a.d. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1589-91. 



his owne private motion he offred his service to the 

 Queene : he had performed many valiant acts, and was 

 greatly feared in these Hands, and knowen of every man, 

 but of nature very severe, so that his owne people hated 

 him for his fiercenesse, & spake very hardly of him : for 

 when they first entred into the fleet or Armada, they 

 had their great saile in a readinesse, and might possibly 

 enough have sailed away, for it was one of the best ships 

 for saile in England, and the master perceiving that the 

 other ships had left them, & folowed not after, com- 

 manded the great saile to be cut that they might make 

 away : but sir Rich. Greenvil threatned both him & al the 

 rest that were in the ship, y l if any man laid hand upon 

 it, he would cause him to be hanged, and so by that 

 occasion they were compelled to fight & in the end were 

 taken. He was of so hard a complexion, that as he con- 

 tinued among the Spanish captains while they were at 

 dinner or supper with him, he would carouse 3 or 4 

 glasses of wine, and in a braverie take the glasses be- 

 [II. ii. 186.] tweene his teeth and crash them in pieces & swalow 

 them downe, so that oftentimes the blood ran out of 

 his mouth without any harme at all unto him : & this 

 was told me by divers credible persons that many times 

 stood and beheld him. The Englishmen that were left 

 in the ship, as the captaine of the souldiers, the master 

 and others were dispersed into divers of the Spanish ships 

 that had taken them, where there had almost a new 

 fight arisen between the Biscains and the Portugals : 

 while each of them would have the honour to have 

 first boorded her, so that there grew a great noise and 

 quarel among them, one taking the chiefe ensigne, and 

 the other the flag, and the captaine and every one held his 

 owne. The ships that had boorded her were altogether 

 out of order, and broken, and many of their men hurt, 

 whereby they were compelled to come into the Island of 

 Tercera, there to repaire themselves : where being arrived, 

 I and my chamber-felow, to heare some newes, went 

 aboord one of the ships being a great Biscain, and one of 



