her with the
notable fair Eastern winds that then blew most fit for their course,
they passed with great speed through the strait, and might have passed,
with that good gale, had there been five hundred galleys to withstand
them and the air never so clear for every ship to be seen. But yet the
Spanish galleys had a sight of them, when they were come within three
English miles of the town, and made after them with all possible haste;
and although they saw that they were far out of their reach, yet in a
vain fury and foolish pride, they shot off their ordnance and made a
stir in the sea as if they had been in the midst of them, which vanity
of theirs ministered to our men notable matter of pleasure and mirth,
seeing men to fight with shadows and to take so great pains to so small
purpose.

But thus it pleased God to deride and delude all the forces of that
proud Spanish king, which he had provided of purpose to distress the
English; who, notwithstanding, passed through both his armies--in the
one, little hurt, and in the other, nothing touched, to the glory of
His immortal name, the honour of our prince and country, and the just
commendation of each man's service performed in that voyage.

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THE UNFORTUNATE VOYAGE MADE WITH THE JESUS, THE MINION, AND FOUR OTHER
SHIPS, TO THE PARTS OF GUINEA AND THE WEST INDIES, IN THE YEARS 1567
AND 1568. BY MASTER JOHN HAWKINS.

The ships departed from Plymouth the 2nd day of October, anno 1567, and
had reasonable weather until the seventh day, at which time, forty
leagues north from Cape Finisterre, there arose an extreme storm which
continued four days, in such sort that the fleet was dispersed and all
our great boats lost, and the Jesus, our chief ship, in such case as
not thought able to serve the voyage. Whereupon in the same storm we
set our course homeward, determining to give over the voyage; but the
11th day of the same month the wind changed, with fair weather, whereby
we were animated to follow our enterprise, and so did, directing our
course to the islands of Grand Canaries, where, according to an order
before prescribed, all our ships, before dispersed, met in one of those
islands, called Gomera, where we took water, and departed from thence
the 4th day of November towards the coast of Guinea, and arrived at
Cape Verde the 18th of November, where we landed one hundred and fifty
men, hoping to obtain some negroes; where we got but few,