us to take in fresh water; by means whereof our General,
for the avoiding of famine and thirst, about the beginning of June was
enforced to land 200 of our men, and so by main force and strength to
obtain that which by no fair means he could procure; and so recovering
the town with the loss of two of our men, there was a secret and
peaceable trade admitted, and the Spaniards came in by night, and
bought of our negroes to the number of 200 and upwards, and of our
other merchandise also. From thence we departed for Cartagena, where
the governor was so strait that we could not obtain any traffic there,
and so for that our trade was near finished, our General thought it
best to depart from thence the rather for the avoiding of certain
dangerous storms called the huricanoes, which accustomed to begin there
about that time of the year, and so the 24th of July, 1568, we departed
from thence, directing our course north, leaving the islands of Cuba
upon our right hand, to the eastward of us, and so sailing towards
Florida, upon the 12th of August an extreme tempest arose, which dured
for the space of eight days, in which our ships were most dangerously
tossed, and beaten hither and thither, so that we were in continual
fear to be drowned, by reason of the shallowness of the coast, and in
the end we were constrained to flee for succour to the port of St. John
de Ullua, or Vera Cruz, situated in nineteen degrees of latitude, and
in two hundred and seventy-nine degrees of longitude, which is the port
that serveth for the city of Mexico. In our seeking to recover this
port our General met by the way three small ships that carried
passengers, which he took with him, and so the 16th of September, 1568,
we entered the said port of St. John de Ullua. The Spaniards there,
supposing us to have been the King of Spain's fleet, the chief officers
of the country thereabouts came presently aboard our General, where
perceiving themselves to have made an unwise adventure, they were in
great fear to have been taken and stayed; howbeit our General did use
them all very courteously. In the said port there were twelve ships,
which by report had in them in treasure, to the value of two hundred
thousand pounds, all which being in our General his power, and at his
devotion, he did freely set at liberty, as also the passengers which he
had before stayed, not taking from any of them all the value of one
groat, only we stayed two men of credit and acco