CHAPTER XXVII

    How the President Vaca de Castro was in great need and danger from being unable to find the port of Buenaventura; and how, at the end of some days during which they were seeking the port, they sighted a ship in which there came Don Juan de Andagoya, who told them where the port was.

GREAT was the disappointment of those on board the ships when the boat's crew who had gone in search of the cross and the letter supposed to be deposited there reported their non-success. Vaca de Castro was very worried and depressed. He ordered another pilot to take the boat and some sailors, and see whether peradventure they could find the port, for the want of provisions was now such that with even but a little more delay, the danger would become very serious. So the pilot and boat's crew started a second time to seek for the port, with a limit of eight days within which to go and return. Although they went along coastwise, and entered several rivers that came down from the mountains into the sea, they could find no sign nor trace of a port, nor anything that might guide them. Being on the point of returning to the Isle of Palms, that Vaca de Castro might go back to Panamá by reason of the failure of provisions, they sighted two sails coming along the coast,[89] steering towards where the boat then was. They saw them anchor, and stow their sails, and the strangers then made towards them in their boats, for they were in the same predicament as themselves, as they had come from Nicaragua, and their pilots, having never been at Buenaventura, did not know the way to the port. They thought that those in the boat they had sighted would be able to guide them in the right direction. When the two parties heard from each other what they were after, they were greatly depressed. They agreed to make for that bay again, with all three boats, and see if they could find the port from thence. That night a great tempest arose, and they thought they must perish.

Meanwhile Vaca de Castro and the crews of the ships suffered much from want of food; when the boats were about to return, there came in sight a ship which had just left the port of Buenaventura. On board of her was Don Juan de Andagoya, son of the Adelantado Don Pascual de Andagoya. He was in search of the captain Cristóbal de Pe?as,[47] and was coming to seek an order from the Royal Audience of Panamá to the Adelantado Sebastián de Belalcázar to allow his father, who was held a prisoner, to depart freely whither he chose. When Don Juan came out of the mouth of the river and saw the other vessels, he got into the ship's boat and went to see who they were and what they wanted. There was a heavy sea, Don Juan lost the rudder, and if they had not come to his help he would have perished. When they heard from Don Juan that the port of Buenaventura was near, they were delighted, and hastened to carry the good news to where the President was. They told Don Juan there was no need for[90] him to go to Panamá, for that Vaca de Castro, who was hard by, was himself President of the Audience of Panamá, and could liberate Don Juan's father and compensate him for the injury done him. When Don Juan heard this he rejoiced, believing that since Vaca de Castro came with such very full and ample powers from his Majesty, as was stated, they would be most useful in the cause of the Adelantado his father, and in freeing him from the clutches of Belalcázar. So telling the boat's crews they must go up the river down which he had come, and that they would then quickly arrive at the port they sought, Don Juan, with his vessel, went on to the Isle of Palms, where he found the President. Vaca de Castro gave Don Juan a warrant, under his signature, by which Belalcázar was to release Andagoya from the prison in which he was confined. Vaca de Castro duly arrived at the port of Buenaventura,[48] whence he sent his secretary Merlo to notify to Belalcázar the order for the release of Andagoya, and to let him know that Vaca de Castro was coming to the kingdom of Peru by his Majesty's command. Here we will leave him and relate what happened at the city of the Kings.