I collected the men who were on land.... I departed in the name of the Holy Trinity, on Easter night, with the ships rotten, worn out and eaten into holes [by the teredo].... I then had only two left.... I was without boats or provisions, and in this condition I had to cross seven thousand miles of sea; or as an alternative to die on the passage with my son, my brother and so many of my people.... I send this letter by means of and by the hands of Indians; it will be a miracle if it reaches its destination (pp. 186, 189).
NEW LIGHT ON DRAKE
DEPOSITION BY NUNO DA SILVA AS TO HOW HE WAS MADE PRISONER BY ENGLISH PIRATES ON HIS VOYAGE FROM OPORTO TO BRAZIL (p. 301).
(Conquest of New Spain, Hakluyt Society Publications, Series II, Vol. 24.)
“This Englishman calls himself Francis Drake and is a man aged 38. He may be two years more or less. He is low in stature, thickset and very robust. He has a fine countenance, is ruddy of complexion and has a fair beard. He has the mark of an arrow wound in his right cheek which is not apparent if one does not look with especial care. In one leg he has the ball of an arquebuse that was shot at him in the Indies. He is AN ABRIDGEMENT OF THE RELATION AND PROOFS MADE AGAINST SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, KNIGHT, TOUCHING HIS DOINGS IN THE SOUTH SEA BEYOND THE STRAIT OF MAGALANUS (p. 414). It is informed the said Francis Drake went forth with 5 ships well appointed and in them 400 men of war, having for pilot a Portingall named Amador de Silva. The said Drake came by Cape Verde and coasting the straits of Brazil arrived at the mouth of the Strait of Magalanus where there is a very good port named St. Julian, in the which they tarried wintering 2 months because of the great north winds which were contrary. At the end of which time the 5 ships went out of the said port and sailing in the Strait they had a tempest so vehement that 2 of the said ships perished and they received the men into 3 remaining ships which with 3 pinaces which they towed at their poops issued out of the Strait into the South Sea in 44 degrees of altitude and sailing towards the Sea, with a storm were 40 days in the Sea at dryte [? drift] and so the two ships did separate themselves and the said Drake remained alone which could never afterward see them.