"Is there any here who has any leechcraft ?" Beltran the cook said, "I can set a bone and wash a wound; but it ends there!" Cried Fernando from his corner.

"Is the plague among us!" The master turned on him.

"Here and now, I say five lashes for the man who says that word again! Has any man here sense about a plain fever ?" None else speaking, I said that long ago I had studied for a time with a leech, and that I was somewhat used to care of the sick.

"Then you are my man!" quoth the master, and forthwith took me to the Admiral.

I became Juan Lepe, the physician.
It was, I held, a fever received while wandering through the ravines and woods of Gomera.