GrREEN — Armada Ships on the Kemj Coast. 267 



ship, and to make a special effort [to do so], whicli was quite impossible, as will 

 be seen ; and so he publicly gave me leave to go to Spain. 



On the morning of the 23rd, we set out from Vicey with a light easterly 

 wind ; and on leaving the port,^ at a distance of about two cables, the w'iud 

 dropped, while the current w^as carryiog us on to the island, so that we were 

 very near being lost. The wdnd got up again, and we went out with top-gallant- 

 sails set, as far as the reefs which lie to the north ; and there the wind fell calm 

 again, while the tide was drifting us on to the land to the north, between fom- 

 islands and the reefs. 



We anchored before nightfall, with one spring, as we had no more ; and an 

 hour after nightfall the wind began to blow from the south-east, and the ship to 

 drift on to the islands, which are so rocky that no one coming on to them could be 

 saved. We brought the ship round wdth the spring, and, weighing anchor, set 

 sail, commending ourselves to our Lord, not knowing whether there was any way 

 out. 



A desperate venture ; with a dark and cloudy night, we tried to get out to wind- 

 ward of the reefs, but the current would not allow us ; rather it was carrying us 

 to our destruction. We turned and tried by an opening between the islands. The 

 wind was freshening still more ; there was a sea on, with heavy clouds and violent 

 showers. 



It pleased our Lady, to w^hom we commended ourselves, that we should get 

 out, sailing all that night to the west, so that by morning we found ourselves 

 eight leagues from land. 



On the 24th, three hours after daybreak, a violent storm of wind from the 

 same quarter burst on us, with frequent heavy showers, and a high sea. By 

 the will of God it did not last more than two hours. We lay to, and suddenly 

 the wind sprang round to the west ; and as the heavy head sea caused the ship 

 to labour a great deal, great damage was done. We could not set any sails till 

 evening, when we did so with a moderate wind ; and next day at dawn we found 

 ourselves off the opening of the port by which w^e had got out, three leagues to 

 sea, and [the weather] calm. 



On the morning of the 25th, the wind began to blow' from S.E. by south. 

 We tacked to the west to avail ourselves of the wind to double Dursey Head. 

 We sailed all that day and the night till next morning, [when] w^e judged we 

 were ten leagues out to sea. 



On the 26th, the wind chopped round to W.S.W. [and] south-west; and we 

 kept sailing with a high wind and a heavy sea under press of canvas S.S.E., 

 and sometimes south-east by a quarter south, till w^e thought Dursey Head had 

 been doubled, and that we were fourteen leagues from it to the south. 



1 Taking advantage of the ebb tide, he tried to get out by the main southern entrance ; but, 

 with the flood, he had to tiiin and try the passages to north-west among the reefs. 



