I 4-61568.

Terfidicupyrequited By'tie Spani-ards.

EliZ.

Na val Expeditions , &c of the English,

which were repented to be worth twoHundred Thousand Pounds, in Goldand S.lver, and were all in his Power;But he generously released them, with-out taking from them the Value of onePenny.. He had taken a full Resolu-tion, not to do any Thing that couldbe looked upon as a Breach of thePeace; And, therefore, required nomore of the Spaniards, than Securityfor himself, with all that belonged tohim, Victuals for his Mony, Libertyof Trade, and that, during his Abodethere, he might keep Possession of theIsland, with eleven Pieces of BrassCannon, which were planted upon it.The Spaniards, at first, thought theseArticles hard : However, they at lastcame into, and signed them, giving tenHostages for their Performance.

Notwithstanding this amicableAgreement with the Spaniards, a fewDays afterwards , having privatelygot a Supply of a Thousand Men'from the Continent, they took anOpportunity to surprize the English,and perfidiously falling upon them ,on the three and twentieth of Sep-tember , killed a great Number oftheir Men, seized, plundered andburnt three ( Pitrchas fays four) oftheir best Ships, took many Prisoners,and obliged the Remainder, in thesmaller Ships, after the Englij7 j hadfunk two, and burnt one of the Spa-nis Ships, their Admiral, Vice-Admi-ral, and another of their best Ships, toretreat without Necessaries, and in somiserable a Plight, that scarce a sixthPart came back alive to their Homes.

The Circumstances of this Actionbeing pretty singular, I shall give themthe Reader at large, as we find themin Hackluyt, from an Account givenby Hawkins, under his own Hand, theSubstance of which was as follows:

‘ s Thus (fays he) at the End of“ three Days, the Treaty was con-" eluded, and the Fleet ( viz. the

Spanish) entered the Port, the two" Fleets saluting one another, accord-" ing to Custom. We then laboured" two Days to place the English by“ themselves, and the Spanish by“ themselves, the Captains and Sea-" men, on each Side, promising all" friendly Offices to each other; which" as faithfully as it was meant on our* e Parts, was as treacherously designed* c on theirs; For they had furnished** themselves from the Continent, with

a Supply of a Thousand Men, and J '" had formed a Design of falling up-" on us, on all Sides at once, on the" twenty-third of September, at Noon.

" The fame Morning, the Time" fixed for the Execution of their Vil-“ lany being then near at Hand, we“ began to discover some Appearances" of it; such as shifting of Arms from" one Ship to the other; Planting and" Levelling of their Cannon from their" Ships towards the Island, where our" Men had the Guard, Companies of" Men moving to and fro, more than" their common Occupations required,

" and many other Circumstances,which" gave us a vehement Suspicion. We,

" therefore, sent to the Viceroy, (the" fame who had signed the Agree-" ment) to enquire what this meant.

" He immediately sent strict Orders" to remove all Cause of Suspicion, ,

" and assured us, that he, on the Faith" os a Viceroy, would be our Defence a Sp^“ against all Treachery. This An- Viceaf“ fwer not being, however, fatisfac-‘f. tory , and we suspecting a great" Number of Men to be hid, in a“ large Ship of nine Hundred Tun,

" which was moored next to the Mi-" nion, we sent the Master of the Je~

“fits, who could speak Spanish, again yheVs“ to the Viceroy, and desired to b e cWy^“ informed of the Truth. The Y\ee- cut -" roy, feing he could now conceal" his Treachery no longer, detained" our Master, and causing the Trum-" pet to be founded, the Spaniards set" upon us, on all Sides, at once. Our" Men, on Shoar, being dismayed atthe unexpected Onset, fled, and en-" deavoured to recover their Ships ;

" But the Spaniards landed their Menin such Numbers, on all Sides, that" but very few of them got on Board" °f the Jesus, the Rest being slain,without Quarter. The great Ship,which had about three HundredMen privately put on Board, fell -0^immediately on Board the Minion ; ^ e“ But in the Time we had the Suspi-cion of the Treachery, which was" s 10t above half an Hour, she hadloosened her Fastenings to the Shoar,and so, escaping this first Brunt,

It ° Ut t ^ ie Idarbour. Upon this,the great Ship, with two others, setupon the Jesus ; But she, likewise, n“ ft itf great Difficulty, and the Loss /y sh

of many of her Men, got out to" Sea. 0

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