Believing this land to be an Island, as the Pilot, Anton de Alaminos, had assured us that it was, we travelled with the greatest caution, sailing only by day and anchoring by night. After voyaging in this manner for fifteen days, we descried from the ship, what appeared to be a large town near to a great bay or creek, and we thought that there might be a river or stream there, where we could provide ourselves with water of which we had great need, because the casks and other vessels which we had brought with us, were not watertight. It was because our fleet was manned by poor men who had not money enough to purchase good casks and cables, that the water ran short. We had to land near the town, and as it was Sunday, the day of San Lazaro, we gave the town that name, and so it is marked on the charts, but its proper Indian name is Campeche.

In order that we could all of us land at the same time, we agreed to approach the shore in the smallest of the vessels, and in the three boats, with all our arms ready, so as not to be caught as we had been at Cape Catoche.

In these roadsteads and bays, the water shallows very considerably at low tide, so that we had to leave our ships anchored more than a league from the shore.