Next Day We Descried
Two Vessels, One A Ship And The Other A Caravel, To Which We Gave Chase,
On
Which they made with all haste for the island of Gracioso, where they
got to anchor under protection of a
Fort; as having the wind of us we
were unable to cut them off from the land, or to get up to attack them
with our ships as they lay at anchor. Having a small boat which we
called a _light horseman_, there went into her myself and four men armed
with calivers, and four others to row, in which we went towards them
against the wind. On seeing us row towards them, they carried a
considerable part of their merchandise on shore, and landed all the men
of both vessels; and as soon as we got near, they began to fire upon us
both from their cannon and small arms, which we returned as well as we
could. We then boarded one of their ships, in which they had not left a
single man; and having cut her cables and hoisted her sails, we sent her
off with two of our men. The other seven of us then went very near the
shore and boarded the caravel, which rode within stones throw of the
shore, insomuch that the people on the land threw stones at us; yet in
spite of them, we took possession of her, there being only one negro on
board. Having cut her cables and hoisted her sails, she was so becalmed
under the land that we had to tow her off with our boat, the fort still
firing on us from their cannon, while the people on shore, to the number
of about 150, continually fired at us with muskets and calivers, we
answering them with our five muskets. At this time the shot from my
musket, being a bar-shot, happened to strike the gunner of the fort
dead, while he was levelling one of his great guns; and thus we got off
from them without loss or wound on our part. Having thus taken five[337]
sail in all, we did as we had done with the ship with the fish, we
turned them off without hurting them, save that we took from one of them
her mainmast for our admiral, and sent her away with all our Spanish and
Portuguese prisoners, except Pedro Sarmiento, three other principal
persons, and two negroes, leaving them within sight of land, with bread
and water sufficient to serve them ten days.
[Footnote 337: Four only are mentioned in the text; and it appears that
they only sent away at this time the first taken ship, in which they had
captured Sarmiento. - E.]
We now bent our course for England, taking our departure from off the
western islands in about the latitude of 41 deg. N. and soon afterwards one
of our men descried a sail from the foretop, then ten sail, and then
fifteen sail. It was now concluded to send off our two prizes, by
manning of which we did not leave above 60 men in our two pinnaces. When
we had dispatched them, we made sail towards the fleet we had
discovered, which we found to consist of 24 sail in all; two of them
being great caraks, one of 1200 and the other of 1000 tons, and 10
galeons, all the rest being small ships and caravels, laden with
treasure, spices, and sugars. In our two small pinnaces we kept company
with this fleet of 24 ships for 32 hours, continually fighting with them
and they with us; but the two huge caraks always kept between their
fleet and us, so that we were unable to take any one of them; till at
length, our powder growing short, we were forced to give over, much
against our wills, being much bent upon gaining some of them, but
necessity compelling us by want of powder, we left them, without any
loss of our men, which was wonderful, considering the disparity of force
and numbers.
We now continued our course to Plymouth, where we arrived within six
hours after our prizes, though we sent them away forty hours before we
began our homeward course. We were joyfully received, with the ordnance
of the town, and all the people hailed us with willing hearts, we not
sparing our shot in return with what powder we had left. From thence we
carried our prizes to Southampton, where our owner, Sir Walter Raleigh,
met us and distributed to us our shares of the prizes.
Our prizes were laden with sugars, elephants teeth, wax, hides,
Brazil-wood, and _cuser?_ as may be made manifest by the testimony of
me, John Evesham, the writer hereof, as likewise of captains Whiddon,
Thomas Rainford, Benjamin Wood, William Cooper master, William Cornish
master, Thomas Drak corporal, John Ladd gunner, William Warefield
gunner, Richard Moon, John Drew, Richard Cooper of Harwich, William
Beares of Ratcliff, John Row of Saltash, and many others.
SECTION IV.
_Brief relation of notable service performed by Sir Francis Drake in
1587_[338].
INTRODUCTION.
The title of this article at large in Hakluyt is, A brief relation of
the notable service performed by Sir Francis Drake, upon the Spanish
fleet prepared in the road of Cadiz; and of his destroying 100 sail of
barks; passing from thence all along the coast of Spain to _Cape Sacre_,
where also he took certain forts; and so to the mouth of the river of
Lisbon; thence crossing over sea to the isle of St Michael, where he
surprised a mighty carak called the St Philip, coming from the East
Indies, being the first of that kind ever seen in England.
[Footnote 338: Hakl. II. 607. Astl. I. 197.]
The editor of Astleys Collection says, that this relation seems to have
been taken from a letter, written by one who was in the expedition to a
friend; and thinks that it is not unlike the manner of Sir Walter
Raleigh.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 157 of 226
Words from 160105 to 161110
of 230997
