course had been the better, and might right well have been answered in so great an impossibility of prevailing. Notwithstanding, out of the greatness of his mind, he could not be persuaded. In the meanwhile as he attended[54] those which were nearest him, the great San Philip, being in the wind of him and coming towards him, becalmed his sails in such sort as the ship could neither make way nor feel the helm: so huge and high carried was the Spanish ship, being of a thousand and five hundred tons. Who after laid the Revenge aboard. When he was thus bereft of his sails, the ships that were under his lee also luffing up laid him aboard, of which the next was the Admiral of the Biscayans, a very mighty and puissant ship commanded by Brittandona. The said Philip carried three tier of ordnance on a side, and eleven pieces in every tier. She shot eight forth right out of her chase,[55] besides those of her stern ports. After the Revenge was entangled with this Philip, four others boarded her, two on her larboard, and two on her starboard. The fight thus beginning at three o’clock in the afternoon, continued very terrible all that evening. But the great San Philip, having received the lower tier of the Revenge, discharged with crossbar-shot, shifted herself with all diligence from her sides, utterly misliking her first entertainment. Some say that the ship foundered, but we cannot report it for true, unless we were assured. The Spanish ships were filled with companies of soldiers, in some two hundred besides the mariners, in some five, in others eight hundred. In ours there were none at all besides the mariners but the servants of the Commanders and some few voluntary gentlemen only. After many interchanged volleys of great ordnance and small shot, the Spaniards deliberated to enter the Revenge, and made divers attempts, hoping to force her by the multitudes of their armed soldiers and musketeers, but were still repulsed again and again, and at all times beaten back into their own ships or into the seas. In the beginning of the fight the George Noble of London, having received some shot through her by the Armadas, fell under the lee of the Revenge, and asked Sir Richard what he would command him, being but one of the victuallers and of small force: Sir Richard bade him save himself and leave him to his fortune. After the fight had thus without intermission continued while the day lasted and some hours of the night, many of our men were slain and hurt, and one of the great galleons of the Armada and the Admiral of the hulks both sunk, and in many other of the Spanish ships great slaughter was made. Some write that Sir Richard was very dangerously hurt almost in the beginning of the fight and lay speechless for a time ere he recovered. But two of the Revenge’s own company, brought home in a ship of Lime from the Islands, examined by some of the Lords and others, affirmed that he was never so wounded as that he