The captain, Don Fernando de Mendoza, was " a gentleman
of noble birth, well stricken in years, well spoken, of comely
personage, of good stature, but of hard fortune. Twice he
had been taken prisoner by the Moors and ransomed by the
king ; and he had been wrecked on the coast of Sofala, in a
carrack which he commanded, and, having escaped the sea
danger, fell into the hands of infidels on shore, who kept him
under long and grievous servitude." The prisoners who were
thus released were not searched : so rich a prize, indeed,
122 ENGLISH SEAMEN
might well content the captors ; and they who had lost so
much might be permitted to carry with them such of their
own valuables as they could. They had, however, the ill hap
to fall in with other English cruisers, who took from them,
" thus negligently dismissed," says our narrator, " 900 diamonds,
besides other odd ends ".
About 800 black men (if that number be not overstated)
were landed on the Island of Corvo. ^Having thus disposed
of their prisoners, contention about the prize was " well-nigh
kindling in the commanders, being so many and so diversely
employed ". But Burroughs, " to fcut foff the unprofitable
spoil and pillage," to which he saw that many were inclined,
promptly and prudently took charge of the whole in the
queen's name, the others consenting ; for, indeed, it appeared,
upon " a slender rummaging of such things as first came to
hand, that the wealth would arise nothing disanswerable
to expectation, but that the variety and grandeur of all
rich commodities would be more than sufficient to content
both the adventurer's desire and the soldier's travail. And
here," says our narrator, " I cannot but enter into the con-
sideration and acknowledgment of God's great favour towards
our nation, who, by putting this purchase into our hands,
hath manifestly discovered those secret trades and Indian
riches, which hitherto lay strangely hidden and cunningly
concealed from us ; whereof there was among some few of us
some small and imperfect glimpse only which now is turned
into the broad light of full and perfect knowledge. Whereby
it should seem that the will of God for our good is (if our
weakness could apprehend it) to have us communicate with
them in those East Indian treasures, and, by the erection
of a lawful traffic, to better our means to advance true religion
and His holy service. The carrack being in burden, by the
estimation of the wise and experienced, no less than
1600 tons, had full 900 of those stowed with the gross bulk
of merchandise ; the rest of the tonnage being allowed, partly
THE EARL OF CUMBERLAND 123
to the ordnance, which were thirty-two pieces of brass of all
sorts, partly to the passengers and the victuals, which could
not be any small quantity, considering the number of persons,
between 600 and 700, and the length of the navigation.
To give you a taste, as it were, of the commodities, it shall
suffice to deliver you a general particularity of them, according
to the catalogue taken at Leadenhall, the 15th of September,
1592. (It is remarkable that this should have been the place
where an account was taken of the first East Indian cargo
that was ever brought to England.) Upon good view it was
found that the principal wares, after the jewels (which were
no doubt of great value, though they never came to light),
consisted of spices, drugs, silks, calicoes, quilts, carpets, and
colours, etc. The spices were pepper, cloves, maces, nutmegs,
cinnamon, green ginger. The drugs were benjamin, frank-
incense, galingale, mirabolans, aloes, socotrina, camphire.
The silks, damasks, taffatas, sarcenets, altobassos, that is,
counterfeit cloth of gold, unwrought China silk, sleaved silk,
white twisted silk, curled cypress. The calicoes were book
calicoes, calico-lawns, broad white calicoes, fine starched
calicoes, coarse white calicoes, brown broad calicoes, brown
coarse calicoes. There were also canopies and coarse diaper
towels, quilts of coarse sarcenet and of calico, carpets like
those of Turkey ; whereunto are to be added the pearl, musk,
civet, and ambergris. The rest of the wares were many in
number, but less in value, as elephants' teeth, porcelain vessels
of China, cocoa-nuts, hides, ebon wood as black as jet, bed-
steads of the same, cloth of the rinds of trees, very strange
for the matter, and artificial in workmanship. All which piles
of commodities, being by men of approved judgment rated but
in reasonable sort, amounted to no less than 150,000/., which
being divided among the adventurers, whereof her Majesty
was the chief, was sufficient to yield contentment to all
parties." *
* Hakluyt, ii., 198.
