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:

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