And Whereas Some
Of These Ships Stood At That Instant In Some Want Of Victuals, They
Were All Content To Stay In The Port Till The Necessities Of Each Ship
Were Supplied, And Nothing Wanted To Set Out For Their Return.
In this port of Zante the news was fresh and current of two several
armies and fleets, provided by the King of Spain, and lying in wait to
intercept them:
The one consisting of thirty strong galleys, so well
appointed in all respects for the war that no necessary thing wanted,
and this fleet hovered about the Straits of Gibraltar. The other army
had in it twenty galleys, whereof some were of Sicily and some of the
island of Malta, under the charge and government of John Andreas Dorea,
a captain of name serving the King of Spain. These two divers and
strong fleets waited and attended in the seas for none but the English
ships, and no doubt made their account and sure reckoning that not a
ship should escape their fury. And the opinion also of the inhabitants
of the isle of Zante was, that in respect of the number of galleys in
both these armies having received such strait commandment from the
king, our ships and men being but few and little in comparison of them,
it was a thing in human reason impossible that we should pass either
without spoiling, if we resisted, or without composition at the least,
and acknowledgment of duty to the Spanish king.
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