♦hap.!
during the Reign of §lueen Elizabeth.
^589. throned King of Portugal, who was re-tired into England, was also of the Com-pany, with some of his Followers. Hehoped, with the Assistance of this NavalForce, he should easily regain his King-dom.
>t s - The y set Sail, on the eighteenth of■«noy ai t j’ e to April, (some Authors fay the fifth,)^ards. from Plymouth, with a Fleet, consistingof Fourscore Sail of Ships, ( 'Speed fayssix of the Queens, with twenty otherMen of War, besides Transports,)commanded by Sir Francis Drake, onwhich were eleven Thousand Soldiers,and fifteen ( Speed fays five and twenty)Hundred Mariners, under the Command^ of Sir john Norris.
\(t' °L the Stow makes the Number of Ships tohave been one Hundred and six and
forty, (and the Author of the ColumnaR o/t rat a makes them six and twentyMen of War, and a Hundred and fortyTransports,) having on Board fourteenThousand Soldiers, and four ThousandSailors. Which ever Account we giveCredit to, if we may judge by the Num-ber of Sailors, the Ships must eitherhave been small or poorly manned, e-ven allowing, according to the Customof former Times, that the Sailors hadnothing else to do but to manage theShips, and the fighting Part was left tothe Soldiers.
Sir William Monson makes Mentionof the following Ships and Commandersin particular.
Shi ps.
The Revenge.Dreadnought.Aid.
Nonpareil.
Forejight.
Swifts
ure.
Commanders by Sea.Sir Francis Drake.
Capt. Fhorn as Fennar.Capt. William Fennar.Capt. Sackvile.
Capt. William Winter.
Capt. Goring.
Commanders by Land.Sir John Norris.
Sir Edward Norris.
Sir Henry Norris.
Sir Roger Williams.Capt. Williams, (orWilson, Serg. Major.
These are probably the six Ships ofthe Queen’s mentioned by some Au-thors.
Sir William Monson mentions, like-wise, the Earl of EJsex, as a VoluntaryLand Officer, but he came casually in-to the Fleet afterwards, as we shall feebelow, (a)
They arrived, in a few Days, at theGroyne (or, Flavia Brigcmtum of theAncients) and having landed some oftheir Men, encounter’d the Enemy,whom they met within half a Mile ofthe Place, and drove them back to theirvery Gates. The next Day, they as-saulted the Lower Town, which they^ carried, after some Resistance, byStorm, attacking it on all Sides, at once,
1,1 % vi F ^oth by Land and Water. The Attacknt - was managed in the following Manner :They appointed twelve Hundred Mento be landed in Long-Boats and Pinnaces,©n one Side of he Water, who were toplay upon the own with Artillery as
( a ). After the Sheet 3 Cb was finished at the•Press, a very ingenious Friend gave it me as hisOpinion, that the List of Ships in Chap. XXV.beginning Page 244. ■ was a List of the Ships of^is Fleet. There are some Circumstances in it,Ifhich- would almost incline me to be of the fame
Op;
Pinion : Bat there are others which seem to con-
th’ey approach’d it; And, on the otherSide, five HundredMen were ordered toenter at Low-Water, if they found itpassable, or else to scale the Wallswith Ladders; and by Land, threeHundred Men were to enter by Esca-lade ; And all these were to charge atthe same Instant. The Boats landed,without any great Difficulty, only someMen were wounded j and those whoassaulted it by Land, entered withoutany Resistance. And thus the LowerTown being entered in three severalPlaces at once, the Inhabitants fled tothe Upper-Town, by Ways which theEnglijh knew not. They took the Go-vernour, Don Juan de Luna, Prisoner,with some other Persons of Note, andburnt a great Quantity of Ammunitionand Provisions, which had been laid upthere, and was intended for a new Ex-pedition to England. They killed a-bout five Hundred of the Enemy, afterthey entered the Town, in the Heat of
the
tradict it, especially, that of the chief Squadronbeing said to be commanded by a Lord Admiral,and the third by the Lord Thomas —^-7--, nei-
ther of which were in this Fleet. I rather be-lieve, upon comparing Circumstances, it is a List,tho’ perhaps an imperfect one, 0 sthe Grand Ex-pedition, to Cadiz, in 1596.
1589.