This Fight Took Place In The Open Sea, 6 Leagues To The Southward Of The
Sound Or Channel Between Fayal And Pico.
The people whom we saved
informed us, that the cause of the carak refusing to yield was, that she
And all her goods belonged to the king, being all that had been
collected for him that year in India, and that the captain of her was
greatly in favour with the king, and expected to have been made viceroy
of India at his return. This great carak was by no means lumbered,
either within board or on deck, being more like a ship of war than a
merchant vessel; and, besides her own men and guns, she had the crew and
ordnance that belonged to another carak that was cast away at
Mozambique, and the crew of another that was lost a little way to the
east of the Cape of Good Hope. Yet, through sickness caught at Angola,
where they watered, it was said she had not now above 150 white men on
board, but a great many negroes. They likewise told us there were three
noblemen and three ladies on board; but we found them to disagree much
in their stories. The carak continued to burn all the rest of that day
and the succeeding night; but next morning, on the fire reaching her
powder, being 60 barrels, which was in the lowest part of her hold, she
blew up with a dreadful explosion, most of her materials floating about
on the sea.
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