124 ENGLISH SEAMEN
But, in truth, the parties were not contented : they had
expected far too much, and they received somewhat too
little. The Earl of Cumberland's share had been estimated
by his friends, "according to his employment of ships and
men," to two or three millions, so extravagant were their
notions ! " But because his commission, large enough other-
wise, had not provided for the case of his return, and substi-
tuting another in his place, some adjudged it to depend on
the queen's mercy and bounty." * The queen's adventure in
this voyage was only two ships, one only of which, and that
the least, was at the capture, and would have been carried
off by the carrack, like a lark in a hawk's talons, if the earl's
ships had not come to the rescue ; yet of this title, "joined
with her royal authority," she made such use, that the
adventurers were fain to submit themselves to her pleasure,
and " she dealt but indifferently with them," says Morison ; f
rather, indeed, anything but indifferently. The lioness
took her share ; and the jackals also helped themselves well,
as well at her cost as that of the other claimants. The queen
had not " the account of the fifth part of her value, by reason
of some men's embezzling, and the earl was fain to accept
of 36,000/., for him and his, as out of gift ".$
The size of the carrack excited great admiration. She had
nearly been wrecked on the Scilly rocks, and having put
into Dartmouth, was unladen there, and the goods sent to
London in ten vessels. " But to the end that the bigness,
height, length, breadth, and other dimensions, of so huge a
vessel might by the exact rules of geometrical observations be
truly taken, both for present knowledge and derivation also
of the same unto posterity, one M. Robert Adams, a man, in
his faculty, of excellent skill, omitted nothing in the descrip-
tion which either his art could demonstrate, or any man's
judgment think worthy the memory. After an exquisite
* Purchas, 1145. f P. 165. J Purchas.
THE EARL OF CUMBERLAND 125
survey of the whole frame, he found the length from the
beak-head to the stern (whereupon was erected a lantern) to
contain 1 65 foot. The breadth in the second close deck (whereof
she had three), this being the place where there was most
extension of breadth, was forty-six foot ten inches. She
drew in water thirty-one foot at her departure from Cochim
in India, but not above twenty-six at her arrival in Dartmouth,
being lightened in her voyage by divers means some five foot.
She carried in height seven several stories, one main orlop,
three close decks, one fore-castle, and a spar-deck of two
floors apiece. The length of the keel was 100 foot, of the
main mast 121, and the circuit about at the partners ten
foot seven ; the main yard was 106 foot long. By which
perfect commensuration of the parts appeareth the hugeness
of the whole, far beyond the mould of the biggest shipping
used among us either for war or receit."* " Being so
huge and unwieldy a ship," says another writer, " she was
never removed from Dartmouth, but there laid up her
bones."t
The success of this last voyage encouraged the earl to more
adventures ; and he imputed his former failures more to the
negligence or unfaithfulness of those whom he had employed
to lay in his stores, than to any other cause. His objections
to the queen's ships seem to have been removed by the
bravery with which the Foresight had run aboard the great
Madre dc Dios ; and planning now two expeditions at the
same time, he obtained two ships royal, which he victualled
himself, and with seven others in company sailed for the coast
of Spain, from whence he despatched three of these to the
West Indies. On the Spanish coast he had the good fortune
to fall in with two French vessels from St. Maloes : that port
held for the League ; the ships therefore were accounted
Spaniards, and they were rich enough to repay the costs of
* Hakluyt, 199. t Purchas, 1145.
126 ENGLISH SEAMEN
his voyage more than threefold. One day, being separated
from the rest of his fleet, off Peniche, he met with twelve
hulks in the same place where Monson had been captured
by the galleys exactly two years before on the same day.
He required from them that respect which was due to her
Majesty's ship ; and they, presuming upon the strength of
twelve against one, not considering how much better that
one was prepared for war, refused to render it. After two
hours' fight he brought them to his mercy ; and they to
obtain it delivered up a great quantity of ammunition which
they carried for the King of Spain's service. And here the
earl committed an error that might have cost him dear ; for,
standing out to sea with some of these hulks, he left Monson
in his long boat with fifty men to rummage the others.
Towards evening, those which he had under his custody gave
him the slip, and returned to their comrades ; and Monson
would again have been made prisoner in his turn if he had
not leaped out of the vessel into his boat on one side as they
boarded him on the other ; and in so doing he received a hurt
in the leg, which annoyed him during the remainder of his
life.
