In the midst of this conflagration, the people in the Speedwell made many signals for me to come on board, and kept continually firing towards the mouths of the harbour.  As I could only guess the meaning of all this, I went on board as soon as possible in a canoe, having only three men along with me.  Before I could reach the ship, I could distinctly see a large ship, with a Spanish flag at her fore-topmast-head, and her fore-topsail a-back.  At this sight, two of my three men were ready to faint, and if it had not been for my boatswain, I doubt if I should have got on board; and if the Spanish admiral had acted with vigour, he might have taken the ship long enough before I got to her.  It is bare justice to Mr Coldsea to say, that he fired so smartly on the Spaniard as to induce him to act with great precaution, which had been quite unnecessary if he had known our weakness.  His caution, however, gave me the opportunity of getting on board:  and, in the mean time, my officers were so unwilling to leave our guard-gun ashore, that they spent a great while in getting it into the boat, so that I was afraid the enemy would attack us before our people could get on board.  The Spaniard was, however, in no hurry, thinking, no doubt, that we could not well escape him, yet was within pistol-shot of us before the last of our men got on board, being about fifty in all.  We now cut our cable, but our ship fell round the wrong way, so that I had just room enough to fall clear of the enemy.  Being now close together, the formidable appearance of the enemy struck an universal damp on the spirits of my people; some of whom, in coming off from the shore, were for jumping into the water and swimming on shore, which a few actually did.

The enemy was a fine European-built ship, of 50 guns, and the disproportion was so great between us, that there seemed no hopes of escaping, as we were under his lee.  I endeavoured to get into shoal water, but he becalmed me with his sails, and confined us for the best part of an hour, during which he handled us very roughly with his cannon, making very little use of his small-arms, never allowing us a moment’s ease, but as soon as his broadside was ready, he gave his ship the starboard helm, bringing as many of his guns to bear as possible, and at the same time kept me from the wind.  We returned his fire as briskly as we could; but, in our precipitate retreat from the town, most of our small arms were wetted, so that it was long before they were of any use.  During this action, there was a strange contusion on shore, where the people had flocked down from the hills to extinguish the fire in Payta, in which some of them were busily employed, while others stood on the shore, spectators of our engagement.  I was long in despair of getting away from the Spaniard, expecting nothing less than to be torn in pieces by his superior fire, unless we could have an opportunity of trying our heels with him while our masts remained standing.