone the departure for the new lands until the spring. The expedition moved to the port of Xagua, where Garay had been, which was twelve leagues distant from Trinidad and there they spent the winter. Narvaez attempt to settle 011 Rio de las Palma.s. On February 20, I 528, Narvaez, who had gone to Trinidad to purchase a vessel, joined the expedition. He brought with him a sailor named Diego Miruelo, a nephew of Ayllon's former pilot, who was said to have been to the Rio de las Palmas with Garay and to be thoroughly acquainted with all the coast from Panuco to Florida. It seems it was the purpose of Narvaez to make his way directly to the Rio de las Palmas and to establish the settlement which Garay, Guzman and Cortes had vainly attempted in this region. The employment of Miruelo on the strength of his former experience on this coast and his visit to the river, clearly indicates the objective of the expedition. Two days later, on February 22, the four vessels and one brigantine, with about four hundred men, and eighty-two horses, set sail for the Rio de las Palmas. But fate was against them. The second day out Miruelo led the little fleet into the shoals called Canarreo, where they remained stranded for fifteen days, until a storm came to their rescue and removed them forcefully from their predicament. Continuing their western course along the south coast of Cuba they finally reached the Cape of San Antonio, on the western extremity of the island, the same point which Garay touched on his way to the Rio de las Palmas. 17 The details summarized here are based on the two editions of the Naufragios, I 542 and 1555, as translated respectively by Fanny Bandelier and Hodge. For the sake of brevity, Bandelier, The Journey of Alva, N,,,iez Cabeza de Vaca and His Companions from Florida to tlie Pacific, 1528-1536, translated from his own nar- rative by Fanny Bandelier (Trail Makers Series, New York, 1905), and Tlte Nar- rative of Alva, Nu,iez Cabeza de Vaca, edited by F. W. Hodge, in Spanisl, E x plor- ers in Southern United States, 1528-1543 (New York, 1907), will be referred to as Bandelier and Hodge respectively. Use has been made also of the Relacion in Documentos lneditos, Vol. 14, 269-279, and Herrera, Historia, Dec. iv, Lib. ii, Cap. iv. In every instance the Spanish ori~nals have been consulted also.
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