Chap. LIII, during the Reign of §lyeen Elizabeth.
1596. " it had been in, vain to have pursued
" them, or over the Bar of St. Lucar,“ where there had been no such Thingas attempting them.
“And indeed, we had formerly had" sufficient Experience of the Good and" Evil of the Intelligence of an Enemy.“ Of the Good, in 1588. Forhowsud-“ denly had we been taken and sur-" prized, when we least suspected, had“ it not been for Captain Fleming ; Of" the Evil, in the Year before this, by" the Spaniards taking a Bark of Sir" Francis Drake's Fleet, which was the" Occasion of the Overthrow of himself" and the whole Undertaking.
Utyget in- ON the eighteenth they met with andiligence of Irish Vessel, returning from the Port ofCadiz-** Cadiz-, And it was with great Satisfacti-z ' on they got Intelligence from her Ma-ster, that the Spaniards lived there in^ the most tranquil Security. He inform-ed them, that the Port was fall of Menof War, Gallies, Gallions, and Mer-chant Men, richly loaded for the Indies ;And that they had no Forces on the I-siand, excepting a small Garrison.Flushed with the Hopes of a richarrive and noble Booty, they made the bestere ‘ of their Way thither, and arrived, thetwentieth of June, at Cadiz, earlier inthe Morning than the Masters madeReckoning of. Before their coming thi-ther, it was determined in Council, thatthey would land at St. Sebastian's, theWestermost Part of the Land, and thi-ther came all the Ships to an Anchor,every Man preparing to land as he wasformerly directed, slut the Wind beingso great, and the Sea so high ; And,besides, four Gallies lying to intercepttheir Boats, there was no attempting toland without the Loss of all.
^ This Day was spent in vain, in send-
hk te71 ing Messengers from one General to a-*er to make nother, and in the End they were forc-Attack, ed to resolve upon a Course, which SirWilliam Monson, Captain under the Earlof EJsex, says he advised him to, thesame Morning he discovered the Town;Which was to Surprize the Ships, andto make themselves Masters of the Har-bour, before they attempted Landing.
-4 Resolution This Course being now resolved on,
1LIOn there arose a great Question, who shouldhave the Honour of the first going in ?The Earl of Essex stood for himself;But the Lord High Admiral opposedi it, knowing that if he miscarried, it
might hazard the Overthrow of thewhole Action; And, besides, he was
OOf
strictly charged by Her Majesty, that 1^96.the Earl should not expose himself toDanger, but upon great Necessity.
When the Earl of EJsex could notprevail, the whole Council opposinghim, he sent Sir William Monson, thatNight, on Board of the Lord High Ad-miral, for his Resolution, what Shipsshould be appointed the next Day, toundertake the Service.
It was concluded, after some Debate,'about the Manner of it, to attack theEnemy, with the lightest and nimblestShips, and that the Lord Fhomas How-ard, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir FhomasSouthwell, Sir Francis Fere, Sir GeorgeCarew, and Sir Robert Cross, with someothers, lhould perform this Service.
Th e Morning being appointed for theAttack, at Break of Day, they pass’d Vs- K ; 5 p' ushby the Fire of the Fort St. Philip, and Attack fthe Gallies, with great Resolution, andbore up towards the Spanijh Ships.
Sir Walter Raleigh, according to theMeasures resolved on, placed himself inthe Midst of the Channel, and directedthe Stem of the Warfpight , the Shipin which he was, against the SpanijhMen of War, which thereupon fellback. Sir Francis Fere fired on theGallies briskly from the Rain-bow ; Butthey, being under the Protection of theTown, returned him a very rough Com-pliment from their Fore-deck ’till EJsexcame in to his Relief. Then it was thatseveral of them endeavoured to secure ^ S p an;fethemselves byFlight, and, creeping along Ships endea-the Shoar, made the .best of their Way t0 e-to the Bottom of the Bay, to the Place ‘ ca I e -where the Island of Cadiz is joined tothe Continent, by the Bridge of Suaro .
There, by the Help of a Machine,
they were conveyed, thro' a narrow
Channel, into the Sea, on the South-
Side of the Island, two or three only ex- Some of them
cepted, which were prevented from ft°PI jed -
Escaping, by the Vigilance of Sir John
Wingfiesd, in the Fanguard.
In the mean Time, many of the Gal- 0th klions and Gallies {Camden says, the Men their St a- *of War) kept their Station at the Pun- Hon.tals, and received the Broad-sides ofthe English, which they returned, withequal Fury, till Noon; the Earl of Es-sex, the Lord High Admiral, and his gdgemnt.Son, being all the W hile, in the Heatof the Action.
At Length, the Spaniards, perceiv-ing their Ships were so miserably shat-tered, and disabled, and so many oftheir Men killed, that they were no
4 P
longer