ad. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1589.91. 



missed the Hand of S. Helena, was of necessitie con- 

 strained to put into Phernambuck, although the king had 

 expresly under a great penaltie forbidden him so to doe, 

 because of the wormes that there doe spoile the ships. 

 The same shippe wherein Bernardin Ribero was Admirall 

 the yeere before 1589. sailed out of Lisbon into the 

 Indies, with 5 ships in her company, whereof but 4 got 

 into India, the 5 was never heard of, so that it was 

 thought to be cast away : the other foure returned safe 

 againe into Portugall, though the Admiral was much 

 spoiled, because he met with two English ships that 

 fought long with him, and slew many of his men, but 

 yet he escaped from them. 



The 5 of the same moneth there arrived in Tercera a 

 caravel of the Hand of Corvo, & brought with her 50 

 men that had bin spoiled by the Englishmen who had set 

 them on shore in the Hand of Corvo, being taken out of 

 a ship that came from the Spanish Indies, they brought 

 tidings that the Englishmen had taken 4 more of the 

 Indian ships, & a caravel with the king of Spaines letters 

 of advise for the ships comming out of the Portugal 

 Indies, & that with those which they had taken, they 

 were at the least 40 English ships together, so y' not one 

 bark escaped them, but fel into their hands, & that 

 therefore the Portugall ships comming out of India durst 

 not put into the Hands, but tooke their course under 

 40 & 42 degrees, and from thence sailed to Lisbon, 

 shunning likewise the cape S. Vincent, otherwise they 

 could not have had a prosperous journey of it, for that as 

 then the sea was ful of English ships. Whereupon the 

 king advised the fleet lying in Havana in ye Spanish 

 Indies ready to come for Spaine, that they should stay 

 there all that yeere till the next yeere, because of the 

 great danger they might fal into by ye Englishmen, 

 which was no smal charge, & hinderance to the fleet, for 

 that the ships that lie there do consume themselves, and 

 in a maner eat up one another, by reason of the great 

 number of people, together with the scarcitie of al things, 



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