dron was directed to rendezvous.

Those were days when gentlemen considered it necessary to settle all
disputes with the sword, and unhappily one of his followers, Mr Hope,
having engaged in a duel, was mortally wounded, though he insisted on
returning to his ship.

On the 21st of July, all things being ready, the anchors were weighed,
and the little squadron sailed out of Plymouth Sound. On the 25th the
hapless Mr Hope died of his wound. The next day five large Spanish
vessels were seen, which, steering for the _Desire_, attacked her; but
the Admiral plied his guns so vigorously that they were glad to escape,
having done no material damage.

Having sighted various places, on the 26th of August the squadron put
into the harbour of Sierra Leone. The following day two negroes came
off and gave the information that there was a Portuguese vessel higher
up the harbour. In order to learn more about her, some of the crew went
on shore and danced and amused themselves with the negroes, from whom
they learned that it would be impossible to approach her with the ships.
Disappointed in this. Cavendish and seventy of his men landed the
following day, attacked the town, set some of the houses on fire, and
took what little spoil they could find. On their return the negroes who
had fled, having rallied in a wood, shot poisoned arrows at them, and
hurt three or four. Notwithstanding this, the crew again landed for the
purpose of filling their water-casks and washing their clothes. While
they were thus occupied a party of negroes rushed out upon them from the
woods, and shooting their arrows, hurt several of the men, among whom
was a soldier, who, breaking off the shaft, allowed the head to remain
in the wound rather than have it cut out. It being poisoned, his body
swelled and became black, and he died the next morning.

Touching at the Cape de Verde Islands, the squadron steered a
west-south-west course across the Atlantic, and on the 31st of October
sighted a lofty mountain in Brazil, twenty-four leagues from Cape Frio.
The next day the ships came to an anchor between the island of San
Sebastian and the main. Here the greater part of a month was spent in
setting up a pinnace, preparing casks, and other necessary works.

Again sailing on the afternoon of the 17th of December, the squadron
entered a hitherto unknown harbour, to which the Admiral gave the name
of Port Desire, in memory of his own ship. Here vast numbers o