The earl, upon the intelligence which he obtained here,
made for the Western Islands, hoping to fall in with the
carracks before they should meet the Portuguese fleet which
had been ordered thither to convoy them. One of that fleet
he captured off the Isle of Flores ; but being far too weak to
encounter their whole force, of which he obtained sight the
next day, he stood off to avoid them, and hovered about for
three weeks, till he learned that the carracks had passed
safely. By this time he had been taken ill ; and life is said
to have been saved by cow's milk, Monson having ventured
ashore in Corvo, and there obtained a milch cow, what with
threats and what with promises of reward. They then made
homeward ; and the whole fleet were so parted during a
calm, which lasted several days, that they never saw each
THE EARL OF CUMBERLAND 127
other again till they met in England some four or five weeks
afterwards. This was the most gainful voyage that the earl
made "before or after".*
Meantime the three ships which had been despatched
to the West Indies reached St. Lucia, refreshed themselves
there, and made for the pearl fishery at Margarita. That
fishery was carried on in four rancheries, or assemblages of
huts : six or seven such villages were erected on different
parts of the coast, though only one at a time was occupied ;
and when the fishery failed in one place, the persons engaged
in it removed to another, the empty huts being always ready
for them. The pearls, for safety, were carried monthly to
Margarita, which stood about three leagues from the shore.
Langton, who commanded the privateers, having taken a
Spaniard, and learned from him the situation of the inhabited
rancheria, surprised it by a night march with twenty-eight
men, and carried off about 2000/. worth of pearls. After-
wards, he brought the ships there, and compelled the inhabit-
ants to ransom their huts and canoes for as many pearls as
were valued at 2000 ducats. The alarm had now been given,
and when they tried a landing at Cumana they were fain to
retire, not without loss. They had no better fortune on any
part of the Spanish main. Making then for Hispaniola, they
were glad to provide themselves with water upon the little
Island of Savona, procured by digging a hole not twenty paces
from the wash of the sea, and setting a hogshead therein
with the head knocked out, by which means, water, "losing
its saltness in that passage," was plentifully taken. They
now coasted along, exacting contributions from the different
estancias and ingenios, that is to say, breeding farms and sugar
works, as they went. After eight months spent to little
profit in hovering about Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Cuba, they
made for the Bay of Honduras, and within four leagues of
* Monson, 166. Purchas, 1146.
128 ENGLISH SEAMEN
Porto Cavallo descried seven ships in the road. Though they
were then only two in company they anchored within caliver
shot, moored their ships head and stern, and bent their
broadsides unto them, and there fought all that day with
those seven ships, and all night now and then a shot. The
next day they brought a vessel of twenty tons from the shore,
set her on fire, and endeavoured with their boats to bring
her across the Admiral ; but when the Spaniards saw their
intent they got into their boats and made for the land, carry-
ing the rudders with them, that none should sail away with
the ships. The English laded the Admiral with the best out
of the other vessels, and sent ashore to ask if the Spaniards
would ransom the rest ; and as the answer was delayed, they
first fired one which was laden with hides and logwood, and
then another with a cargo of sarsaparilla ; but all such ransom-
ing had been forbidden by the king, and the privateers were
left to take their own course. Nothing more is related of
their proceedings, except that they heaved the ordnance
overboard, saving two or three brass pieces, in hope some
Englishmen might be the better for them afterwards, brought
away the Admiral of 250 tons, and carried this prize safely
to Plymouth.*
In the ensuing year, the earl set forth on his eighth voyage,
at his own charge, with the help of some adventurers. The
force consisted of the Royal Exchange, 250, Captain George
Cave ; the May Flower, of the same burden, Vice-Admiral
Captain William Antony ; the Samson, Rear- Admiral Captain
Nicholas Downton ; a caravel, and a small pinnace. Early
in April they sailed from Plymouth, came in sight of St.
Michael's at the beginning of June, and ten days afterwards
they descried a great Indian ship, whose burden they estimated
at 2000 tons ; and which, indeed, was one of the largest ships
ever employed in the Indian trade.f The fate of this
* Purchas, 1147. t Ibid.
THE EARL OF CUMBERLAND 129
unhappy ship has been fully recorded by the Portuguese as
well as by the English.
