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20th-26th of September, 1519

20 September: The fleet weighs anchor from Sanlúcar and shapes its course south-west. Three years pass before the Victoria returns.

26 September: The fleet reaches Tenerife in the Canaries.

2- Sanlúcar de Barrameda – Tenerife
Departure on September 20, 1519- Arrival September 26, 1519

Partimos de San Lúcar el 20 de septiembre, dirigiéndonos hacia el sudoeste, y el 26 llegamos a una de las islas Canarias, llamada Tenerife, situada en 28 grados de latitud septentrional. Detuvímonos ahí tres días en un sitio adecuado para procurarnos agua y leña: en seguida entramos en un puerto de la misma isla, llamado Monte-Rosso, donde pasamos dos días.

Nos contaron de esta isla un fenómeno singular, que en ella jamás llueve [los antiguos creían que no llovía nunca entre los trópicos], y que no hay ni fuente ni río, pero que crece un árbol grande cuyas hojas destilan continuamente gotas de un agua excelente, que se recoge en una cavidad al pie del árbol, donde los isleños van a coger el agua, y los animales, tanto domésticos como salvajes, a abrevarse. Una neblina espesa, que sin duda suministra el agua a las hojas, envuelve constantemente a este árbol.

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[9] We left that village called Sanlúcar on Tuesday, 20 September, of the same year, and took a southwest course, and on the twenty-sixth of the same month we reached an island of the Grand Canary islands, called Tenerife, which lies in a latitude of twenty-eight degrees, [landing there] in order to get meat, water, and wood. We stayed there for three and one-half days in order to furnish the fleet with those supplies, and then we went to a port of the same island called Monte Rosso to get pitch, staying [there] two days.

[10] Your most illustrious Lordship must know that among these Grand Canary islands, there is one where not a single drop of fresh water is to be found; but that at midday a cloud descends from the sky and encircles a large tree which grows in that island, the leaves and branches of which distil a great quantity of water; and at the foot of the tree runs a trench that resembles a fountain, where all the water falls, and from which the people living there, and the animals, both domestic and wild, amply satisfy themselves every day with this water and no other.

Nilisan namin ang naturang nayon, na may ngalang San Lucar, noong Martes, 20 Setyembre ng parehong taon, at tumahak ng isang timog-kanlurang landas. Noong ika-26 ng nasabing buwan, naratíng namin ang isang isla ng Gran Canaria, na may ngalang Teneriphe, na siyáng matatagpuan sa latitud na 28 digri, [at dumaong doon] upang kumuha ng karne, tubig, at kahoy. Namalagi kami doon nang tatlo at kalahating araw upang matustusan ang plota ng mga nasabing kagamitan. Pagkatapos ay nagtúngo kami sa isang pantalan ng parehong isla, na tinatawag na Monte Rosso, upang kumuha ng pitch, at namalagi [doon] nang dalawang araw. Kailangang mabatid ng inyong pinakabantog na Kamahalan na may natatanging isla sa Gran Canaria kung saan hindi ka makahahanap ng kahit isang patak ng tubig na umuusbong [mula sa bukal]; ngunit sa tanghali, may ulap na bumababa mula sa kalangitan at pumapalibot sa isang malaking punò na tumutubo sa nasabing isla, at siyáng may mga dahon at sanga na sumasala ng madaming tubig. Mayroong hukay sa paanan ng nasabing punò na mistulang bukal, kung saan nahuhulog lahat ng tubig, at kung saan lubos na nagpapapawi araw-araw sa tubig na ito at wala nang ibá ang mga táong naninirahan doon, pati ang mga hayop, parehong ang domestikado at ang ilahas.