to reach the two ships by dawn. But
finding nothing, he passed on to Playa Honda, where he arrived late,
more than two hours after the sun had risen. Had the spy not deceived
them, they would have reached the four of the enemy's ships at dawn,
and the commander with most of his men could have slept on shore,
entertaining guests with the booty that had fallen into his hands. But
when they sighted our fleet, they were able to get aboard their vessels
and to join the other two, which were coming with two more very rich
Chinese prize ships. They spread their sails and went away together,
and the fleets did no more that day than to watch one another,
but our fleet always kept very close to, and did not lose sight of,
the enemy. Next morning, Friday, our fleet came up scattered, either
because of their inability to follow the flagship, or through the
fault of the pilots. What is the most certain thing is that faults
are not investigated in the islands, nor are they punished. Because
there was no almiranta to collect the vessels, the flagship, the
"San Miguel," and the "San Juan Bautista" were very near the enemy,
while the others were more than three leguas to leeward. The
enemy tried to improve the opportunity, and determined to grapple
our flagship with all their fleet, which they had carefully
collected--thinking that if it surrendered the war would be ended;
for they thought that ship alone carried force, and that the others
could only be carrying the pretense of it. The enemy worked to get
to windward of our fleet, and our flagship, which was an excellent
sailer, did the same; but on tacking, the latter threw a rope to the
galley of Don Alonso Enriquez and towed it a short distance. That
allowed the enemy time to get to windward, and they came down upon
our fleet to attack it in the following order: their flagship came
first and then the other vessels, the bow of one right against the
stern of the other. Although they could have raked the "San Juan
Bautista," which was astern of the flagship, or have borne down upon
the "San Miguel," which lay to leeward, they cared only to defeat the
flagship. Since our ships could not get to windward, they passed it
very closely, each ship raking it. But our flagship was not asleep,
and kept replying in such a way that, although the enemy's vessels
came so close together, so great haste was made that it gave each
ship a full broadside volley from that side, namely with twenty-five
piec