Sir Francis Drake: His Voyage, 1595 / Together with the Spanish account of Drake's attack on Puerto Rico

by active 1595 Thomas Maynarde

Besides the frigates well armed, without which there were the aforesaid seventy pieces of cannon planted with good gunners at each post, and for chief commander of the forts of the Morro and the Morillo de Sta. Helena, the Admiral, Gonçalo Mendez de Canço.

On the 15th of the same month intelligence arrived from the governor of Canary, despatched to the governor of this island, to make it known that the enemy’s fleet had passed by the former place, and having landed some people for the purpose of watering, they had been forced to retreat with the loss of five-and-twenty men, and had gone off towards the Indies; and the same messenger stated, that in passing by the island of St. Martin, he had seen the armada, of five-and-twenty sail, lying at anchor.

Immediately, on the same day, the general, Sancho Pardo, sent the same despatch to the governor of the Havana, and wrote to him to forward the information to New Spain to General Pedro Melendez, who was on that coast with his fleet. These precautionary steps having been taken, and the people being all eager to combat the enemy, the general held a council, at which were present, Don Pedro Tello; the admiral, Gonçalo Mendez; and the captains, Marco Antonio Veçerra, Pedro de Guia, and Domingo de Ynsaurraga, with the supercargo Martin Vomero de Caamaño; and having taken into consideration whether it were expedient to embark the bullion in two of the frigates, so that if the enemy should place himself before the port, these being lighter, might effect their escape by night, the other three following them in the rear, in order that, if any attempt were made upon them, they might stay behind fighting while the two continued their voyage; it was decided by the majority of votes, that the bullion should not be removed from the place where it was lying, because the removal of it would tend to dispirit the people, who were fired with the thought of defending it: seeing their expectations foiled, they would be dispirited, and His Majesty would lose the place and his reputation, which was to be valued much more highly than the bullion: and what it behoved them to do, was to face the enemy, trusting in God for the victory. When the general saw how the majority inclined, he gave orders to Don Pedro Tello to get the frigates ready with all convenient despatch, that the bullion might be embarked whenever it was found expedient to do so; the enemy, it was supposed, would afford indications of his intentions, if he had such, of watching for it outside; and he directed that a caravel should cruise on the look out, about fifty leagues off the land. This was done accordingly, and the bullion remained as it was, which was the prudent course.

Wednesday the 22nd of the same month (November), at break of day, the enemy’s fleet was descried on the horizon, with twenty-three sail and a pinnace. The six queen’s galleons of eight hundred tons, and two ships of the same size, and the rest, vessels of three hundred tons and of one hundred and fifty and less, and forty launches, came sailing in close order. Immediately every one snatched up his arms and ran to his post with great alacrity, and well disposed for combat. There was but little wind, and so the fleet advanced but slowly till it entered the breeze. The pinnace came first and some boats with white signal-flags sounding the coast. One of them having come in front of the Boqueron battery, a gun was fired at it which made it stand off to sea, and they immediately hoisted other coloured flags and passed out; and in the afternoon the whole fleet came and cast anchor in front of the curtain of the Cabron, where no one had ever seen a ship ride before, nor was it known that there was good anchorage till after the departure of the enemy, when the general sent to have the place sounded, and from twenty to thirty fathoms clear water were found there. From what was learned, it appears to have been his intention to land a force under the fire of his artillery, imagining that he should find us unprepared, and seeing no reason to believe that such a step would meet with resistance; wherein he was mistaken.

The fleet having arrived in the place above-mentioned, our people fired at it several pieces of artillery from the Morrillo and the curtain of the Cabron, so that some of the shot took effect on them, for it was known afterwards, that they killed John Hawkins, the general of one of the squadrons, and two of the principal gentlemen who accompanied him, besides other people; and that they carried away the table at which Francis Drake was eating, the ball striking a gentleman who was with him, and who, it is known, will not escape.

The enemy perceiving how much loss he sustained from the shore, sent the pinnace with a pilot, a native of the islands and a mulatto by race, who is said to be practically well acquainted with these coasts, with five boats to the port, to reconnoitre it and to sound close to the mouth formed by the islet, which is called Goat Island, which lies towards the west; and when it was sounded, one of the boats returned with information to the fleet, which immediately weighed anchor, at five o’clock in the evening, without having fired a cannon or even a musket during all the whole time that it was there, and ran out to sea, where it stood off and on that night till the following day.

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.

At the same time they set fire to the Sta. Ysabel and Magdalena frigates, and to the Sancta Clara, which was extinguished; but the third time that the Magdalena frigate, of which Domingo de Ynsaurraga was captain, took fire, it was impossible to extinguish the flames, as the ship took fire at the stern and burned furiously; and all that could be done to maintain a footing on board, was done by the aforesaid captain and the people with him, until the ship was just burnt down and twelve men were killed by the enemy’s musquetry, besides as many more burnt. And the aforesaid captain made his escape by swimming through the midst of the boats and reached the frigate Sancta Ysabel, which was under the command of Captain Juan Flores de Rabanal in place of Captain Pedro de Guia, who had charge of a post on land, and there he lent his assistance in every manner possible. The battle lasted for an hour, the most obstinately contested that was ever seen, and the whole port was illumined by the burning frigate in a manner favourable for the rest, who could thus see to point our artillery and that of the forts, with which, and with the musquetry and the stones thrown from the frigate, they did such effect, that the enemy, after about an hour, during which the combat lasted, as I have said, retreated with the loss of nine or ten boats and more than four hundred men, besides many more wounded; while on our side, the only loss was that of the frigate and forty men killed or burnt, besides a few wounded by the musquetry. It was a fine sight to see how the frigates fought, and how capitally they were backed by the artillery of the forts, particularly that of Sta. Helena, which was in an advantageous position for playing on the boats.