s kept
for the missing vessels, while at the same time a search was made for a
convenient harbour into which they could run and refit the ship, as
likewise set up one of the pinnaces. The Admiral was anxious to do
this, as the boat was too small to carry sufficient men should they
encounter any Spaniards, and the ship was too large to put into small
harbours.

As soon as the pinnace was completed, he intended to sail to the
southward and examine every creek and small bay on the way, so that
should either of the missing vessels have run in for shelter, she might
be discovered.

With this object, on the 19th of December the _Golden Hind_ entered a
bay not far from the southward of Coquimbo, then called Cyppo, and
inhabited by Spaniards. Fourteen of the seamen having landed, they were
observed by the people of the town, who speedily, to the number of three
hundred--of whom a hundred were mounted Spaniards, the others naked
Indians, running like dogs at their heels, showing the miserable
condition to which they were reduced--came out to attack them.

They were descried in time by the English seamen, who, scrambling round
the rocks, gained their boats. One man, however, Richard Minjoy, vowing
that he would not be put to flight by a hundred despicable Spaniards,
remained on the rocks, daring them to come on; but he had not long thus
stood when an arrow pierced him, and the Indians being sent to drag him
up to the beach, he was there cruelly beheaded by the Spaniards, who cut
off his right hand and plucked out his heart, then setting up the body,
made the Indians shoot at it. All this was done in the sight of the
crew.

After this exhibition of their cruel vengeance the Spaniards retired,
leaving the body to be devoured by the beasts of the field and fowls of
the air; but the seamen, in spite of the risk they ran, went on shore
and buried it.

This not being the sort of place the English were in search of, nor the
treatment they desired, they speedily got under weigh, and came on the
following day to a convenient harbour some distance to the northward of
Cyppo. Here some time was spent in refitting the ship, and bringing her
into better sailing trim, as also in building the pinnace.

As soon as the latter was finished, the Admiral, with a party of picked
men, set sail to proceed to the southward; but a contrary wind springing
up, he was compelled to return. In this bay vast quantities of fish
resembling the gurna