Page:Early English adventurers in the East (1917).djvu/130

 Hope to anchor some distance away from the other ships towards the entrance of the roadstead. The bait, if it were such, was readily swallowed. Before Downton realized what was happening the Merchants' Hope was heavily engaged by three of the enemy's smaller ships and by a great number of frigates. The onslaught was so determined that it looked for a time very much as if the vessel would be captured. The first volley from the Portuguese ships brought down the Merchants' Hope's main top and slew a number of her crew. Following this came a desperate attempt to board her, made with a reckless courage which belied the popular English conception of the Lusitanian of that time.

The fight waxed hot as English and Portuguese contested hand to hand on the bloodstained deck. Overwhelming odds must in the end have prevailed if at the nick of time Downton had not come up with his ships and created a welcome diversion. The Portuguese now began to give way. Seeing their movement the English renewed the fight with increased zest. Soon the bulk of the attacking party were flying over the sides in a helterskelter rush for their boats. Their flight was their undoing.

The English ships, getting to a nicety the range, plied the fugitives with shot large and small until many of the frigates were destroyed and the water was reddened with the blood of the unfortunate victims. Altogether between three hundred and four hundred fell in the fight, the number including scions of some of the noblest houses in Portugal. On the English side the casualties were small, being confined almost entirely to the crew of the Merchants' Hope.

The blow was a heavy one, but Don Jeronimo declined