Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/662

642 The English prisoners were forwarded to Mexico, where they arrived wounded and in sorry plight. Being protestants, and therefore profane, the government confined them in a house outside the sacred precincts of the city. A few boys among them were sent to convents to be converted. Some time afterward, at the petition of certain persons in Mexico, a few of the prisoners were distributed.

A few months later there were brought to Mexico living in England, bearing on their persons the marks of the cruelties they had suffered at the hands of the Spaniards. Philips' Discourse, in Haklvyt's Voy., iii. 472-3. According to John Hortop, one of the expedition, the Spanish vice-admiral's ship had most of 300 men killed or blown overboard with powder. The admiral's was also on fire half an hour, and was struck over 60 times; many of her men were killed and wounded; four other Spanish ships were sunk. The number of fighting men that came in the Spanish fleet, and that joined them from the mainland, made together 1,500, of whom 540 were slain, as appeared in a letter sent to Mexico. Captain Bland attempted to sail out with his ship, but her main-mast was struck down; he then with his men took to the pinnace, set fire to his vessel, and went on board the Jesus to join Hawkins, whom he told that he had intended to run back and attempt to fire the Spanish fleet. Night came on, when Hawkins ordered the Minion to come under the lee of the Jesus, and Drake to come in with the Judith, and lay the Minion aboard to take in men and everything needful, and to go out, which was done. As soon as the wind came off the shore Hawkins set sail and passed out of the port. He went in search of the Pánuco River. From want of provisions the men suffered, and became dissatisfied. Finally a portion of them were landed with some money and a quantity of Rouen cloth. Hortop's Trauailes, in Haklvyt’s Voy., iii. 487-91. Another account has it that Viceroy Enriquez landed, and went on to Mexico without fear of fraud on the part of the English. But Lujan, who commanded the fleet, believed them to be pirates, when he saw the number that with arms in their hands ran about the streets; he then ordered a charge upon the crowd on the beach, which caused a great slaughter among them, and his ships opened fire upon those of the enemy, who, while unprepared for a fight, made a brave defence. During the action the famous Francis Drake escaped, and embarking on a ship that held the greater part of the gold plundered by those pirates, he hurriedly fled to the ocean. Hawkins resisted desperately almost the whole day, until convinced that he could hold out no longer he set fire to his flag-ship, and under cover of the darkness fled in the vice-admiral's ship, which was followed by another, leaving the rest of his squadron to become a prize to the Spaniards. ''March y Lahores, Hist. Marina,'' ii. 310. The other authorities that I have seen, including Hawkins, and excepting Panes, are agreed that Viceroy Enriquez conducted the negotiations with, and the military operations against, Hawkins, before departing for Mexico. Icazbalceta leans to the belief that Enriquez had departed for the capital within seven days after his arrival at Vera Cruz, and that it was the general of the fleet who ordered and directed the attack. ''Doc. Hist., in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin,'' 2da ép., ii. 498. Hawkins uses these words: 'With a writing from the viceroy signed with his hande and sealed with his seale of all the conditions concluded.' In Haklvyt's Voy., iii. 523.