While the matter was thus in dispute, Sir Richard refusing to listen to any reasons, the captain won over the most part to his opinion, and the master was conveyed on board the Spanish general, Don Alfonso Baçan. Finding none of his people very ready to attempt boarding the Revenge again, and fearing lest Sir Richard might blow up both them and himself, as he learned from the master his dangerous disposition; Don Alfonso agreed that all their lives should be saved, the ships company sent to England, and the better sort to pay such reasonable ransom as their estate could bear, all in the meantime to be free from prison or the gallies. He so much the rather consented to these terms, lest any farther loss or mischief might accrue to themselves, and for the preservation of Sir Richard, whose notable valour he greatly honoured and admired. On receiving this answer, in which the safety of life was promised; the common sort, now at the end of their peril, mostly drew back from the proposal of Sir Richard and the master gunner, it being no hard matter to dissuade men from death to life. Finding himself and Sir Richard thus prevented and mastered by the majority, the master gunner would have slain himself with his sword, but was prevented by main force, and locked up in his cabin.
Then the Spanish general sent many boats on board the Revenge, and several of her men, fearing Sir Richards disposition, stole away on board the general and other ships. Thus constrained to submit, Sir Richard was desired by a message from Alfonso Baçan to remove from the Revenge, as it was filled with blood and the bodies of the slain, and with wounded men, like a slaughter-house. Sir Richard gave for answer, that he might do now with his body what he pleased; and while removing from the ship, he fainted away, and on recovering he requested the company to pray for him. The Spanish general used Sir Richard with all humanity, leaving no means untried that tended towards his recovery, highly commending his valour and worthiness, and greatly bewailing his dangerous condition; seeing that it was a rare spectacle, and an instance of resolution seldom met with, for one ship to withstand so many enemies, to endure the batteries and boardings of so many huge ships of war, and to resist and repel the assaults and entries of such numbers of soldiers. All this and more is confirmed, by the recital of a Spanish captain in that same fleet, who was himself engaged in this action, and, being severed from the rest in a storm, was taken by the Lion, a small ship belonging to London, and is now prisoner in London.
The general commanding this great armada, was Don Alphonso Baçan, brother to the Marquis of Santa Cruz. Britandona was admiral of the squadron of Biscay. The Marquis of Arumburch [Aremberg] commanded the squadron of Seville. Luis Coutinho commanded the hulks and flyboats. There were slain and drowned in this fight, as the before-mentioned Spanish captain confessed, near a thousand of the enemy, with two special commanders, Don Luis de San Juan, and Don George de Prunaria de Mallaga, besides others of special account whose names have not yet been reported. The admiral of the hulks and the Ascension of Seville were both sunk at the side of the Revenge. One other ship, which got into the road of San Miguel, sank there also; and a fourth ship had to run on shore to save her men. Sir Richard, as it is said, died the second or third day on board the general, much bewailed by his enemies; but we have not heard what became of his body, whether it were committed to the sea or buried on land. The comfort remaining to his friends is, that he ended his life honourably, having won great reputation for his nation and his posterity, and hath not outlived his honour.
For the rest of her majestys ships, that entered not into the fight like the Revenge, the reasons and causes were these: There were of them only six in all, two whereof were only small ships; and they could be of no service, as the Revenge was engaged past recovery. The island of Flores was on one side; 53 sail of Spanish ships were on the other, divided into several squadrons, all as full of soldiers as they could contain. Almost one half of our men were sick and unable to serve; the ships were grown foul, unroomaged[374], and hardly able to bear any sail for want of ballast, having been six months at sea. If all the rest of the ships had entered into the action, they had been all lost; for the very hugeness of the Spanish ships, even if no other violence had been offered, might have crushed them all into shivers between them; by which the loss and dishonour to the queen had been far greater, than any injury the enemy could have sustained. It is nevertheless true, that the Lord Thomas Howard would have entered between the squadrons of the enemy, but the others would on no account consent; and even the master of his own ship threatened to leap into the sea, rather than conduct the admirals ship and the rest to be a certain prey to the enemy, where there was no hope or possibility of victory or even of defence. In my opinion, such rashness would have ill assorted with the discretion and trust of a general, to have committed himself and his charge to assured destruction, without any hope or likelihood of prevailing, thereby to have diminished the strength of her majestys navy, and to have increased the pride and glory of the enemy.
