especting the
names and plans of his associates, his answers became wild and incoherent,
more calculated to mislead than to inform, to create suspicion of the
friends, than to detect the machinations of the enemies, of the government.
He was never brought to trial, but died, probably by violence, in the sixth
month of his imprisonment.[1]

3. During the winter Blake continued to blockade Cadiz: in spring he learnt
that the Plate fleet from Peru had sought an asylum in the harbour of Santa
Cruz, in the Island of Teneriffe. There the merchantmen, ten in number,
were moored close to the shore, in the form of a crescent; while the six
galleons in their front formed a parallel line at anchor in deeper water.
The entrance of the bay was commanded by the guns of the castle; seven
batteries erected at intervals along the beach protected the rest of the
harbour; and these were connected with each other by covered ways lined
with musketry. So confident was the governor when he surveyed these
preparations, that, in the pride of his heart, he desired a Dutch

[Footnote 1: Clarendon Papers, iii. 322, 338, 357. Merc. Pol. 39. Thurloe,
vi. 33, 182, 315, 425, 560, 829. Clarendon assures us that Sexby was an
illiterate person, which is a sufficient proof that he was not the real
author of the tract, though he acknowledged it for his own in the Tower,
probably to deceive the protector. The writer, whoever he was, kept his
secret, at least at first; for Clarendon writes to Secretary Nicholas, that
he cannot imagine who could write it.--Clar. Papers, iii. 343. By most
historians it has been attributed to Captain Titus; nor shall we think this
improbable, if we recollect that Titus was, in Holland, constantly in the
company of Sexby, till the departure of the latter for England.--Ibid. 331,
335. Evelyn asserts it in his Diary, ii. 210, 8vo.]

captain to inform the English admiral that he was welcome to come whenever
he durst. Blake came, examined the defences, and, according to custom,
proclaimed a solemn fast. At eight the next morning[a] Stayner took the
lead in a frigate; the admiral followed in the larger ships; and the whole
fleet availing itself of a favourable wind, entered the harbour under a
tremendous shower of balls and shells. Each vessel immediately fell into
its allotted station; and, while some engaged the shipping, the rest
directed their fire against the batteries. The Spaniards, though fewer in
number of ships, were super