Some Of
The Prisoners Taken From This Ship Told Us, That While We Were Plying
Off And On Before That
Harbour in waiting for their coming out, three of
the largest of these ships were unloaded of all their treasure
And
merchandize, by order of the governor of Tercera, and were each manned
with 300 soldiers, on purpose to have come out and boarded the Victory;
but by the time these preparations were made, the Victory was gone out
of sight.
We now went merrily before the wind with all the sails we could carry,
insomuch that between the noons of Friday and Saturday, or in 24 hours,
we sailed near 47 leagues, or 141 English miles, although our ship was
very foul, and much grown with sea grass, owing to our having been long
at sea. This quick sailing made some of our company expect to be present
at the tilting on the queens birth-day at Whitehall, while others were
flattering themselves with keeping a jolly Christmas in England from
their shares in the prizes. But it was our lot to keep a cold Christmas
with the Bishop and his Clerks, rocks to the westwards of Scilly; for
soon after the wind came about to the east, the very worst wind for us
which could blow from the heavens, so that we could not fetch any part
of England. Upon this our allowance of drink, before sufficiently
scanty, was now still farther curtailed, owing to the scarcity in our
ship, each man being confined to half a pint of cold water at a meal,
and that not sweet. Yet this was an ample allowance in comparison, as
our half pint was soon reduced to a quarter, and even at this reduced
rate our store was rapidly disappearing, insomuch that it was deemed
necessary for our preservation to put into some port in Ireland to
procure water. We accordingly endeavoured to do this, being obliged,
when near that coast, to lie to all night, waiting for day light; but
when it appeared we had drifted so far to leeward in the night that we
could fetch no part of Ireland, we were therefore constrained to return
again, with heavy hearts, and to wait in anxious expectation till it
should please God to send us a fair wind either for England or Ireland.
In the mean time we were allowed for each man two or three spoonfuls of
vinegar at each meal, having now no other drink, except that for two or
three meals we had about as much wine, which was wrung out of the
remaining lees. Under this hard fare we continued near a fortnight,
being only able to eat a very little in all that time, by reason of our
great want of drink. Saving that now and then we enjoyed as it were a
feast, when rain or hail chanced to fall, on which occasions we gathered
up the hail-stones with the most anxious care, devouring them more
eagerly than if they had been the finest comfits. The rain-drops also
were caught and saved with the utmost careful attention; for which
purpose some hung up sheets tied by the four corners, having a weight in
the middle, to make the rain run down there as in a funnel into some
vessel placed underneath. Those who had no sheets hung up napkins or
other clouts, which when thoroughly wet they wrung or sucked to get the
water they had imbibed. Even the water which fell on the deck under
foot, and washed away the filth and soil of the ship, though as dirty as
the kennel is in towns during rain, was carefully watched and collected
at every scupper-hole, nay, often with strife and contention, and caught
in dishes, pots, cans, and jars, of which some drank hearty draughts,
mud and all, without waiting for its settlement or cleansing. Others
cleaned it by filtrating, but it went through so slowly that they could
ill endure to wait so long, and were loath to lose so much precious
liquid. Some licked the water like dogs with their tongues from the
decks, sides, rails, and masts of the ship. Others, that were more
ingenious, fastened girdles or ropes about the masts, daubing tallow
between these and the mast, that the rain might not run down between;
and making one part of these girdles lower than the rest, fixed spouts
of leather at these lower parts, that the rain running down the masts
might meet and be received at these spouts. He who was fortunate enough
to procure a can of water by these means, was sued to, and envied as a
rich man.
_Quem pulchrum digito monstrari, et dicere hic est_.
Some of the poor Spaniards who were prisoners, though having the same
allowance with our own men, often begged us for the love of God to give
them as much water as they could hold in the hollow of their hands: And,
notwithstanding our own great extremity, they were given it, to teach
them some humanity, instead of their accustomed barbarity both to us and
other nations. Some put leaden bullets into their months, to slack their
thirst by chewing them. In every corner of the ship, the miserable cries
of the sick and wounded were sounding lamentably in our ears, pitifully
crying out and lamenting for want of drink, being ready to die, yea many
dying for lack thereof. Insomuch, that by this great extremity we lost
many more men than in all the voyage before; as before this, we were so
well and amply provided for, that we lived as well and were as healthy
as if we had been in England, very few dying among us; whereas now, some
of our men were thrown overboard every day.
The 2d of December 1589 was with us a day of festival, as it then rained
heartily, and we saved some considerable store of water, though we were
well wet for it, and that at midnight, and had our skins filled with it
besides.
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