The first volley from the English was terrible, the whole ship being enveloped in fire and smoke. On our side they responded coldly, and the artillery was altogether silent. Captain Flory cried, "Fire the cannon, fire," but the Cannoneer was not there. Now Gilbert du Thet, who in all his life had never felt fear or shown himself a coward, hearing this command and seeing no one obey it, took a match and made us speak as loudly as [235] the enemy. Unfortunately, he did not take aim; if he had, perhaps there might have been something worse than mere noise.
L'Anglois apres ceste premiere, & furieuse escopeterie mit son nauire de costé, & tenoit vn Anchre preparé pour accrocher nostre bite. Le Capitaine Flory fila du chable fort à propos, ce qui arresta l'ennemy, & luy fit tourner à costé: car il eust peur [282] qu'en poursuiuant on ne le voulust attirer sur des basses; despuis voyant nostre nauire à requoy, & s'estant rasseuré, il recommença les approches auec escopeterie comme deuant. Ce fut en ceste seconde charge, que Gilbert du Thet reçeut vn coup de mosquet dans le corps & tomba estendu à l'enuers sur le tillac. Le Capitaine Flory fut aussi blessé au pied, & autres trois autre part, ce qui fit faire signe, & [236] crier qu'on se rendoit. Aussi certes la partie n'estoit pas egale. A ce cry, l'Anglois se ietta dans son bateau pour venir à nostre nauire. Nos gents aussi par mauuais conseil, se ietterent dans le leur, pour faire à terre: car ils craignoyent l'arriuée du victorieux. Le vainqueur fut plustost dans nostre nauire, qu'eux ne furent loin, & partant il se print à leur crier, qu'ils retournassent, & pour les y contraindre tiroit sur eux. Dequoy espouuãtez deux de nos gẽs se ietterent dans l'eau pour à mõ aduis gaigner terre à la nage, mais ils furent noyez, soit que ja ils eussent esté blessez, soit (ce qui est plus vray semblable) qu'ils fussent attaints, & percez dans l'eau. C'estoyent deux ieunes compagnons de bonne expectation, l'vn de Dieppe, appellé le Moyne, l'autre dit Nepueu, de la ville de [237] Beauuais: leurs corps ne comparurent que neuf iours apres. On eust moyen de les prendre & religieusement les enterrer: telle fut la prinse de nostre nauire.
The English, after this first and furious volley, came alongside of us, and held an Anchor ready to grapple our bitts. Captain Flory very opportunely paid out more cable, which stopped the enemy and made them turn away, for they were afraid if they pursued us we would draw them into shallow water; then seeing our vessel fall back, and thus being reassured, they again began to approach us, firing off the muskets as before. It was during this second charge that Gilbert du Thet received a musket shot in his body and fell stretched out across the deck. Captain Flory was also wounded in the foot, and three others in other places, which made them signal and [236] cry out that we surrendered, for it was evidently a very unequal match. At this cry the English jumped into their boat to come to our ship. Our men also, misled by bad advice, jumped into theirs with the hope of gaining the shore, for they feared the arrival of the victors. These, however, reached the ship before our men could get away from it, and so they began to yell to them to come back, and, to enforce the order, fired upon them. Frightened at this, two of our men threw themselves into the sea, in order, I believe, to swim to the shore; but they were drowned, either because they were already wounded, or (what seems more probable) because they were struck and wounded in the water. These were two very promising young fellows, one from Dieppe, called le Moyne, the other named Nepveu, of the town of [237] Beauvais; their bodies did not appear until nine days later, when means were found to recover them and they were given a religious burial. Such was the capture of our ship.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA: VOL. III
XIII
The original Latin MS. of Biard's letter to his general, dated at Amiens, May 26, 1614, is in the archives of the Gesù, at Rome. In 1858, Father Martin there copied this document, with others of like character; and in the present publication we follow his apograph, which is now preserved in the archives of St. Mary's College, Montreal. Martin's translation of the letter into French appears in Carayon's Première Mission, pp. 106-116.
See Bibliographical Data in Volume [I.] of the present series, for particulars of Carayon's collection. The originals of the letters in Carayon, were written in three different languages: nos. 2, 5, 9, 12, 18, 25, 27-31, were in French; nos. 13, 14, 15, 16, in Italian; and the others in Latin. Letters to the general in Rome were for the most part in Italian or Latin, but those to the provincial in Paris were in French. The Italian and Latin letters were translated for Carayon, into French, in most cases by Martin, who had copied them for that publication. In our series, we have followed the printed pages of Carayon, for the French letters; but for the Italians and Latins (except Documents III., V., and VI., in Volume I.), have reverted for our copy to Martin's own apographs, at Montreal, and our translations into English are made directly from these.
XIV
We reprint Biard's Relation of 1616 directly from the printed original in Lenox Library. The Lenox copy has no original title-page, its place being supplied by a clever facsimile in pen-and-ink, said to be by Pilinski. For the present edition, we supply a photographic facsimile of the original title-page of the copy at the Bibliothèque Nationale (formerly Bibliothèque Royale), Paris; the plate shows the old library stamp, "Biblioteque Royale." The Paris copy is the only one known to us, at this writing, which has an original title-page.