Pedro Sarmiento, having returned to the ships with the pilots and his other companions, he visited the bread rooms and provision holds of the ships, for it had been reported to him that there had been disorder in his absence. Especially the Admiral had ordered the rations of bread for the soldiers to be increased. It had been 10 ounces, and he caused it to be increased to 1 pound for those who remained in the ship, without considering the future, or showing respect for the misery that Sarmiento and his companions were enduring in the boat.

It was known, from what transpired afterwards, that the sole object of Juan de Villalobos was to consume and make an end of the provisions quickly, so that we might be obliged to return to Chile, with the excuse that they returned for want of food, and that they could not go on without it. Thus he sought to make friends at the cost of the lives of those who were away working, that they might help in his evil schemes, as it afterwards became known. Pedro Sarmiento, learning that there had been undue consumption of provisions on board the Almiranta, inspected her, and put right what was amiss. He entrusted the keys, which the dispenser and storekeeper had kept, to one single person, namely the Chief Pilot, that the distribution might be made under his hand, and that he might have charge of the keys in serving out the rations.