[Footnote 374: This singular antiquated sea term may signify, not in sailing trim.--E.]
The Foresight, one of her majestys vessels, commanded by Thomas Vavasour, performed a very great service, and staid two hours as near the Revenge as the weather would permit, not forsaking the fight till well nigh encompassed by the squadrons of the enemy, and then cleared himself with great difficulty. The rest gave diverse vollies of shot, and engaged as far as the place and their own necessities permitted, so as to keep the weather-gage of the enemy, till night parted them.
A few days after this fight, the prisoners being dispersed among the Spanish ships of war and ships from the Indies, there arose so great a storm from the W. and N.W. that all the fleet was dispersed, as well the fleet of the Indies then come to them as the rest of the armada that had attended their arrival, of which 14 sail, together with the Revenge having 200 Spaniards on board of her, were cast away upon the island of St Michael. Thus they honoured the obsequies of the renowned Revenge, for the great glory she had achieved, not permitting her to perish alone. Besides these, other 15 or 16 of the Spanish ships of war were cast away in this storm upon the other islands of the Azores: And, of an 100 sail and more of the fleet of the Indies, which were expected this year in Spain, what with the loss sustained in this tempest, and what before in the bay of Mexico and about the Bermuda islands, above 70 were lost, including those taken by our London ships; besides one very rich ship of the Indies, which set herself on fire being boarded by the Pilgrim, and five others taken by the ship belonging to Mr Wats of London between the Havannah and Cape St Antonio. On the 4th of November this year, we had letters from Tercera, affirming that 3000 dead bodies had been thrown upon that island from the perished ships, and that the Spaniards confessed to have lost 10,000 men in this storm, besides those who perished between the main and the islands. Thus it hath pleased God to fight for us, and to defend the justice of our cause, against the ambitious and bloody pretences of the Spaniards, who seeking to devour all nations are themselves devoured: A manifest testimony how unjust and displeasing are their attempts in the sight of God, who hath been pleased to witness, by the evil success of their affairs, his mislike of their bloody and injurious designs, purposed and practised against all Christian princes, over whom they seek unlawful and ungodly rule and supreme command.
A day or two before this terrible catastrophe, when some of our prisoners desired to be set on shore on the Azores islands, hoping to be thence transported into England, and which liberty had been formerly promised by the Spanish general; one Morice Fitz John, (son of old John of Desmond, a notable traitor, who was cousin-german to the late earl of Desmond,) was sent from ship to ship to endeavour to persuade the English prisoners to serve the king of Spain. The arguments he used to induce them were these. Increase of pay to treble their present allowance; advancement to the better sort; and the free exercise of the true catholic religion, ensuring the safety of all their souls. For the first of these, the beggarly and unnatural behaviour of those English and Irish rebels that served the king of Spain in that action was a sufficient answer; for so poor and ragged were they, that, for want of apparel, they stripped the poor prisoners their countrymen of their ragged garments, worn out by six months service, not even sparing to despoil them of their bloody shirts from their wounded bodies, and the very shoes from their feet; a noble testimony of their rich entertainment and high pay. As to the second argument, of hope of advancement if they served well and continued faithful to the king of Spain; what man could be so blockishly ignorant ever to expect promotion and honour from a foreign king, having no other merit or pretension than his own disloyalty, his unnatural desertion of his country and parents, and rebellion against his true prince, to whose obedience he is bound by oath, by nature, and by religion? No! such men are only assured to be employed on all desperate enterprizes, and to be held in scorn and disdain even among those they serve. That ever a traitor was either trusted or advanced I have never learnt, neither can I remember a single example. No man could have less becomed the office of orator for such a purpose, than this Morice of Desmond: For, the earl his cousin, being one of the greatest subjects in the kingdom of Ireland, possessing almost whole counties in his large property, many goodly manors, castles, and lordships, the county palatine of Kerry, 500 gentlemen of his own family and name ready to follow him, all which he and his ancestors had enjoyed in peace for three or four hundred years: Yet this man, in less than three years after his rebellion and adherence to the Spaniards, was beaten from all his holds, not so many as ten gentlemen of his name left living, himself taken and beheaded by a gentleman of his own nation, and his lands given by parliament to her majesty and possessed by the English. His other cousin, Sir John Desmond, taken by Mr John Zouch; and his body hung up over the gates of his native city to be devoured by ravens. The third brother, Sir James, hanged, drawn, and quartered in the same place. Had he been able to vaunt of the success of his own house, in thus serving the king of Spain, the argument might doubtless have moved much and wrought great effect: the which, because he happened to forget, I have thought good to remember in his behalf.
