Our instructions were sent to us at Plymouth, and we were directed to open them at sea. The 6th of April 1594, we set sail from Plymouth sound, directing our course for the coast of Spain. The 24th, being then in lat. 43° N; we divided ourselves east and west from each other, on purpose to keep a good look out, with orders from our admiral to close up again at night. In the morning of the 27th, we descried the May-flower and the little pinnace, in company with a prize they had taken belonging to Viana in Portugal, and bound for Angola. This vessel was about 28 tons burden, having 17 persons on board, with some 12 tons of wine, which we divided among our ships, together with some rusk in chests and barrels, 5 bales of coarse blue cloth, and some coarse linen for negroes shirts; all of which goods were divided among our fleet. The 4th of May, we had sight again of our pinnace and the admirals shallop, which had taken three Portuguese caravels, two of which we sent away and kept the third. The 2d June we came in sight of St Michaels. The 3d we sent off our pinnace, which was about 24 tons burden, together with the small caravel we had taken off the Burlings, to range about the anchorages of the Azores, trying to make captures of any thing they could find, appointing them to meet with us at a rendezvous 12 leagues W.S.W. from Fayal. Their going from us served no purpose, and was a misfortune, as they omitted joining us when appointed, and we also missed them when they might have been of much service.

The 13th of June we fell in with a mighty carak from the East Indies, called Las cinquellagues, or the five wounds. The May-Flower was in sight of her before night, and I got up with her in the evening. While I had ordered our men to give her a broadside, and stood carefully examining her strength, and where I might give council to board her in the night when the admiral came up, I received a shot a little above the belly, by which I was rendered unserviceable for a good while after, yet no other person in my ship was touched that night. Fortunately, by means of one captain Grant, an honest true-hearted man, nothing was neglected though I was thus disabled. Until midnight, when the admiral came up, the May-Flower and the Sampson never desisted from plying her with our cannon, taking it in turns: But then captain Cave wished us to stay till morning, when each of us was to give her three broadsides, and then lay her on board; but we long lingered in the morning till 10 o'clock, before we attempted to board her.

The admiral then laid her on board amid ships, and the May-Flower came up on her quarter, as if to take her station astern of our admiral on the larboard side of the carak; but the captain of the May-Flower was slain at the first coming up, on which his ship fell astern on the outlicar³⁹⁴ of the carak, a piece of timber, which so tore her foresail that they said they could not get up any more to fight, as indeed they did not, but kept aloof from us all the rest of the action. The Sampson went aboard on the bow of the carak, but had not room enough, as our quarter lay on the bow of the Exchange, and our bow on that of the carak. At the first coming up of the Exchange, her captain Mr Cave was wounded in both legs, one of which he never recovered, so that he was disabled from doing his duty, and had no one in his absence that would undertake to lead his company to board the enemy. My friend, captain Grant, led my men up the side of the carak; but his force being small, and not being manfully seconded by the crew of the Exchange, the enemy were bolder than they would have been, so that six of my men were presently slain, and many more wounded; which made those that remained return on board, and they would never more give the assault. Some of the Exchanges men did very well, and I have no doubt that many more would have done the like, if there had been any principal men to have led them on, and not to have run into corners themselves. But I must allow that the carak was as well provided for defence as any ship I have seen; and perhaps the Portuguese were encouraged by our slackness, as they plied our men from behind barricades, where they were out of danger from our shot. They plied us also with wildfire, by which most of our men were burnt in some parts of their body; and while our men were busied in putting out the fire, the enemy galled them sore with small arms and darts. This unusual casting of wildfire did much dismay many of our men, and caused them greatly to hang back.

