French ship of
90 tons to windward of us, which came down upon us as if to lay us on
board, sending up some of his men in armour into the tops, and calling
out to us to strike. Upon this we saluted him with some cross-bars,
chain-shot, and arrows, so thick that we made their upper works fly
about their ears, and tore his ship so miserably, that he fell astern
and made sail. Our trumpeter was a Frenchman, at this time ill in bed;
yet he blew his trumpet till he could sound no more, and so died. The
29th we arrived at Plymouth, and gave thanks to God for our safety.

SECTION VI.

_Third Voyage of William Towerson to Guinea, in 1558_[270].

On the 30th of January of the above year, we set sail from Plymouth with
three ships and a pinnace, bound by the grace of God for the Canaries
and the coast of Guinea. Our ships were the Minion, admiral; the
Christopher, vice-admiral; the Tiger, and a pinnace called the Unicorn.
Next day we fell in with two hulks[271] of Dantziek, one called the Rose
of 400 tons, and the other the Unicorn of 150, both laden at Bourdeaux,
mostly with wine. We caused them to hoist out their boats and come on
board, when we examined them separately as to what goods they had on
board belonging to Frenchmen[272]. At first they denied having any; but
by their contradictory stories, we suspected the falsehood of their
charter parties, and ordered them to produce their bills of lading. They
denied having any, but we sent certain persons to the place where they
were hid, and thus confronted their falsehood. At length they confessed
that there were 32 tons and a hogshead of wine in the Unicorn belonging
to a Frenchman, and 128 tons in the Rose belonging to the, same person;
but insisted that all the rest was laden by Peter Lewgues of Hamburgh,
and consigned to Henry Summer of Campvere. After a long consultation,
considering that to capture or detain them might lose our voyage,
already too late, we agreed that each of our ships should take out as
much as they could stow for necessaries, and that we should consider
next morning what was farther to be done. We accordingly took out many
tuns of wine, some aquavitae, cordage, rosin, and other things, giving
them the rest of the Frenchmans wines to pay for what we had taken of
their own, and took a certificate under their hands of the quantity of
French goods they had confessed to, and then allowed them to continue
their voyage.

[Footnote 270: Hakluyt, II. 5