As for the matter of religion, to which he adverted, it would require a separate volume, were I to set down how irreligiously they cover their greedy and ambitious pretences with that veil of pretended piety. But sure I am, there is no kingdom or commonwealth in all Europe that they do not invade, under pretence of religion, if it be reformed. Nay if it even be what they term catholic, they pretend a title, as if the kings of Castile were the natural heirs of all the world. Thus between both, no kingdom is exempted from their ambition. Where they dare not invade with their own forces, they basely entertain the traitors and vagabonds of all nations; seeking by their means, and by their runagate Jesuits, to win other parts to their dominion, by which they have ruined many noble houses and others in this land, extinguishing their lives and families. What good, honour, or fortune, any one hath ever yet achieved through them, is yet unheard of. If our English papists will only look to Portugal, against which they have no pretence of religion; how their nobility are imprisoned and put to death, their rich men made a prey, and all sorts of people reduced to servitude; they shall find that the obedience even of the Turk is ease and liberty, compared to the tyranny of Spain. What have they done in Sicily, in Naples, in Milan, in the low countries? Who hath there been spared even for religion? It cometh to my remembrance of a certain burgher at Antwerp, whose house was entered by a company of Spanish soldiers when they sacked that city. He besought them to spare him and his goods, being a good catholic, and therefore one of their own party and faction. The Spaniards answered, they knew him to be of a good conscience in himself; but his money, plate, jewels, and goods, were all heretical, and therefore good prize. So they abused and tormented the foolish Fleming, who thought that an Agnus Dei had been a sufficient safeguard against all the force of that holy and charitable nation.
Neither have they at any time, as they protest, invaded the kingdoms of Mexico and Peru and elsewhere, being only led thereto to reduce the people to Christianity, not for gold or empire: Whereas, in the single island of Hispaniola, they have wasted and destroyed thirty hundred thousand of the natives, besides many millions else in other places of the Indies: a poor and harmless people, created of God, and might have been won to his service, as many of them were, even almost all whom they endeavoured to persuade thereto. The story of these their enormities, has been written at large by Bartholomew de las Casas[375], a bishop of their own nation, and has been translated into English and many other languages, under the title of The Spanish Cruelties. Who therefore would repose trust in such a nation of ravenous strangers, and more especially in those Spaniards, who more greedily thirst after the blood of the English, for the many overthrows and dishonours they have received at our hands; whose weakness we have discovered to the world, and whose forces, at home, abroad, in Europe, in the Indies, by sea and by land, even with mere handfuls of men and ships on our sides, we have overthrown and dishonoured? Let not therefore any Englishman, of what religion soever, have other opinion of these Spaniards or their abettors, but that those whom they seek to win of our nation, they esteem base and traiterous, unworthy persons, and inconstant fools; and that they use this pretence of religion, for no other purpose but to bewitch us from the obedience due to our natural prince, hoping thereby to bring us in time under slavery and subjection, when none shall be there so odious and despised, as those very traitors who have sold their country to strangers, forsaking their faith and obedience, contrary to the laws of nature and religion, and contrary to that humane and universal honour, not only of Christians but of heathen and unbelieving nations, who have always sustained every degree of labour, embracing even death itself, in defence of their country, their prince, and their commonwealth.