... and anticipation, "I could make concrete from the lava, and combined with rocks that must be cleared from the land to make it arable, have a nice castle." That would have to wait, however, as the old soldier, his family grown, his three wives passed, and the remaining six of fourteen members of his military staff surveyed the land in the mountain's shadow.

The flood of Ravenna in 1636 had been devastating, and in the ensuing confusion, decided to gather a few men, provisions, and a friend who'd been to... The New World.

Finding a ship or two was easy, as a Colonel commanded attention. Sailing it was someone else's job. As Visigoth learned of a ship's ways, his soldiers mingled with the crew only to be pressed into service for odd jobs to keep them occupied.

Thinking back on the voyage, he was glad he made land swiftly. "If God had wanted us at sea he would have given us gills," a comment that didn't exactly endear him to the ship's crew, and certainly not the captain. But there was no harbor to greet them, no throngs of anxious islanders to accompany to a tavern and spend the night. Just a rocky shore bordered by endless trees, the volcano on the horizon spewing forth puffs of steam.