Sunday, October 14, 1528
We are having a positive impact on the village and have been rewarded with full acceptance into the tribe now.
The storage of meat and vegetables in the village has improved since the carpenters worked together with the Waitaha, showing them the raised storage huts that we drew plans of in South America. There are numerous examples of these now standing in Whareakeake and I imagine that the idea has been taken up by some of our neighbours.
We cook many of our meals in the ways that we witnessed in South America also. This has been accepted by the villagers, who make a big event out of digging up the ground and burying the food under a pile of heated rocks. The sweet potato, fowl, and fish all have a wonderful taste when cooked like this. When I go about exploring the surrounding countryside now, and find myself thinking of home, it is of Whareakeake that I think and not of Spain. It is for that reason that upon the completion of the Caravel that we built, I did not accompany the twenty-six men who have commanded it in an effort to return to Spain. They have sailed south around the Isla de Sur and will make course for the Cape of Good Hope, by setting a course for her latitude and then following that line to the west. They have taken with them samples of the vegetables and trees found here and also copies of the charts we have made. I will pray daily for their safe return and that they may prove to the King the importance of further expeditions to this land.