r chase, and came to anchor in our usual road.
In this fight, the London and Hart had very little harm in their hulls
and tackling, and less, or rather none, in their men. The main-mast of
the Eagle was hurt in five places, four of which were quite through, and
one of her men lost his right arm. In the Roebuck, I had one man slain
by a cannon ball striking his head. A piece of his skull and some
splinters of the ball wounded one of my mates in the forehead, and
destroyed his left eye; and two others of my men lost the use of their
right hands. God be praised for our good fortune; for I never heard of
so small loss in so long a fight as we now sustained. I cannot truly
state the loss of the enemy: but, by the report of our merchants, their
vice-admiral and another captain were slain, and thirty or forty men in
the admiral's ship alone, the rest as yet unknown. As to their Moors,
they do not count them among the num her of their men.
In the morning of the 18th, the day after the action, we could see the
Portuguese at anchor ten miles to the east of us, having the wind fair
to have come down, but they did not. We then held a consultation,
whether it were better for us to take the first of the sea breeze, which
usually begins about noon, to stand towards them and try it out for the
mastery, before they could receive supplies from Ormus, Muskat, or Goa,
or else to make sail for Jasques roads, on purpose to land our goods and
money, in case of the worst, these being the prize they sought to obtain
and we to defend. Accordingly, the London got that night into Jasques
road, but the rest could not get in before the 20th, by reason of
contrary winds. On the 21st and 22d most of our goods were landed.
Sec.4. _Second Sea Fight with the Portuguese_.
On the 22d, seeing the Portuguese galleons open the road of Jasques, and
supposing they might intend to come in with the sea breeze, we set sail
and stood off for them. At first, they made a shew of giving us battle,
but soon afterwards made off upon a tack; and till the 28th, they were
either to windward, or so favourably placed at anchor, that we could not
attempt to attack them without manifest disadvantage. During this time,
they were joined by two or three frigates, or barks, from Ormus,
bringing them a supply of men and ammunition. We made one attempt on
Christmas day, but were forced back by a sudden flaw of wind; on which
occasion, some blacks aboard of us, said the Portu
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