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 Sa