THE PORTUGAL VOYAGE a.d. 



1589. 

 could possible raise, thinking no way so good to assure 

 that place, as to bring an army thither, wherewithall 

 they might either besiege us in their base towne, if we 

 should get it, or to lie betweene us and our place of 

 imbarking, to %ht with us upon the advantage ; for 

 they had above 15000 souldiers under their commande- 

 ments. 



After we had put from thence, we had the winde so 

 contrary, as we could not under nine dayes recover the 

 Burlings : in which passage on the thirteenth day the 

 Earle of Essex, and with him M. Walter Devereux his 

 brother (a Gentleman of woonderfull great hope) Sir 

 Roger Williams Colonell generall of the footmen, Sir 

 Philip Butler, who hath alwayes bene most inward with 

 him, and Sir Edward Wingfield, came into the fleet. 

 The Earle having put himselfe into the journey against 

 the opinion of the world, and as it seemed to the hazzard 

 of his great fortune, though to the great advancement 

 of his reputation, (for as the honourable cariage of him- 

 selfe towards all men doth make him highly esteemed 

 at home ; so did his exceeding forwardnesse in all services 

 make him to be woondered at amongst us) who, I say, 

 put off in the same winde from Falmouth, that we left 

 Plimmouth in, where he lay, because he would avoid 

 the importunity of messengers that were dayly sent for 

 his returne, and some other causes more secret to him- 

 selfe, not knowing (as it seemed) what place the Generals 

 purposed to land in, had bene as farre as Cadiz in 

 Andaluzia, and lay up and downe about the South Cape, 

 where he tooke some ships laden with corne, and brought 

 them unto the fleet. Also in his returne from thence 

 to meet with our fleet, he fell with the Hands of Bayon ; 

 and on that side of the river which Cannas standeth 

 upon, he, with Sir Roger Williams, and those Gentlemen 

 that were with him went on shore, with some men out 

 of the ship he was in, whom the enemy, that held guard 

 upon that coast, would not abide, but fled up into the 

 countrey. 



495 



