AD. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1572-87. 



or two, he sayd that a storme put him from the Streights 

 by force and brake his cables ; but his men affirmed 

 the contrary, that himselfe cut his cables (God knoweth 

 the trueth) and so he passed to the river of Jenero ; 

 and not finding there any succour come from the king, 

 he sayled to Fernambuck, craving ayde of the captaine 

 to furnish him with victuals. And so the captaine 

 presently fraighted his ship with victuals and clothes for 

 his people left in the Streights, and so sailed thither- 

 ward. But between Cape S. Augustin and Baya the 

 wind came off the sea with such violence, that it forced 

 the ship to run on shore ; where Sarmiento had three 

 of his men drowned, and he with the rest hardly escaped : 

 and so this ship was lost with all the provision in her. 

 From thence hee passed by land to Baya where the 

 governour of Brasil bought him a barke that lay in 

 the harbour, lading the same with victuals and clothes 

 for Sarmientos colonie. With this provision and divers 

 other necessaries for his people hee tooke his voyage 

 for the Streights, and comming to the height of foure 

 and forty degrees, hee met on the sudden with such a 



[III. 796.] furious storme, that he was forced to throw his fraight 

 overboord, and also to returne to the river of Jenero. 

 Where staying a whole yeere for succour from the king, 

 there came not so much as a letter from him. For 

 the king was sore displeased at Pedro Sarmiento, 

 because hee made him beleeve that the narrowest place 

 of the Streights was but a mile over : and that it might 

 bee fortified so that a boate could not passe : whereas 

 Diego de Ribera, and others certified the king, that it 

 was above a league broade, and that if a ship came 

 with winde and current, all the Ordinance in the world 

 could not hurte it. Wherefore the king thought that 

 Pedro Sarmiento had deceived him, in making him to 

 lose so many men, and so much charges to no effect. 

 And the governour of Baya seeing that the king wrote 

 not unto him, would give him no more succour : so that 

 Sarmiento was constrained to make a voyage for Spaine 



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