Page:The principal navigations, voyages, traffiques and discoveries of the English nation 15.djvu/318

 sholding and sandie ground, fourteene, twelue, and tenne fadoms neere the shore. The Cape is a bare land without trees or shrubs, and falleth in eight or ten leagues Southeast and Northwest: and a saker shot off the point standeth a little Island like Mewestone neere Plimmouth, but somewhat bigger. In the morning the first of December wee imbarked all our souldiers for Rio de la Hacha, which is a towne twenty leagues to the Westwards, one of the ancientest in all the maine although not very bigge: but it standeth in a most fertile and pleasant soyle.

Our men tooke it by ten of the clocke in the night. The ships bearing all that night and the day before in 5 and 6 fadomes, the lesser ships in two fadomes and an halfe water: the Phenix went so neere the shore by the Generals commandement, that shee strake on ground, but got off againe. There lieth to the Eastward of the towne a mile or thereabout a shold of sand: therefore giue a birth some halfe league or more before you come right against the town. There wee came to anker in two fadomes, but the great ships rode off in fiue and sixe fadomes. There is a fresh riuer about a bow shot to the Eastward of the towne; whereinto our pinnesses could scarce enter by reason of a barre of sand in the riuers mouth, but within it is nauigable for barkes of twenty or thirty tunnes some sixe or eight leagues vp.

The sixth day the Spaniards came in to talke about the ransome of the towne, but not to the Generall his liking: and that night Sir Thomas Baskeruil marched vp into the countrey to ouerrunne those parts: and the Generall the same night with some hundreth and fiftie men, went by water sixe leagues to the Eastward, and tooke the Rancheria a fisher towne, where they drag for pearle. The people all fled except some sixteene or twenty souldiers, which fought a little, but some were taken prisoners, besides many Negros, with some store of pearles and other pillage. In the houses we refreshed ourselues, and were all imbarked to come away, and then had sight of a brigandine or a dredger, which the Generall tooke within one houres chase with his two barges: she had in her Indie-wheat, which we call Maiz, and some siluer and pearle, but of small value.

On Saturday the seuenth, master Yorke captaine of the Hope dyed of sicknes, and then master Thomas Drake the Generals brother was made captaine of the Hope, and master Ionas