But Yet Our Captain, Alcalde
De Corte, There Presently Embarked Himself In A Small Ship Of
Threescore Ton, Or Thereabout,
Having also in company with him two
other small barques, and not past two hundred men in all, with whom
I
went as interpreter in his own ship, which, God knoweth, was but weak
and ill-appointed; so that for certain, if we had met with Captain
Drake, he might easily have taken us all.
We, being embarked, kept our course, and ran southward towards Panama,
keeping still as nigh the shore as we could; and leaving the land upon
our left hand, and having coasted thus for the space of eighteen or
twenty days, and were more to the south than Guatemala, we met at last
with other ships which came from Panama, of whom we were certainly
informed that he was clean gone off the coast more than a month before;
and so we returned back to Acapulco again, and there landed, our
captain being thereunto forced, because his men were very sore sea-
sick. All the while that I was at sea with them I was a glad man, for
I hoped that if we met with Master Drake we should all be taken, so
that then I should have been freed out of that danger and misery
wherein I lived, and should return to mine own country of England
again. But missing thereof, when I saw there was no remedy but that we
must needs come on land again, little doth any man know the sorrow and
grief that inwardly I felt, although outwardly I was constrained to
make fair weather of it.
And so, being landed, the next morrow after we began our journey
towards Mexico, and passed these towns of name in our way, as first the
town of Tuatepec, fifty leagues from Mexico; from thence to Washaca,
forty leagues from Mexico; from thence to Tepiaca, twenty-four leagues
from Mexico; and from thence to Lopueblo de Los Angelos, where is a
high hill which casteth out fire three times a day, which hill is
eighteen leagues directly west from Mexico; from thence we went to
Stapelata, eight leagues from Mexico, and there our captain and most of
his men took boat and came to Mexico again, having been forth about the
space of seven weeks, or thereabouts.
Our captain made report to the Viceroy what he had done, and how far he
had travelled, and that for certain he was informed that Captain Drake
was not to be heard of. To which the Viceroy replied and said, surely
we shall have him shortly come into our hands, driven on land through
necessity in some one place or other, for he, being now in these seas
of Sur, it is not possible for him to get out of them again; so that if
he perish not at sea, yet hunger will force him to land. And then
again I was commanded by the Viceroy that I should not depart from the
city of Mexico, but always be at my master's house in a readiness at an
hour's warning, whensoever I should be called for. Notwithstanding
that, within one month after, certain Spaniards going to Mecameca,
eighteen leagues from Mexico, to send away certain hides and
cuchionelio that they had there at their stantias, or dairy houses, and
my master having leave of the secretary for me to go with them, I took
my journey with them, being very well horsed and appointed; and coming
thither, and passing the time there at Mecameca certain days, till we
had certain intelligence that the fleet was ready to depart, I, not
being more than three days' journey from the port of St. John de Ullua,
thought it to be the meetest time for me to make an escape, and I was
the bolder presuming upon my Spanish tongue, which I spake as naturally
as any of them all, thinking with myself that when I came to St. John
de Ullua I would get to be entertained as a soldier, and so go home
into Spain in the same fleet; and, therefore, secretly one evening
late, the moon shining fair, I conveyed myself away, and riding so for
the space of two nights and two days, sometimes in, and sometimes out,
resting very little all that time, upon the second day at night I came
to the town of Vera Cruz, distant from the port of St. John de Ullua,
where the ships rode, but only eight leagues; and here purposing to
rest myself a day or two, I was no sooner alighted but within the space
of one half hour after I was by ill hap arrested, and brought before
justices there, being taken and suspected to be a gentleman's son of
Mexico that was run away from his father. So I, being arrested and
brought before the justices, there was a great hurly-burly about the
matter, every man charging me that I was the son of such a man,
dwelling in Mexico, which I flatly denied, affirming that I knew not
the man; yet would they not believe me, but urged still upon me that I
was he that they sought for, and so I was conveyed away to prison. And
as I was thus going to prison, to the further increase of my grief, it
chanced that at that very instant there was a poor man in the press
that was come to town to sell hens, who told the justices that they did
me wrong, and that in truth he knew very well that I was an Englishman,
and no Spaniard. Then they demanded of him how he knew that, and
threatened him that he said so for that he was my companion, and sought
to convey me away from my father, so that he also was threatened to be
laid in prison with me. He, for the discharge of himself, stood
stiffly in it that I was an Englishman, and one of Captain Hawkins's
men, and that he had known me wear the San Benito in the Black Friars
at Mexico for three or four whole years together; which when they heard
they forsook him, and began to examine me anew, whether that speech of
his were true, yea or no; which when they perceived that I could not
deny, and perceiving that I was run from Mexico, and came thither of
purpose to convey myself away with the fleet, I was presently committed
to prison with a sorrowful heart, often wishing myself that that man
which knew me had at that time been further off.
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