ty of his ship and artillery, he might hope to defend
himself, he turned a deaf ear to the terms which I sent him; and he
not only did not surrender, but he put himself on the defensive, and
fought with me with all the fury of his artillery and of his musketry,
from both sides of the ship, and with fire contrivances, with which
he was well supplied. The battle lasted six hours, with both ships
lashed side to side, but in all this time my admiral aforesaid did not
leave his course, or return to succor or help me. On the contrary he
began, in our sight, to fight with the admiral's ship of the enemy,
which he had overtaken, and he easily captured it because it was
a very small ship, with about twenty-two men, including boys and
the sick; and after it had surrendered he remained there, instead
of returning to help me in time of battle. The enemy killed ten or
twelve Spaniards of my men, and some Indians of the service, and on
his side most of his men died; so that, being still so hard pressed,
he himself set fire to his ship of his own accord, at the stern,
where our men were on the poop with the banner. The fire so increased
there that we feared that both ships were going to be consumed.

Furthermore, my flagship, which was not a strong one, having been made
especially for the merchant trade, sprang a leak at the bow with the
force of the artillery which had been fired in this long combat; and it
made water so fast that nothing could be done, because we had no pumps,
as they had been knocked to pieces by one of the enemy's shot. On this
account, by the advice and counsel of the chief pilot and of the seamen
who understood the situation, I was asked to loosen myself from the
enemy and to go to save my ship (or at least the artillery and men
on it) at the island of Fortun, which was to leeward of us a legua
and a half away, and which they said we could reach quickly. When
I saw the opinion of the aforesaid men and the danger which my ship
was in, both from the fire on the enemy and from the risk of sinking,
I followed the advice; and, having withdrawn the men and the banner
that I had on the poop-castle of the corsair's ship, which was left,
as I have said, so broken and disabled, I started for the aforesaid
island of Fortun to make repairs; but the water which the ship was
taking in increased so that all at once the ship sank.

When the enemy saw himself alone, with the few men that he had, he
hastily began to put out the