Many Houses Fell Down, And In Particular A Town
Called Villa Franca Was Almost Utterly Destroyed, All Its Houses And
Cloisters Thrown Down, And Several People Slain.
In some places the
ground rose up, the cliffs were removed from their places, and even some
hills were thrown down and levelled with the adjoining plains.
The
earthquake was so violent, that the ships in the road and in the
adjoining sea, were shaken as if the whole earth had been agitated to
its centre. In one place a fountain sprung from the ground, whence clear
water flowed in abundance for four days, and then ceased. All this time
a noise was heard under ground as of thunder, or as if all the devils in
hell had been assembled there, by which many died of fear. Four several
times the island of Tercera shook with such violence as if it had turned
upon its foundations, yet was it not overwhelmed. Earthquakes are common
in these islands, as about 20 years before there happened just such an
earthquake, when a hill, close to the town of Villa Franca, fell down
and buried all the town with earth, by which many people were
overwhelmed and slain.
The 25th of August, the kings armada from Ferrol arrived in Tercera,
consisting of 30 ships of war belonging to Biscay, Portugal, and Spain,
together with 10 Dutch fliboats that were pressed at Lisbon into the
service, besides other small vessels and _pataxos_ to serve as
advice-boats, and to scour the seas for intelligence. This fleet came to
wait for and convoy the ships from the Spanish Indies; and the fliboats
were for the purpose of bringing home to Lisbon our goods that were
saved in the lost ship from Malacca. This fleet arrived at the island of
Corvo on the 13th of September[385], where the English then lay waiting
for the fleet from the Spanish Indies, with a squadron of about 16
ships. Some or most of the Spanish ships were already come to the
Azores, and the English were in great hopes to have taken them: But, on
perceiving the Spanish fleet of war to be so strong, the lord Thomas
Howard, who was admiral of the English, gave orders to his fleet not to
assail the Spaniards, and on no account to separate from him without
special orders[386]. Yet the vice-admiral, Sir Richard Grenville, in his
ship the Revenge, bore into the Spanish fleet, and shot among them doing
much harm, thinking that the rest of the English ships would have
followed him, which they did not, but left him there and sailed away,
the reason of which could not be known. Perceiving this, the Spaniards
boarded the Revenge with 7 or 8 ships, but she bravely withstood them
all, fighting with them at the least 12 hours without ceasing, and sunk
two of them, one a double fliboat of 600 tons, and admiral of the
fliboats, the other a ship of Biscay.
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