In This We Have Followed The Example Of The Editor Of Astley's
Collection, Because The Extract Given By Purchas Is Very Tedious, And
Often Hardly Intelligible.
This letter, dated from Porto Rico, 2d
October, 1601, gives no light whatever into the voyage itself, nor by
What accident the ships, which had set out for the East Indies, had come
into the West Indies; neither what became of the ships, nor the nature
of the sickness which had reduced their men to four, but wholly refers
to what passed after these sailors had quitted their ship, and landed on
the island of Utias, near Porto Rico. All these circumstances were
probably communicated in a former letter, alluded to in the commencement
of that which was intercepted, as it proceeds upon having received a
commission from the royal audience, to punish certain offenders who had
usurped a great quantity of property belonging to the King of Spain in
the island of Utias; the plunder taken by the English, and with which
these four men had landed in that island - E.
* * * * *
It appears by this letter, that three English ships bound for the East
Indies, belonging to Portugal, had captured three Portuguese ships, one
of them from Goa, from the captain of which they took a large rich
precious stone, which the captain had charge of for the King of Spain;
the particulars of which had been communicated the year before in a
letter from Alcasar to the king, together with a copy of the declaration
of one Thomas, of the goods he and his three companions had in the said
island of Utias. They had also many bags of ryals of eight and four,
intended for the pay of the garrison in a frontier castle of India, and
much more goods belonging to the Portuguese.
After this all the men died of some unexplained sickness, except four
men, whose names were Richard, Daniel, Thomas, and George. These men,
with all the jewels, money, and rich goods they could remove, put into a
river or bay of the island of Utias,[30] three leagues from Porto
Rico; where, after landing their goods, their boat sunk, and they
remained on that island with only a small boat made of boards, which
they had taken from some fishermen at Cape San Juan, the north-east
headland of Porto Rico. With that small boat they crossed over to Porto
Rico in search of water, and, on their return to Utias, left George
behind them on Porto Rico. He, being found by Don Rodrigo de Fuentes and
five others, gave information of all that had happened to them, and of
the large stone, jewels, gold, plate, testoons, and other rich goods
that were in the said island, and of the places where the other three
Englishmen and their goods might be found.
[Footnote 30: From the context, it would appear, that the island of
Utias is to the east of Porto Rico, among or towards the group called
the Virgin isles.
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