The name of this carrack was the Cinco Chagas, or Five
Wounds, in reverential honour of which it had, with the usual
Romish ceremonies on such occasions, been named. The
Capitam Mor Francisco de Mello embarked in her from Goa,
in 1593, at the same time that the other ships of the fleet
sailed from Cochim ; all, according to the customary and fatal
improvidence of the Portuguese, deeply overladen. After
vainly endeavouring to make the Cape, the Chagas, with much
difficulty, put back to Mozambique, and wintered there.
Thither also the Nazareth put back, arriving in such a state
that it was found impossible to repair her. She had been
built of ill-seasoned timber, and, in consequence of over-freight,
had suffered so much in bad weather that her reaching the
island was considered little less than miraculous ; and there
also arrived 117 Portuguese and 65 slaves, being the remainder
of the crew of the ship St. Alberto: that ship had been
wrecked upon the Penedo dos Fontes ; and Nuno Velho,
formerly commandant at Sofala, taking command of the
people, directed their course so well, that, by an inland
journey of 300 leagues, he brought them in three months to
the Isle of Inhaca, and from thence found means of em-
barking them for Mozambique. Of all the other Portuguese
ships, many as they were, which had been wrecked upon that
fatal coast, the people, though in very many cases they got
to shore, had always perished ; and there are no tales of
shipwreck more deeply distressful than the faithful relations
which have been preserved respecting their sufferings.
Many of these people deemed it better to return to India
than pursue a voyage which had so miserably begun. For
others who persevered room was made in the Chagas; and
that ship, taking on board the jewels of the other two
vessels (for this part of the St. Alberto's treasures had
been saved), and the whole lading of the Nazareth, sailed
9
130 ENGLISH SEAMEN
once more for Europe, her crew consisting of about 1400
persons, of whom 270 were slaves.*
Before this ill-fated vessel passed the Cape it encountered
long and frequent storms, which compelled it to throw over-
board much of its cargo, and some of its provisions also. All
on board expected that they should have made for St. Helena,
when the captain produced his instructions, whereby, upon a
report that the English would be there, he was forbidden to
touch at that place ; and ordered, in case his food or water
ran low, to put into St. Paulo de Loanda. These orders,
though against his own judgment, he thought it his duty to
obey : to Loanda therefore he went, remained there a few
days, took many slaves on board, and meeting soon afterwards
with the usual calms in that pestilential region, the fatal
disease known by the name of the mal de Loanda carried off
about half the crew, and left the survivors in a state of
miserable weakness. His further instructions were to make
for the Isle of Corvo, where there would be a fleet to protect
him : but at Mozambique he had learnt the destruction of
the Santa Cruz, and the capture of the Madre de Dios ; and
having held a council when they came in the latitude of the
Azores, it was resolved that they should avoid those islands
altogether. Before, however, three days had elapsed, a
mutinous representation against this determination was got
up among the soldiers ; and upon inquiring into the state of
the stores the report was, that it was absolutely necessary
to touch at the islands, and there take in provisions and
water. Accordingly they steered for Corvo ; and being fully
aware that privateers would be cruising in that direction, they
prepared, as well as their debilitated state would permit, for
* Historia Tragico-Maritima, ii., 507-511. In the same volume (pp. 217-
313) there is a full and most interesting relation of the shipwreck of
the Santo Alberto, and the subsequent march of the crew, till they
embarked for Mozambique : the account was drawn up by Joam Baptista
Lavanha, the king's chief cosmographer.
THE EARL OF CUMBERLAND 131
battle. A little while fortune favoured them. They came
in sight of Corvo ; but the wind prevented them from coming
to anchor there : they stood therefore for Fayal, and off that
island fell in with the Earl of Cumberland's squadron.*
" The Mai/ Flower first got up to her, and received an un-
welcome salutation. In the night, the Samson came in, and
continued the fight, and at last the admiral. They agreed
that the admiral should lay the carrack aboard on the prow,
the vice-admiral on the waist, and the rear-admiral on the
quarter ; but it fell out that the admiral, laying her aboard at
the loof, recoiled astern, the vice-admiral being so near that
she was fain to run with her bolt-sprit between the two
quarters, which forced the rear-admiral to lay her aboard on
the bow." The Portuguese had pledged themselves to each
other that they would defend the ship to the last, and rather
perish with her in the sea or in the flames, than surrender so
rich a prize to the heretics. There were many brave and
honourable men on board of the old Portuguese stamp, capable
of adhering to such a resolution ; but those who had no honour
to lose, and lives at stake, were so greatly the majority that
if there had been an alternative they would not have been
allowed to choose. One of the most distinguished persons,
Don Rodrigo de Cordoba, had both his legs shattered ; and,
as he was carried below in a dying state, he exclaimed : " Sirs.
