tting loose
upon him, and encouraging those daring adventurers, Drake, Hawkins,
Rawleigh, the Lord Clifford and many other braves that age produced,
who, by their privateering and bold undertaking (like those the
buccaneers practise) now opened the way to our discoveries, and
succeeding settlements in America."[42]

On the 19th of November 1527, some Spaniards in a caravel loading
cassava at the Isle of Mona, between Hispaniola and Porto Rico, sighted
a strange vessel of about 250 tons well-armed with cannon, and believing
it to be a ship from Spain sent a boat to make inquiries. The new-comers
at the same time were seen to launch a pinnace carrying some twenty-five
men, all armed with corselets and bows. As the two boats approached the
Spaniards inquired the nationality of the strangers and were told that
they were English. The story given by the English master was that his
ship and another had been fitted out by the King of England and had
sailed from London to discover the land of the Great Khan; that they had
been separated in a great storm; that this ship afterwards ran into a
sea of ice, and unable to get through, turned south, touched at
Bacallaos (Newfoundland), where the pilot was killed by Indians, and
sailing 400 leagues along the coast of "terra nueva" had found her way
to this island of Porto Rico. The Englishmen offered to show their
commission written in Latin and Romance, which the Spanish captain could
not read; and after sojourning at the island for two days, they inquired
for the route to Hispaniola and sailed away. On the evening of 25th
November this same vessel appeared before the port of San Domingo, the
capital of Hispaniola, where the master with ten or twelve sailors went
ashore in a boat to ask leave to enter and trade. This they obtained,
for the _alguazil mayor_ and two pilots were sent back with them to
bring the ship into port. But early next morning, when they approached
the shore, the Spanish _alcaide_, Francisco de Tapia, commanded a gun to
be fired at the ship from the castle; whereupon the English, seeing the
reception accorded them, sailed back to Porto Rico, there obtained some
provisions in exchange for pewter and cloth, and departed for Europe,
"where it is believed that they never arrived, for nothing is known of
them." The _alcaide_, says Herrera, was imprisoned by the _oidores_,
because he did not, instead of driving the ship away, allow her to enter
the port, whence she could