SIR JOHN HAWKINS a.d. 



... ^5^^' 



put in prison, and incontinent foure of the chiefest 



being condemned, at the request of the souldiers, did 

 passe the harquebuzers, and then were hanged upon a ^^^ occasion 

 pfibbet. This lacke of threescore men was a great dis- °-^ [ eplimg 

 courage and weakenmg to the rest, tor they were the Floridians. 

 best souldiers that they had : for they had now made 

 the inhabitants weary of them by their dayly craving 

 of maiz, having no wares left to content them withall, 

 and therefore were inforced to rob them, and to take 

 away their victual perforce, which was the occasion that 

 the Floridians (not well contented therewith) did take 

 certeine of their company in the woods, and slew them ; 

 wherby there grew great warres betwixt them and the 

 Frenchmen : and therefore they being but a few in 

 number durst not venture abroad, but at such times as 

 they were inforced thereunto for want of food to do 

 ' the same : and going twenty harquebuzers in a company, 

 were set upon by eighteene kings, having seven or eight 

 hundred men, which with one of their bowes slew one 

 of their men, and hurt a dozen, & drove them all 

 downe to their boats ; whose pollicy in fight was to be 

 marvelled at: for having shot at divers of their bodies 

 which were armed, and perceiving that their arrowes 

 did not prevaile against the same, they shot at their 

 faces and legs, which were the places that the French- 

 men were hurt in. Thus the Frenchmen returned, 

 being in ill case by the hurt of their men, having not 

 above forty souldiers left unhurt, whereby they might 

 ill make any more invasions upon the Floridians, and 

 keepe their fort withall : which they must have beene 

 driven unto, had not God sent us thither for their 

 succour ; for they had not above ten dayes victuall left 

 before we came. In which perplexity our captaine 

 seeing them, spared them out of his ship twenty barrels The French 

 of meale, & foure pipes of beanes, with divers other f^f^J[^'jur 

 victuals and necessaries which he might conveniently ^Zckins. 

 spare : and to helpe them the better homewards, whither 

 they were bound before our comming, at their request 



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