By This
Promptitude, We Took All The People Of The Town Prisoners In The Church,
Being At Mass, And Detained Them There All Day.
The great object of Sir
Thomas Candish in assaulting this town was to supply our wants,
expecting to have got every thing of which we stood in need, when once
in possession:
But such was the negligence of Mr Cocke, who commanded on
this occasion, that the Indians were allowed to carry every thing out
of the town in open view, and no one hindered them; and next day, our
prisoners were all set free, only four poor old men being kept as
pledges to supply our wants. By this mismanagement, the town of Santos,
which could easily have supplied a fleet the double of ours with all
kinds of necessaries, was in three days left to us entirely naked,
without people, and without provisions. Sir Thomas Candish came up eight
or ten days afterwards, and remained till the 22d January, 1592,
endeavouring by treaty to procure what we were once possessed of, but to
little purpose; and we were then forced to depart, through want of
provisions, glad to procure a few baskets of cassavi meal, going away
worse provided than we had come there. We accordingly left Santos on the
22d January, and burnt the town of St Vincent to the ground.
We set sail on the 24th, shaping our course for the Straits of Magellan.
On the 7th February we had a violent storm, and on the 8th, our fleet
was separated by the fury of the tempest. Consulting with the master of
our ship, our captain concluded to go for Port Desire, in the latitude
of 48 deg. S. hoping that Sir Thomas would go there likewise, as he had
found great relief there in his former voyage. Our captain had not been
able to get directions, what course to take in such a contingency as had
now occurred, though he had earnestly proposed such a measure. In our
way, we fortunately fell in with the Roebuck, which had been in extreme
danger, and had lost her boat. We arrived together at Port Desire on the
6th March. The Black pinnace came in there also on the 16th; but the
Dainty came not, having gone back for England, leaving their captain, Mr
Randolph Cotton, aboard the Roebuck, with nothing but the clothes he
wore. He now came aboard our ship, being in great habits of friendship
with Captain Davis.
On the 18th Sir Thomas brought the galleon into the roads, and came
himself into the harbour in a boat he had got built at sea, for his
long-boat and light-horseman were both lost during the storm, together
with a pinnace he had set up at Santos. Being on board our ship, the
Desire, Sir Thomas informed our captain of all his extremities, and
complained severely of his company, and particularly of several
gentlemen in his ship, proposing to go no more on board his own ship,
but to proceed for the rest of the voyage in the Desire. We were all
grieved to hear such hard speeches of our good friends; but having
spoken with the gentlemen in the Leicester, we found them faithful,
honest, and resolute in their proceedings, although it pleased our
general to conceive of them otherwise.
The 20th March we departed from Port Desire, Sir Thomas being in the
Desire with us. The 8th of April we fell in with the Straits of
Magellan, having sustained many furious storms between Port Desire and
the straits. The 14th we passed the first straits, and got through the
second, ten leagues beyond the first, on the 16th. We doubled Cape
Froward on the 18th, which cape is in 53 deg. 30' S. The 21st we were forced
by a furious storm to take shelter in a small cove with our ships, four
leagues beyond the cape, and on the southern shore of the straits, where
we remained till the 15th of May; in which time we endured much
distress, by excessive storms, with perpetual snow, and many of our men
died of cold and famine, not having wherewithal to cover their bodies
nor to fill their bellies, but living on muscles, sea-weeds, and water,
with an occasional supply of meal from the ships stores.[63] All the
sick men in the galleon were most uncharitably put on shore into the
woods, exposed to the snow, the air, and the cold, which men in health
could hardly have endured, where they ended their days in the utmost
misery, Sir Thomas remaining all this time in the Desire.
[Footnote 63: It would appear that this expedition had been very
improvidently undertaken, with a very inadequate supply of provisions,
and, as will afterwards appear, of naval stores, trusting perhaps to
obtain supplies from the enemy, as had been attempted in vain at Santos.
Either delayed by these views, or from ignorance, the passage through
the straits was attempted at a very improper season, three months after
the antarctic mid-summer and during the autumnal equinoctial gales.
November, December, and January are the summer months, and best fitted
for these high southern latitudes. - E.]
Seeing these great extremities of cold and snow, and doubting a
disastrous end to the enterprize, Sir Thomas asked our captain's
opinion, being a person of great experience in the utmost parts of the
north, to which he had made three voyages of discovery in the employ of
the London merchants. Captain Davis said, that he did not expect the
snow to be of long continuance, for which he gave sufficient reasons
from his former experience, and hoped therefore that this might not
greatly prejudice or hinder the completion of the enterprize. Yet Sir
Thomas called all the company together, telling them that he proposed to
depart from the straits upon some other voyage, either proceeding for
the Cape of Good Hope, or back again to Brazil.
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