Finding that our men would not again board, we plied our great ordnance at them, elevated as much as possible, as otherwise we could do them little harm. By shooting a piece from our forecastle, we set fire to a mat at the beak head of the enemy, which kindled more and more, communicating from the mat to the boltsprit, and thence to the top-sail-yard; by which fire the Portuguese abaft were much alarmed, and began to make show of a parley: But their officers encouraged them, alleging that the fire could be easily extinguished, on which they again stood stiffly to their defence; yet at length the fire grew so strong, that I plainly saw it was beyond all help, even if she had yielded to us. We then wished to have disentangled ourselves from the burning carak, but had little hope of success; yet we plied water with great diligence to keep our ship safe. At this time I had little hope but our ship, myself, and several of our wounded men must have been all destroyed along with the carak. Most of our people indeed might have saved themselves in boats on board our consorts. When we were at the worst, by Gods providence our spritsail-yard with the sail and ropes, which were fast entangled with the spritsail-yard of the carak, were so burned that we fell away, with the loss of some of our sails. The Exchange also, being farther aft and more distant from the fire, was more easily cleared, and fell off abaft.

As soon as God had put us out of danger, the fire caught hold of the forecastle of the carak, where I think there was great store of benzoin, or some such combustible matter, for it flamed and flowed over the carak, which was almost in an instant all over in flames. The Portuguese now leapt over-board in great numbers, and I sent captain Grant with the boat, bidding him use his discretion in saving them. He brought me on board two gentlemen. One of them was an old man named Nuno Velio Pereira, who had been governor of Mozambique and Sofala in the year 1582, and had since been governor of a place of importance in the East Indies. The ship in which he was coming home was cast away a little to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, whence he travelled by land to Mozambique, and got a passage in this carak. The other was named Bras Carrero, who was captain of a carak that was cast away at Mozambique, and came likewise as a passenger in this ship. Also three men of the inferior sort; but only these two gentlemen we clothed and brought home to England. The rest, and others which were saved by our other boats, were all set on shore on the island of Flores, except two or three negroes, one of whom was a native of Mozambique, and the other of the East Indies.

This fight took place in the open sea, 6 leagues to the southward of the sound or channel between Fayal and Pico. The people whom we saved informed us, that the cause of the carak refusing to yield was, that she and all her goods belonged to the king, being all that had been collected for him that year in India, and that the captain of her was greatly in favour with the king, and expected to have been made viceroy of India at his return. This great carak was by no means lumbered, either within board or on deck, being more like a ship of war than a merchant vessel; and, besides her own men and guns, she had the crew and ordnance that belonged to another carak that was cast away at Mozambique, and the crew of another that was lost a little way to the east of the Cape of Good Hope. Yet, through sickness caught at Angola, where they watered, it was said she had not now above 150 white men on board, but a great many negroes. They likewise told us there were three noblemen and three ladies on board; but we found them to disagree much in their stories. The carak continued to burn all the rest of that day and the succeeding night; but next morning, on the fire reaching her powder, being 60 barrels, which was in the lowest part of her hold, she blew up with a dreadful explosion, most of her materials floating about on the sea. Some of the people said she was larger than the Madre de Dios, and some that she was less. She was much undermasted and undersailed, yet she went well through the water, considering that she was very foul. The shot we made at her from the cannon of our ship, before we laid her on board, might be seven broadsides of six or seven shots each, one with another, or about 49 shots in all. We lay on board her about two hours, during which we discharged at her about 20 sacre shots. Thus much may suffice for our dangerous conflict with that unfortunate carak.

On the 30th of June, after traversing the seas, we got sight of another huge carak, which some of our company took at first for the great San Philippo, the admiral of Spain; but on coming up with her next day, we certainly perceived her to be a carak. After bestowing some shots upon her, we summoned her to yield, but they stood stoutly on their defence, and utterly refused to strike. Wherefore, as no good could be done without boarding, I consulted as to what course we should follow for that purpose; but as we, who were the chief captains, were partly slain and the rest wounded in the former conflict, and because of the murmuring of some disorderly and cowardly fellows, all our resolute determinations were crossed: To conclude in a few words, the carak escaped our hands. After this, we continued to cruize for some time about Corvo and Flores, in hopes of falling in with some ships from the West Indies; but, being disappointed in this expectation, and provisions falling short, we returned for England, where I arrived at Portsmouth on the 28th of August 1594.