There met at the Havannah,

33 sail from New Spain, 23 from the Terra Firma, 12 belonging to San Domingo, 9 from Honduras.

Thus 77 ships joined and set sail from the Havannah, on the 17th of July 1591, according to our account, and kept together till they arrived in the lat. of 35 deg.  N. which was about the 10th of August.  There the wind, which had been at S.W. changed suddenly to N. so that the sea coming from the S.W. and the wind violent from the N. they were put in great extremity, and then first lost the admiral of their fleet, in which were 500 men; and within three or four days after, another storm rising, five or six others of their largest ships were cast away with all their men, together with their vice-admiral.

In lat. 38 deg.  N. and about the end of August, another great storm arose, in which all their remaining ships, except 48, were lost.  These 48 ships kept together till they came in sight of the islands of Corvo and Flores, about the 5th or 6th of September, at which time they were separated by a great storm; and of that number, 15 or 16 sail were afterwards seen by three Spanish prisoners, riding at anchor under Tercera, while 12 or 14 more were observed to bear away for San Miguel.  What became of them after these Spaniards were taken, cannot yet be certified; but their opinion is, that very few of this fleet escaped being either taken or cast away.  It has been ascertained of late by other means of intelligence, that of this whole fleet of 123 sail, which should have come to Spain this year, there have only 25 yet arrived.  This note was extracted from the examinations of certain Spanish prisoners, brought to England by six of the London ships, which took seven of these men from the before-mentioned fleet of the Indies near the islands of the Acores.

SECTION XII.

Report of a Cruizing Voyage to the Azores in 1591, by a feet of London ships sent with supplies to the Lord Thomas Howard.  Written by Captain Robert Flicke[377].

PRELIMINARY REMARKS[378].

The following voyage is extracted from a letter, dated at Plymouth the 24th of October 1591, and sent thence by Captain Flicke to Messrs Thomas Bromley, Richard Staper, and ——­ Cordall, three of the contractors, as we apprehend, for the ships, and is titled, “Concerning the success of a part of the London supplies sent to the isles of the Azores to my Lord Thomas Howard.”  In this letter no mention is made of the number of ships employed, nor of the names of more than two captains besides Flicke, namely, Brothus and Furtho, the latter of whom was bearer of the letter.  We also find the name of four of the ships; the Costly, Centurion, Cherubim, and the Margaret and John, but not the names of their commanders, neither the name of the ship in which Flicke sailed, and which, for