oved chief,
had looked his last on the land he loved so dearly.

I can but give a brief account of the important services rendered during
the long cruise we had now commenced.

Passing down the coast of Portugal, the admiral sent a frigate up the
Tagus, demanding of the King of Portugal a complete fulfilment of the
clauses of the late treaty. The effect of the message was satisfactory
in the extreme. Every clause was agreed to, and among others the right
of Englishmen to have Bibles and Protestant books in their houses,
without thereby infringing the laws of the country.

Without stopping we pressed on to Cadiz, looking out for the Silver
fleet, which had not arrived.

We here encountered a fearful storm, by which several of our ships were
damaged and compelled to return home, but yet the Spaniards would not
venture out of port to fight us; and the admiral, leaving Captain
Stayner in the _Speaker_, and six other ships to watch in the bay,
sailed for Malaga, on which town we inflicted condign punishment in
consequence of the assistance the people had afforded to a Genoese and
to a Sicilian galley which had taken part with the Spaniards against us.

On our return to Cadiz, we found to our infinite satisfaction that
Captain Stayner's squadron had fallen in with the first division of the
Silver fleet, and had sunk or captured every galleon containing treasure
of immense value.

In the hopes of encountering the second division, the admiral remained
at sea the whole winter off Cadiz, notwithstanding the heavy gales we
encountered. We were absent from our post a short time, during which we
came off Algiers to settle a dispute with the Dey, who, not forgetting
the punishment inflicted on Tunis, yielded to our demands without a
shot.

On our return towards the Straits, we relieved Tangiers, then a
Portuguese settlement, closely invested by the Moors, whom our guns
drove away and dispersed. Returning to Cadiz we again endeavoured, but
in vain, to draw out the Spanish fleet, and while we lay off and on the
harbour, news came from undoubted sources that the second Silver fleet,
hearing of the disaster to the first, was afraid of continuing the
homeward voyage, and had put into Santa Cruz, a port of one of the
Canary Islands.

Thither the admiral resolved to sail with his fleet, now numbering by
arrivals from England about twenty-five large ships and frigates.

On the morning of the 19th of April, 1657, the frigate se