Sir Francis Drake: His Voyage, 1595: Together with the Spanish account of Drake's attack on Puerto RicoMaynarde, Thomas, active 1595
History
Sir Francis Drake: His Voyage, 1595: Together with the Spanish account of Drake's attack on Puerto Rico
Maynarde, Thomas, active 1595
Drake, Francis, approximately 1540-1596 -- Travel; Voyages around the world -- Early works to 1800
Thursday following, at eight o’clock in the morning, the whole fleet came
and anchored on the windward side of the small island where they had
been sounding the day before, close to the port; and this was another
new anchorage not known hitherto, and having six fathoms over shoals,
where a vessel might be easily lost in any bad weather. There the fleet
anchored, the weather being favourable, and beyond the reach of our
artillery; and the same evening two boats were sent to sound the shore
by the river Bayamon as far as the Carivelo stockade, and to examine
these shoals in order to see if it were possible to land a force in that
quarter; and in one of the boats, which was covered closely with an
awning, was Francis Drake, as was subsequently learned.
When Don Pedro Tello, who had charge of the port, saw the pains the enemy
was taking, and perceived that an attack was about to be made that very
night on the stockade of the Carivelo, by forcing it with boats, so as
to land a body of men, he sent to the general to acquaint him with what
was going on, and to ask for a reinforcement to resist such an attempt;
and the general ordered that in the evening Captain Augustin de Candecho
should proceed thither with thirty soldiers, and that at night there
should be fifty soldiers under the command of the supercargo, Martin
Vomero de Caamaño, with orders that if the enemy’s force should prove
superior, he should retreat with his men in boats to the frigates, in
which their forces were to be concentrated.
The same Thursday, 23rd, St. Clement’s day, at ten o’clock at night,
when it was quite dark, the enemy commenced an attack on the port with
twenty-five boats, each carrying fifty or sixty men well armed, with
the view of burning the frigates, as was afterwards seen, and they
all entered close up to the platform of the Rock [battery], ranging
themselves under the fire of the artillery; and from what was learned
afterwards, it appears that Francis Drake came in one of them to the
mouth of the port to place the rest. Dark as it was, the boats were
seen, and instantly the guns from the Rock and from the fort of Sta.
Helena began to play as briskly as possible. Most of the boats attacked
the Capitana, the Texeda frigate, setting fire to her at the bow, and
throwing into her a quantity of fire-pots and shells, while ours
succeeded in extinguishing the flames before they had done any damage,
the fight being carried on with cannon, musquetry, and stones.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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