I

Chap. LXI. during the Reign of §lyeen Elizabeth.

1598-

The Earlhikes Lan-terotta ;

Andpro-{ eeds toAmerica.

'Fakes Puer-Ricco.

f. >nore par-yiar Ac-fnt of thisA( lion,

commanded by a certain reputed richMarquis, (tho’ in Fact nothing less)who tyrannized over this and the adja-cent I hand of Forleventura, as an abso-lute Sovereign. The Marquis had avery strong Stone-Castle, no otherwiseaccessible, than by Ladders, flankedand fortified, in the most advantageousManner, and defended by a great Num-ber of Brass Guns. In this Castle, hehad two Hundred Guards and Servants,and yet, tho' twenty Men, might withEase, have defended it against five Hun-dred, they courageously fled and left ita Prey to the English , so terrible wasthe very Name of them to the Spaniards ,at that Time. The Town, consistingof a Hundred Houses, the Church, andFriar’s Convent, were likewise aban-don’d to their Mercy. The Plunder,however, was not very great.

From thence they set Sail, the twentyfirst of April, for Dominica and theVirgin IJlands. At the first of thesePlaces, they landed, the twenty-third ofMay, t and staid there 'till the first ofJune. , One of the Captains, going up aRiver there with a small Guard, to oneof the Indian Towns, was kindly enter-tained, in their Way, by the King ofthe Place, At the Virgin-IJlands, theEarl landed and muster’d all his Men ;And then declar’d, in a full Assembly,that his Design was upon Puerto Ric-co,

Arriving, at Length, at this Islandof St. Juan de Puerto Ricco, on thesixth of June, they landed a ThousandMen there. They attacked the Townof that Name, and, after having takenthe Fort and Castles, soon made himselfMaster of it, with the Loss of not abovethirty of his Men, tho’ there was in thePlace a Garrison of four Hundred Men.Harris i ays, they lost but two Men,which can hardly be credited, since heallows the Spaniards made a stout Resi-stance, the first Attack, and obliged theEnglijh to retire.

The Courage of the Englijh, in theAttack of this Place, amidst a Numberof Difficulties, being pretty remarkable,a short Account of it may not be difa-greable to the Readers. Their Passageto the Town, after they were landed,was over horrid Cliffs and Rocks, withonly one Negro, half frightened toDeath,for their Guide. Between these Cliffsand the Island, on which the Townstood, was a small Arm of the Sea, andthey had no Boats to carry them over,

which put them to a Stand what to do.AtLength, they discovered a Communi-cation between the two Islands, by anarrow Cawfey, leading to a Bridgewhich was drawn up. On the otherSide of the Bridge, was a strong Barri-cado, and beyond that a Fort, fromwhence the Spaniards scoured the Caw-fey, with several Pieces of Ordnance,and their small Arms. They had, be-sides, made this Cawfey so rugged, anddifficult of Passage, that the Englijhchose rather to wade in the Water bythe Side of it.

Notwithstanding all these Dis-couragements, added to the Heat of theDay, and the Darkness of the ensuingNight; And tho’ the Earl himself wascarried off very ill, by a Fall from theCawfey into the Sea, where the Weightand Incumbrance of his Armour hadvery rtear drowned him, the Soldiersprefs’d on, with an undaunted Courage,to the very Gate of the Barricade,which they began to hew down withtheir Bills and Hatchets. But they metwith so stout a Resistance from the Spa-niards, and the Day, together with theTide, which obliged them to fight upto their Wastes in Water, coming in up-on them, that they were obliged to re-tire. The next Attack was attendedwith better Success j And, indeed, theDesign was better laid and carried on ;For while a Party of Musketeers wasemployed to beat the Enemy from theirOrdnance, on one Side, another of Shotand Pikes was set aflioar on the otherSide, between the Fort and the Town,and the former plaid their Parts so well,that the latter had a fair Opportunity oflanding without Opposition. The Spa-niards, after a brisk Resistance, retiredfrom their Fort, leaving it in the Posses-sion of the Englijh ; And they soon de-serted the Town likewise. Fort Mora,a Place of great Strength, together withthe strong Castle, ip the West and bySouth-Part of the Town, and anotherFortification between that and Fortra, all furrendred to the victoriousArms of our brave Commander, andleft him in the undisturb’d Possession ofthe Place.

This Town, which the Englijh com-puted to be larger than all Portsmouth,within the Fortifications, was fair andwell-built, having several large hand-some Streets, and a fine Monastery andCathedral. The Earl of Cumberland ,being now possessed of the Town and5 A Port,

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159S.