These Tidings
Greatly Alarmed The Islanders, Lest If The English Failed Of Catching
The Spanish Fleet, And Got Nothing By Them, They Might Fall Upon The
Islands, That They Might Not Go Home Empty Handed; Whereupon They Held
Strict Watch, Sending Home Advice To The King Of What Intelligence They
Had.
The 1st September, there came a Portuguese ship from Pernambuco in
Brazil to the island of St Michael, with
News, that the admiral of the
Portuguese fleet from the East Indies, having missed St Helena, was
forced to put into Pernambuco, though expressly forbidden by the king
under a heavy penalty, because of the worms in that haven which greatly
spoil the ships. The same ship, in which was the Admiral Bernardin
Ribero, sailed the former year 1589 from Lisbon for India with five
ships in her company, four only of which got to India, the fifth being
never heard of, so that she was believed lost. The other four returned
safe into Portugal, though the admiral was much spoiled, as he met two
English ships, which fought him a long while and slew many of his men,
yet he escaped from them at last. The 5th of the same month, there
arrived at Tercera a caravel belonging to Corvo, bringing 50 men who had
been spoiled by the English, who set them ashore on the island of Corvo.
They had been taken in a ship coming from the Spanish West Indies, and
reported that the English had taken four other West India ships, and a
caravel having the king of Spains letters of advice for the Portuguese
ships coming from the East Indies; and that, including those they had
taken, the English had at least 40 ships together, so that nothing could
escape them; therefore, that the Portuguese ships coming from India
durst not put into the islands, but took their course between 40 deg. and
42 deg. of N. latitude, whence they shaped their course for Lisbon, shunning
likewise Cape St Vincent, as otherwise they could not look for safety,
the sea being quite full of English ships. Wherefore, the king advised
that the fleet now at Havannah in the Spanish West Indies, and ready to
sail for Spain, should remain till the next year, because of the great
danger of falling into the hands of the English. This was no small
charge and hindrance to the fleet, as the ships that remain long at the
Havannah consume themselves and in a manner eat up one another, from the
great number of their people, and the great scarcity and dearness of
every thing at that place; wherefore many of the ships adventured rather
to hazard themselves singly for the voyage than to stay there; all of
which fell into the hands of the English, and many of their men were
brought to Tercera: So that we could see nothing else for a whole day
but spoiled men set on shore, some from one ship and some from another,
it being pitiful to see and hear them all, cursing the English and their
own bad fortunes, with those who had been the cause of provoking the
English to war, and complaining of the small remedy and order taken
therein by the officers of the king of Spain.
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