KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. N:0 4. 113 



enemy made a fresh attack with both ships, which laid themselves on either side of the 

 galleon, and gave them various broad-sides: this time the battle lasted three and a half 

 hours. The battle was renewed for the third time at 4 p. m. for a period of two and a 

 half hours, after which the enemy retired. Before that the people on board the galleon 

 had sighted yet a third ship, which, however, because of the prevailing calm, could not 

 come up until 3,30 in the morning of 7 January. With united forces the enemy then 

 made a last attack: all three vessels fired their broadsides at pistol range, and the largest 

 of them made an attempt at boarding; but after seven hours fighting they found them- 

 selves compelled to retire. The galleon had altogether 8 dead and 28 wounded. After 

 employing the following day in repairing the damage done, the voyage was continued at 

 a distance of 30 leagues from land in order not to come upon the enemy unawares, in case 

 he should attack the galleon from some lurking place near the approach to Acapulco. 



Captain Woodes Rogers, the commander of the English squadron, tells the story 

 of these events in substantially the same way as the Spanish manuscript. He had long 

 been cruising for the Manila galleon, and had alread}' given up the hope of meeting it, 

 when, on 22 December (2 January 1710 N. S.), he caught sight of a vessel which proved 

 to be the almiranta "Nuestra Seiiora de la Encarnaciön", about whose voyage I know 

 nothing more than that three months before it had separated from its capitana "Nuestra 

 Senora de Begoiia". It is said that the Captain of the almiranta, a Frenchman named 

 Jean Pechberty, surrendered in a cowardly way without fighting; 1 but this is contradicted 

 by Rogers' account, 2 which says that the battle was verv härd although short, and that 

 in the course of it he himself was badly wounded. In order to guard the prize, Rogers 

 with his own vessel, the "Duke", put in at a harbour near Cape San Lucas; it was his two 

 other ships, the "Duchess", Captain Courtney, and the "Marquis", Captain Cook, that 

 first began the fight with the capitana, before Rogers could come to their aid. The English 

 ships suffered severely from the lire of the Spaniards: on the "Duke" the mainmast was 

 struck by two balls, so that it threatened to go overboard; and a grenade thrown on its 

 deck set fire to an ammunition-chest, by the explosion of which some of the crew were 

 badly injured. On one of the English ships eleven men were wounded; on one of the other 

 some twenty; and as their cannons produced little effect on the hull of the galleon, which 

 was built of wood as härd as iron, Rogers, who had been again wounded, found himself 

 compelled to give the signal for retreat, so as to repair his damages near Cape San Lucas, 

 and insure the safety of the prize first taken. 



After the galleon capitana had escaped its pursuers, it put in at Navidad on 15 

 January, and finally cast anchor at Acapulco on the 26th of the same month. During 

 this part of the voyage the galleon was overtaken by a boat with some of the crew of the 

 almiranta, which brought the news of that vessel' s misadventure. 



On 31 March 1710 the galleon left Acapulco, passed the Mariannes on 2 June, and 

 sighted Cape Espiritu Santo on 30 June; after which it finally put in at Bahia de Sorsogon 

 on 28 July. 



1 Möxtero, I, p. 398. 



2 Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage roitnd tltc World, Lond. 1712. p. 293. 



K. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl. Band 57. N:o 4. 15 



