On the 13th November of this year, there arrived at this port, Don Pedro Tello de Guzman, with the five frigates of His Majesty, in order that General Sancho Pardo should embark in them His Majesty’s bullion, and so proceed to Spain, the post of Admiral of his fleet being filled by the aforesaid Pedro Tello, who, after having delivered his despatches, related to the aforesaid general, how, coming here in the course of his voyage, they had fallen in with two English ships at the island of Guadaloupe, which had parted company from the English fleet; and how his Admiral, Gonzalo Mendez de Canço, had captured one of them and sunk her, after taking the Englishmen out of her; and that he, the aforesaid Don Pedro, going in pursuit of the other vessel, discovered nine sail of the enemy’s fleet, and as soon as he descried them he tacked about and continued his voyage: and that the aforesaid English prisoners had stated that thereabouts, on the southern side of the island of Guadaloupe, the Queen of England’s fleet was lying at anchor and preparing launches; that it consisted of five-and-twenty ships, six of them Queen’s galleons of eight hundred tons burden, and two more of the same size belonging to private parties, the whole being divided into two squadrons, having for generals, Francis Drake and John Hawkins; the former, with his lieutenant in command on shore, Sir Thomas Baskerville, directing the course to be taken, and the proceedings on land; and that the armament amounted to three thousand infantry and ten thousand five hundred seamen well supplied with guns; and that they were coming direct to Puerto Rico, as appeared also from the instructions which were taken from the captain of the aforesaid English ship, in which he was ordered, in case he should part company from the fleet by any mischance, to proceed to Puerto Rico, where they would wait for him ten days, and after that, would leave orders for him where he was to go, without further revealing their intentions; and that in consequence of all this, the aforesaid Don Pedro came, fearing that the enemy might have preceded him and already got possession of the island; and since they had not yet come, he held it for certain that they would be down upon the port the next day; and accordingly it lay with the general to order his departure as it might seem expedient.
Mountains Report
Sir Francis Drake His Voyage, 1595 — Part 33
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