The Morrow After Being Friday, We Laboured On All Sides In Placing The English Ships By Themselves And The Spanish Ships By Themselves; The Captains And Inferior Persons Of Either Part Offering And Showing Great Courtesy One To Another, And Promising Great Amity Upon All Sides.

Howbeit, as the sequel showed, the Spaniards meant nothing less upon their parts.

For the Viceroy and the governor thereabout had secretly on land assembled to the number of one thousand chosen men, and well appointed, meaning the next Thursday, being the 24th of September, at dinner time to assault us, and set upon us on all sides. But before I go any further, I think it not amiss briefly to describe the manner of the island as it then was, and the force and strength that it is now of. For the Spaniards, since the time of our General's being there, for the better fortifying of the same place, have upon the same island built a fair castle and bulwark very well fortified; this port was then, at our being there, a little island of stones, not past three foot above water in the highest place, and not past a bow's shot over any way at the most, and it standeth from the mainland two bow-shots or more, and there is not in all this coast any other place for ships safely to arrive at; also the north winds in this coast are of great violence and force, and unless the ships be safely moored in, with their anchors fastened in this island, there is no remedy, but present destruction and shipwreck. All this our General, wisely foreseeing, did provide that he would have the said island in his custody, or else the Spaniards might at their pleasure have but cut our cables, and so with the first north wind that blew we had had our passport, for our ships had gone ashore. But to return to the matter. The time approaching that their treason must be put in practice, the same Thursday morning, some appearance thereof began to show itself, as shifting of weapons from ship to ship, and planting and bending their ordnance against our men that warded upon the land with great repair of people; which apparent shows of breach of the Viceroy's faith caused our General to send one to the Viceroy to inquire of him what was meant thereby, who presently sent and gave order that the ordnance aforesaid and other things of suspicion should be removed, returning answer to our General in the faith of a Viceroy that he would be our defence and safety from all villainous treachery. This was upon Thursday, in the morning. Our General not being therewith satisfied, seeing they had secretly conveyed a great number of men aboard a great hulk or ship of theirs of nine hundred tons, which ship rode hard by the Minion, he sent again to the Viceroy Robert Barret, the master of the Jesus - a man that could speak the Spanish tongue very well, and required that those men might be unshipped again which were in that great hulk.

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