The Earl Came Likewise At That Time To Fayal, Where At The First They Begun To Resist Him; But By

Reason of some controversy among themselves, they let him land, when he razed the castle, throwing all the cannon into

The sea, and took with him certain caravels and ships that lay in the road, with all such provisions as he wanted, and then departed. Thereupon, the king caused the principal actors in that transaction to be punished, and went thither a company of soldiers, which went from Tereera, with all kind of warlike ammunition and great shot, rebuilding the cattle the better to defend the island, and no more trusting to the Portuguese inhabitants.

The 9th of October 1589[381], there arrived in Tereera fourteen ships from the Spanish West Indies, laden with cochineal, hides, gold, silver, pearls, and other rich wares. When they departed from the harbour of the Havannah, they were fifty in company; of which eleven sunk in the channel [of Florida] by reason of foul weather, and all the rest were scattered and separated from each other in a storm. Next day there came another ship of the same fleet, which sailed close under the island endeavouring to get into the road; when she was met by an English whip that had not above three cast pieces [of ordnance], while the Spaniards had twelve. They fought a long while together, which we in the island could distinctly see. The governor of the island sent out two boats filled with musketeers to aid the Spanish ship; but before they could get up to her assistance; the English had shot her below water, so that we saw her sink into the sea with all her sails up, and she entirely disappeared. The Englishmens boat saved the Captain and about thirty others, but not one pennyworth of the goods, which were to the value of 200,000 ducats, in gold, silver, and pearls. All the rest of the crew were drowned, to the number of about fifty persons, among whom were some friars and women, whom the English could not save. The English set all the people they had saved on shore, and then sailed away. The 27th of the same month of October 1589, these fourteen ships sailed from Tercera, for Seville; and on coming to the coast of Spain, they were all taken by some English ships that watched for them, two only excepted which made their escape, all the rest being carried to England.

[Footnote 381: In Hakluyt, all that now follows is marked as extracted from the 99th chapter of Linschoten.]

About this time, the earl of Cumberland, with one of the queens ships and five or six others, kept hovering about the islands, and came oft-times close to the island of Tercera, and to the road of Angra, so near that the people on land could easily count all the men on his decks, and could even distinguish one from another; they of the island not once shooting at them, which they might easily have done, as they were often within musket-shot of the town and fort.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 362 of 441
Words from 189465 to 189990 of 230997