A little before night the carack put to sea, when we also weighed and made sail after her.  The day now left us, and our proud enemy, unwilling, as it seems, to have the appearance of escaping by flight, put forth a light on his poop as before, as if for us to follow him, which we did to some purpose.  The night being well spent, we again commended ourselves and our cause to God in prayer.  Soon afterwards, the day began to dawn, and appeared as if covered by a red mantle, which proved a bloody one to many who now beheld the light for the last time.  It was now resolved that our four ships were to take their turns in succession, to endeavour to force this proud Portuguese either to bend or break.  Our ship, the Charles, played her part first;[225] and ere she had been half an hour engaged with her adversary, a shot from the carack hitting one of our iron guns on the half-deck, flew all in pieces, dangerously wounding our new general, and three other mariners who stood beside him.  Captain Pepwell’s left eye was beaten out, and he received two other wounds in his head, and a third in his leg, a ragged piece of the broken shot sticking fast in the bone, which seemed, by his complaining, to afflict him more than the rest.  Thus was our new commander welcomed to his authority, and we all considered his wounds as mortal; but he lived till about fourteen months afterwards, when he died peaceably in his bed, on his way back to England.

[Footnote 225:  This account of the battle is chiefly taken from Terry, who is more particular in his narrative; but Childe says that Captain Pepwell, the new general, gave him leave to begin this day’s action, as his ship sailed better, and that, after three or four broadsides, he gave place to the general.  According to modern naval tactics, all four at once would have assailed the enemy, taking vantage stations on her quarters and bows.—­E.]

By the same shot, Mr Richard Hounsell, the master of our ship, had a great piece of the flesh of his arm carried off, which rendered him unserviceable for a time.  The captain and master being thus disabled, deputed their authority to the chief master’s mate, who behaved with great prudence and resolution.  Thus we continued one after the other to fight all day, the vice-admiral and the Globe and James taking their turns in succession.  Between three and four in the afternoon, the mainmast of the carack fell overboard, and presently afterwards the foremast and mizen followed, and she had received so many and large wounds in her thick sides, that her case was quite desperate, and she must soon either yield or perish.  Her commander, Don Emanuel de Meneses, a brave and resolute person, stood in for the shore in this distressed condition, being not far from the island of Gazidia.[226] We pursued as far as we durst venture, without hazard of shipwreck, but gave over at five o’clock, when about a league from the shore, which is extremely steep, and no ground to be had within less than a cable’s length of the rocks, the shore being moreover to leeward.