[HOWLEY] SVIGARAICIPI 169 
(faisait de l’eau à couler bas). Nevertheless, he made prizes of two 
English ships which were anchored in the roadstead! On the following 
morning he sent a very courteous letter to the commandant (Alcalde) 
asking for permission to take some fresh water, promising “on the faith 
of a Basque” that he would do no damage but would leave immediately. 
The Alcalde or Mayor wrote a very polite reply saying that he (Croisic) 
might land and take all the water he required. He sent a boat ashore 
with 80 men, and some empty casks, but when they approached the shore 
they were received with a volley of musketry from a corps of about 80 
Spaniards who were concealed behind barricades. Two of his men 
were wounded. Though astonished at such a welcome, and such a 
breach of honour on the part of the Spaniards, Le Croisic was not a man 
to be frightened by such a movement. He immediately returned to 
his ship and armed a shaloupe with eighty men. He returned, and 
soon put the Spaniards to flight. There was a company of horsemen 
(caballeros) who had come to the aid of their companions. They had 
taken the saddles from their horses to allow them to graze more freely, 
but so completely were they routed that they were obliged to jump on 
to the bare backs of their horses to save themselves (se sauver à poil) 
leaving the saddles as prizes in the hands of the French. The Spaniards 
all fled to the mountains and the French pillaged the town. They did 
not leave a sheep, nor a pig, nor a fowl, nor a bit of furniture in any 
house; and then to make his adieu and to leave them a souvenir of 
their bad faith he determined to set fire to the village. At that moment 
the Curé with crucifix in hand, surrounded by weeping women holding 
their children in their arms approached and begged he would spare 
them from the burning and he did so. “ Moved by compassion, Corsair 
and all as he was.” He made a treaty with the Curé and the principal 
people of the place, that in future any ship coming in in distress should 
have every assistance given to them notwithstanding the prohibition 
of the Spanish King. The Duc de Gramont says the adventure made 
as much noise among the people of Bayonne as if the citadel of 
Anvers had been captured, and that it was a truly glorious 
achievement. 
As far as he himself was concerned he did not come out of 
it very fortunately. He had a share of the Spanish saddles. As to the 
sheep, pigs, fowl, etc., they had all been digested long before the return 
of the ships. After this the Corsairs became so emboldened that they 
completely destroyed the Spanish commerce in those parts. Every 
day they brought merchant-men as prizes into St. Jean de Luz, so that 
the Governor writing to His Majesty the King, gives the following 
details. “There was such a large number of ships captured at St. Jean 
