But a very mighty storm arising in the night, the extremity thereof forced them all to weigh anchors; yet their care was such in wrestling with the weather, not to lose the Carrack: [so] that, in the morning (the tempest being qualified, and our men bearing again with the shore), they might perceive the Carrack very near the land; and the Portugals confusedly carrying on shore such things as they could, [in] any manner of way, convey out of her. And seeing the haste our men made to come upon them; [they] forsook her.
But first, that nothing might be left commodious to our men; [they] set fire to that which they could not A Carrack, called the Santa Cruz, set on fire. carry with them: intending by that means, wholly to consume her; that neither glory of victory, nor benefit of ship, might remain to ours.
And lest the approach and industry of the English should bring means to extinguish the flame, thereby to preserve the residue of that which the fire had not destroyed: being 400 of them in number and well armed, they intrenched themselves on land so near the Carrack, that she, being by their forces protected and our men kept aloof off; the fire might continue to the consumption of the whole.
A hundred of our men landed.
This being noted by Sir John Burrough; he soon provided a present remedy for this mischief. For landing 100 of his men (whereof many did swim, and wade more than breast high, to shore) and easily scattering those that presented themselves to guard the coast: he no sooner drew towards their new trenches, but they fled immediately; leaving as much as the fire had spared [of the Santa Cruz] to be the reward of our men's pains.
Here were taken, among others, one Vincent Fonseca, a Portugal, Purser of the Carrack; with two others, one an Almain [German], and the second a Low Dutchman [Hollander] Cannoniers: who, refusing to make any voluntary report of those things which were demanded of them, had the torture threatened; the fear whereof, at the last, wrested from them this intelligence:
That, within fifteen days, three other greater Carracks than that [the Santa Cruz] lately fired, would arrive at the same Island [of Flores]. And that being five Carracks in the Fleet at their departure from Goa, to wit, the Buen Jesus, Admiral [Flag Ship]; the Madre de Dios; the San Bernardo; the San Christophoro; and the Santa Cruz, whose fortune you have already heard: they had received special commandment from the King [Philip II.] not to touch, in any case, at the Island of St. Helena, where the Portugal Carracks, in their return from the East India, were always, till now, wont to arrive, to refresh themselves with water and victuals. And the King's reason was, because of the English Men of War: who, as he was informed, lay there in wait to intercept them. If therefore their necessity of water should drive them to seek [a] supply anywhere, he appointed them Angola, in the main[land] of Africa; with order Angola, a new watering place for the Carracks. there to stay only the taking in of water, to avoid the inconvenience of infections, whereunto that hot latitude is dangerously subject. The last rendezvous for them all was the Island of Flores: where the King assured them not to miss of his Armada, thither sent of purpose for their wafting [convoy] to Lisbon.
Upon this information, Sir John drew to Council [of War], meeting there Captain Norton, Captain Downton, Captain Abraham Cocke, Captains of three ships of [George Clifford,] the Earl of Cumberland; Master Thomson of Harwich, Captain of the Dainty of Sir John Hawkins's, one of Sir Walter Raleigh's Fleet; and Master Christopher Newport, Captain of the Golden Dragon, newly returned from the West Indies; and others.
These being assembled, he communicated with them what he had understood of the foresaid Examinates; and what great presumptions of truth their relation did carry: wishing that forasmuch as GOD and good fortune had brought them together in so good a season, they would shew the uttermost of their endeavours to bring these Easterlings [here meaning, the Carracks from the East: an unusual application of a word ordinarily applied to Baltic ships] under the lee of English obedience.