a.d. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1579- 



and souldiers, there were a great number of children 

 which in the seas beare out better then men, and no 

 marvell, when that many women also passe very well. 

 The setting foorth from the port I need not to tell 

 how solemne it is with trumpets, and shooting of 

 ordinance, you may easily imagine it, considering that 

 they go in the maner of warre. The tenth of the 

 foresayd moneth we came to the sight of Porto Santo 

 neere unto Madera, where an English shippe set upon 

 ours (which was then also alone) with a few shots, 

 which did no harme, but after that our ship had layed 

 out her greatest ordinance, they straight departed as 

 they came. The English shippe was very faire and 

 great, which I was sory to see so ill occupied, for she 

 went roving about, so that we saw her againe at the 

 Canarian lies, unto the which we came the thirteenth 

 of the sayd moneth, and good leisure we had to 

 woonder at the high mountaine of the Hand Tenerif, 

 for we wandred betweene that and great Canaria foure 

 dayes by reason of contrary windes : and briefly, such 

 evill weather we had untill the foureteenth of May, 

 that they despaired, to compasse the Cape of Good 

 hope that yeere. Neverthelesse, taking our voyage 

 betweene Guinea and the Hands of Capo Verde, with- 

 out seeing of any land at all, we arrived at length 

 unto the coast of Guinie, which the Portugals so call, 

 chiefly that part of the burning Zone, which is from 

 the sixt degree unto the Equinoctiall, in which parts 

 they suffered so many inconveniences of heats, and 

 lacke of windes, that they thinke themselves happy 

 when they have passed it : for sometimes the ship 

 standeth there almost by the space of many dayes, 

 sometime she goeth, but in such order that it were 

 almost as good to stand still. And the greatest part 

 of this coast not cleare, but thicke and cloudy, full of 

 thunder and lightening, and raine so unholesome, that 

 if the water stand a little while, all is full of wormes, 

 and falling on the meat which is hanged up, it maketh 



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