The Carrack, being in burden, by the estimation of the wise and experienced, [of] no less than 1,600 tons; had fully 900 of those, stowed with the gross bulk of merchandise: the rest of the tonnage being allowed, partly to the ordnance, which were 32 pieces of brass of all sorts; partly to the passengers and the victuals; which could not be any small quantity, considering the number of the persons, betwixt 600 and 700, and the length of the navigation.
A brief Catalogue of the sundry rich commodities of the Madre de Dios.
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 Leaden Hall, the 15th of September 1592. Where, 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,&c.
The Spices were Pepper, Cloves, Maces, Nutmegs, Cinnamon, Green Ginger.
The Drugs were Benjamin [the gum Benzoin], Frankincense, Galingale [or Galangal], Mirabolams, Aloes, Zocotrina, Camphor.
The Silks [were] Damasks, Taffatas, Sarcenets, Altobassos that is counterfeit Cloth of Gold, unwrought China Silk, Sleaved Silk, White twisted Silk, Curled Cypress [=Cypress lawn, a cobweb lawn or crape].
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 Pearls, Musk, Civet, and Ambergris.
The rest of the wares were many in number; but less in value: as Elephants' teeth; Porcelain vessels of China; Cocoanuts; Hides; Ebony wood, as black as jet; Bedsteads 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 sterling [=£600,000 to £700,000 now]: which being divided among the Adventurers whereof Her Majesty was the chief, was sufficient to yield contentment to all parties.
The [above] cargazon [cargo] being taken out [at Dartmouth], and the goods freighted in ten of our ships, [and] sent for London; 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 [transmission] also of the same unto posterity: one Master Robert Adams, a man in his faculty of excellent skill, omitted nothing in the description which either his art could demonstrate; or any man's judgment think worthy the memory.
The capacity and dimensions of the Madre de Dios.
After an exquisite survey of the whole frame, he found: The length, from the beak-head to the stern, whereupon was erected a lantern, to contain 165 feet.