The Before-Mentioned Merchant,
Who Was My Intimate Acquaintance, Was Standing On The Shore Along With
Me, Looking At Them At The Time.
When these ships were taken, which were
worth 300,000 ducats, the brother sent all the men on shore,
Except only
two of the principal gentlemen, whom he kept to give in exchange for his
brother; and by the pilot of one of the captured ships he sent a letter
to the governor of Tercera, offering to send the two gentlemen on shore
if his brother were delivered up, otherwise he would carry them
prisoners into England, which indeed he did, as the governor would not
deliver up his brother, saying the gentlemen might make that suit to the
king of Spain. We invited that Spanish pilot to supper with us, and the
Englishmen likewise, when he related to us the particulars of the fight,
much commending the order and manner in which the English fought, as
also their courteous behaviour to him: But, in the end, the English
merchant stole away in a French ship, without paying any ransom.
In January 1590, there arrived one ship alone at Tercera from the
Spanish West Indies, bringing news that a fleet of an hundred sail,
which had set out from the Indies, were driven by a storm on the coast
of Florida, where they were all cast away, vast riches and many men
being lost, and she alone had escaped with the news. Thus by account, of
200 ships which were certainly known to have sailed out of New Spain,
San Domingo, Havannah, Cabo Verde, Brazil, Guinea, &c. in the year
1589, for Spain and Portugal, not above 14 or 15 of them arrived safe,
all the rest having either been foundered, cast away, or taken. In the
same month of January, there came to Tercera from Seville, 15 or 16
ships, mostly fliboats of the Low Countries, and some ships of Britanny,
that were arrested in Spain. These came out full of soldiers and well
provided with guns and ammunition, to lade home the silver that lay in
Tercera, and to bring home Alvaro Flores into Spain, by order of the
king. As at this time of the year there are always great storms about
these islands, the above-mentioned ships durst not enter the road of
Tercera, for it then blew so great a storm that some of the ships, which
had entered the road, had been forced to cut away their masts, and were
in much danger of being lost, and among these a ship of Biscay was
actually driven upon the coast and dashed to pieces, but all the men
were saved. The other ships were obliged to keep to sea and to separate
from each other, allowing themselves to drive at the mercy of the winds
and waves till the 15th of March, as in all that time they had not one
day of good weather in which to anchor, so that they endured much
distress, heartily cursing both the silver and the island.
When this storm was passed, they fell in with an English ship of about
40 tons, which by reason of the heavy wind could not hoist all her
sails, so that they took her. Hoisting her English ensign on the stern
of their admiral, the ships came now as proudly into the road-stead of
Tercera as if they had defeated the whole navy of England: But, just as
their admiral was entering the road, trickt out with the English flag on
his stern, there came by chance two English ships past the island, which
paid her so well for her bravity, that she had to cry out
_misericordia_. Had she been a mile farther out, the English ships
doubtless would have taken her; but getting under the guns of the
fortress, which began to play upon the English ships, they were forced
to leave her and put farther out to sea, after having slain five or six
of the Spaniards.
The Englishmen taken in the small ship were put under hatches, coupled
together in irons; and, after they had been three or four days
prisoners, a Spanish ensign in the ship, who had a brother slain in the
armada that went against England, took a fancy to revenge his brothers
death, and to shew his own manhood on these captives; whereupon, taking
a poinard, he stabbed six of them to the heart as they sat below in
irons. Two others of them perceiving this atrocious action, clasped each
other about the body, and leapt into the sea, where they were drowned.
This infamous act was much disliked by all the Spaniards, so that the
assassin was carried prisoner to Lisbon; upon which the king of Spain
commanded him to be sent to England, that the queen might use him
according to her pleasure; which sentence, at the earnest request of the
friends of the murderer, was commuted to an order for his being
beheaded; but on Good Friday, when the cardinal was going to mass, the
captains and commanders made such intercession for him, that he was
finally pardoned. I thought good to note this incident, that the bloody
and dishonourable minds of the Spaniards to those who were under
subjection to them, might be made manifest.
The same two English ships, which followed the Spanish admiral till he
took shelter under the guns of the fort, put out to sea, where they met
with the only remaining vessel of that fleet which had been scattered in
the storm, all the rest being now in the road. This small ship they
took, sending all me men on shore unhurt; but it they had known what had
been done to the English captives, I believe they would have taken
vengeance, as many an innocent soul afterwards paid for the atrocity of
the Spanish ensign. The ship now taken by the English, was the same
which had been formerly confiscated at Tercera, and was sold to the
Spaniards that then came from the Indies, who sailed in her to San
Lucar; where it also was arrested by the duke, and appointed to go along
with the others, to fetch the silver from Tercera, as it was a good
sailer; but it was the meanest of all that fleet.
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