I have got this in the discharge of my duty. Be of good
heart : let no one forsake his post ; and let us be consumed
rather than taken." According to the Portuguese, the
privateers twice boarded the carrack, and were twice driven
out : a third time they boarded, one of them bearing a white
flag, as expecting that the Portuguese would gladly accept
the proposal of surrendering : in fact they had begun to
waver ; but the Englishman who carried this flag, was the
first of that party who was killed ; and when a second pilot
* Historia Tragico-Maritima, ii., 511-514.
132 ENGLISH SEAMEN
hoisted another flag at the poop, Nuno Velho threw it over-
board, and would have killed the man if he had not escaped
by speedy flight. The English, indeed, suffered considerable
loss : they had one and twenty slain. Antony, their vice-
admiral, was killed ; Downton, the rear-admiral, crippled for
life ; and Cave, who commanded the earl's ship, mortally
wounded by a shot through both legs. But the privateers,
in the heat of action, seem to have forgotten that booty was
their object, and, instead of endeavouring to take possession
of the carrack, aimed at destroying her. " After many
bickerings," says the writer in Purchas, " fire-works flew about
interchangeably. At last, the vice-admiral, with a culverin
shot at hand, fired the carrack in her stern, and the rear-
admiral her fore-castle, by a shot that gave fire to the mat
on the beak-head, from thence turning to the mat on the
bolt-sprit, and so ran up to the topsail-yard ; they plying and
maintaining their fires so well with their small shot that
many of those which came to quench them were slain. These
fires increased so sore, that the vice-admiral's fore-sail and
fore-topsail were both burnt ; the rear-admiral being in like
predicament ; while the admiral, with much danger and
difficulty, quenched the fires thrown into her from the carrack.
To save themselves in this heat and fury, the admiral and
vice-admiral fell off, leaving the rear-admiral foul of the
carrack's spritsail-yard, in great danger to have been consumed
with her, had they not helped her off with their boats." *
A scene more dreadful than the action itself ensued. P.
Frey Antonio, a Franciscan, was seen, with a crucifix in his
hand, encouraging the poor wretches to commit themselves
to the waves and to God's mercy, rather than perish in the
flames. The greater part threw themselves overboard, clinging
to such things as were cast into the sea for them to float by.
The English boats, it is said, made no endeavour to save any
* Historia Tragico-Maritima, ii., 515-519. Purchas, 1147.
THE EARL OF CUMBERLAND 133
of them : it is even affirmed that they butchered in the water
those who came near and entreated to be taken on board.
The rear-admiral's boat must, however, be exempted from this
atrocious charge ; for by that boat Nuno Velho was picked up,
Braz Correa, the captain of the Nazareth, and three other
persons : ten more, it appears by the Portuguese account,
were in like manner saved. Among the passengers in this
unfortunate ship were two Portuguese ladies of high birth,
Dona Isabel Pereira, a widow, whose father had been chief
captain of the Island of Goa, and whose husband, Diogo de
Mello Coutinho, had held the command hi Ceylon : her
daughter, Dona Luiza de Mello, a young and beautiful damsel,
was with her. They had been wrecked in the Santo Alberto,
and had performed a journey of nearly 1000 miles after that
wreck, through Caffraria, on foot ; and when many of their
fellow-sufferers returned from Mozambique to India, they
had resolved on resuming their voyage, because the young
lady was going to take possession of her entailed property at
Evora. Mother and daughter, when they saw that no help
was to be hoped for from the privateers, and that they
had to choose between the fire and the water, fastened them-
selves together with a Franciscan cord ; and their bodies,
thus fastened, were cast ashore upon the Island of Fayal.
According to the Portuguese statement, about 500 persons
perished in the ship ; according to the English, there were
more than 1100 on board when she left Loanda, of whom
only fifteen were saved ! Nuno Velho and Braz Correa were
brought prisoners to England, where the earl is said to have
treated them well, and to have entertained them a whole year
as his guests : they were then ransomed for 3000 cruzados,