Wednesday the 22nd of the same month (November), at break of day, the enemy’s fleet was descried on the horizon, with twenty-three sail and a pinnace. The six queen’s galleons of eight hundred tons, and two ships of the same size, and the rest, vessels of three hundred tons and of one hundred and fifty and less, and forty launches, came sailing in close order. Immediately every one snatched up his arms and ran to his post with great alacrity, and well disposed for combat. There was but little wind, and so the fleet advanced but slowly till it entered the breeze. The pinnace came first and some boats with white signal-flags sounding the coast. One of them having come in front of the Boqueron battery, a gun was fired at it which made it stand off to sea, and they immediately hoisted other coloured flags and passed out; and in the afternoon the whole fleet came and cast anchor in front of the curtain of the Cabron, where no one had ever seen a ship ride before, nor was it known that there was good anchorage till after the departure of the enemy, when the general sent to have the place sounded, and from twenty to thirty fathoms clear water were found there. From what was learned, it appears to have been his intention to land a force under the fire of his artillery, imagining that he should find us unprepared, and seeing no reason to believe that such a step would meet with resistance; wherein he was mistaken.
The fleet having arrived in the place above-mentioned, our people fired at it several pieces of artillery from the Morrillo and the curtain of the Cabron, so that some of the shot took effect on them, for it was known afterwards, that they killed John Hawkins, the general of one of the squadrons, and two of the principal gentlemen who accompanied him, besides other people; and that they carried away the table at which Francis Drake was eating, the ball striking a gentleman who was with him, and who, it is known, will not escape.
The enemy perceiving how much loss he sustained from the shore, sent the pinnace with a pilot, a native of the islands and a mulatto by race, who is said to be practically well acquainted with these coasts, with five boats to the port, to reconnoitre it and to sound close to the mouth formed by the islet, which is called Goat Island, which lies towards the west; and when it was sounded, one of the boats returned with information to the fleet, which immediately weighed anchor, at five o’clock in the evening, without having fired a cannon or even a musket during all the whole time that it was there, and ran out to sea, where it stood off and on that night till the following day.