to which the chaplain himself was subjected. "I was offered the service
of a chapel where I should have got a _peso_ for every mass I said, the
whole year round; but I did not accept it, for fear that what I hear
said of the other three would be said of me. Besides, it is not a place
where one can hope for any great advancement, and I wished to try
whether, in refusing a benefice for the love of the Lord, He will not
repay me with some other stroke of fortune before the end of the voyage;
for it is my aim to serve God and His blessed Mother."

The original design had been to rendezvous at Havana, but, with the
Adelantado, the advantages of despatch outweighed every other
consideration. He resolved to push directly for Florida. Five of his
scattered ships had by this time rejoined company, comprising, exclusive
of officers, a force of about five hundred soldiers, two hundred
sailors, and one hundred colonists. Bearing northward, he advanced by an
unknown and dangerous course along the coast of Hayti and through the
intricate passes of the Bahamas. On the night of the twenty-sixth, the
San Pelayo struck three times on the shoals; "but," says the chaplain,
"inasmuch as our enterprise was undertaken for the sake of Christ and
His blessed Mother, two heavy seas struck her abaft, and set her afloat
again."

At length the ships lay becalmed in the Bahama Channel, slumbering on
the dead and glassy sea, torpid with the heats of a West-Indian August.
Menendez called a council of the commanders. There was doubt and
indecision. Perhaps Ribaut had already reached the French fort, and then
to attack the united force would be a stroke of desperation. Far better
to await their lagging comrades. But the Adelantado was of another mind;
and, even had his enemy arrived, he was resolved that he should have no
time to fortify himself.