"The 8 we weyed anker at Plimmouth and departed thence for Virginia.
"The 19 [June] we fell with Dominica, and the same evening we sayled betweene it and Guadalupe:
"The 21 the Fly-boat also fell with Dominica.
“The 22 we came to an anker at an Island called Santa Cruz, where all the planters were set on land, staying there till the 25 of the same moneth.”
At their first landing here a number of the company, men and women, ate freely of a “small fruit like green apples,” which they found in abundance, and soon were “fearfully troubled” with a burning in their mouths, and swelling of their tongues “so bigge that some of them could not speake.” The first night five great tortoise were caught, “some of them of such bignes that sixteene of our strongest men were tired with carying of one of them but from the seaside to our cabbins.” They sought a fit watering place, but found only a “standing ponde,” the water of which was so “evill” that many of the company fell sick from drinking it; while those who washed their faces with it in the morning before the sun had drawn off the corruption, suffered a burning sensation, and their faces became so swollen that their eyes were closed and they could not see in “five or sixe dayes, or longer.”
The next stopping place was “Cottea,” which was reached two days after leaving Santa Cruz, the pinnace arriving there before the admiral. Here they lay at anchor for a day and a night. Next they came to anchor at St. John’s, in “Musketos Bay.”
At this place three days were spent taking in fresh water, and “unprofitable,” since during their stay more “beere” was consumed than the “quantitie of the water came unto.” When they weighed anchor and were off again, two Irishmen of the company—"Darbie Glaven and Denice Carrell"—were left behind.
No more stops were permitted by Captain Ferdinando till they were off the coast of Florida. On the evening after the departure from Mosquito Bay they fell in with “Rosse Bay,” where Ferdinando had promised they should take in salt. White appointed “thirty shot, tenne pikes, and ten targets” to man the pinnace to go to the shore for this purpose, and they were about to start out when Ferdinando demurred. He was not sure, he now said, that this was really the place where the salt was to be obtained. Besides, if the pinnace should go she could not come back without peril till the next night. Meanwhile should a storm arise the admiral would be in danger of being cast away. While thus arguing, as the narrator avers, he had craftily got the ship into shoal water, and suddenly “dissembling great danger” he cried to the helmsman, “Bear up hard! Bear up hard!” So she went off, and they were “disappointed of salt by his meanes.” The next day, sailing along the west end of St. John, White desired to go ashore at “St. Germans Bay,” to gather young plants of oranges, lemons, plantans, and pines to set out in “Virginia.” These grew in plenty near the shore, as was well known to the governor and some of the other planters who had been with the first colony. But “our Simon” denied it, and refused to stop. He however promised to come to anchor at Hispaniola. There he would go ashore with the governor and other of the chief men, to see if he could speak with “his friend Alanson,”—the Spanish governor of Hispaniola,—by whom he hoped to be furnished with cattle, and all such things as they could have taken at St. John. The next day, the third of July, they came to Hispaniola. All that day they bore with the coast, and the next, and till noon of the following, but no preparation was made to land. When they had passed the place where “friend Alanson” dwelt, the governor demanded of the captain whether he intended to keep his promise. Whereupon Ferdinando coolly declared that it was to no purpose to touch at Hispaniola, for he had been told by Sir Walter Raleigh, who had it from the French ambassador, that the king of Spain had sent for Alanson to come to Spain: and Ferdinando really thought him dead.
So the next day they sailed out of sight of Hispaniola, and “haled off for Virginia.” Coming to the “Island Caycos” Ferdinando told of two good salt ponds here. Accordingly a landing was made, and the better part of a day spent in roaming about this isle: some of the company seeking the salt ponds which they did not find; others fowling; others hunting swans, “whereof we caught many.” The next land sighted was the Carolina coast. On July sixteenth they fell with the “main of Virginia.” Ferdinando took it to be the island of Croatoan, and came to anchor. But after riding here for two or three days he found out his mistake. Then setting sail again he bore farther along the coast. The following night “had not Captaine Stafford bene more carefull in looking out than our Simon Ferdinando, we had bene all cast away upon the beach called the Cape of Feare, for we were come within two cables length of it: such was the carelesnes and ignorance of our Master.”
On the twenty-second of July the ships were safe arrived at Hastorask.