g could accrue
either to him, or his people, after some small resistance delivered it
up to its true lord and master, under the same articles they had
obtained it from the Spaniards; a few days after which surrender, there
arrived from Jamaica an English ship, which the governor there had sent
underhand, with a good supply of people, both men and women: the
Spaniards from the castle having espied the ship, put forth English
colours, and persuaded Le Sieur Simon to go aboard, and conduct the ship
into a port they assigned him. This he performed and they were all made
prisoners. A certain Spanish engineer has published in print an exact
relation of the retaking of this isle by the Spaniards, which I have
thought fit to insert here:--

_A true relation, and particular account of the
victory obtained by the arms of his Catholic
Majesty against the English pirates, by the
direction and valour of Don John Perez de Guzman,
knight of the order of St. James, governor and
captain-general of Terra Firma, and the Province
of Veraguas._

THE kingdom of Terra Firma, which of itself is sufficiently strong to
repel and destroy great fleets, especially the pirates of Jamaica, had
several ways notice imparted to the governor thereof, that fourteen
English vessels cruised on the coasts belonging to his Catholic Majesty.
July 14, 1665, news came to Panama, that they were arrived at Puerto de
Naos, and had forced the Spanish garrison of the isle of St. Catherine,
whose governor was Don Estevan del Campo, and possessed themselves of
the said island, taking prisoners the inhabitants, and destroying all
that they met. About the same time, Don John Perez de Guzman received
particular information of these robberies from some Spaniards who
escaped out of the island (and whom he ordered to be conveyed to Puerto
Velo), that the said pirates came into the island May 2, by night,
without being perceived; and that the next day, after some skirmishes,
they took the fortresses, and made prisoners all the inhabitants and
soldiers that could not escape. Upon this, Don John called a council of
war, wherein he declared the great progress the said pirates had made in
the dominions of his Catholic Majesty; and propounded "that it was
absolutely necessary to send some forces to the isle of St. Catherine,
sufficient to retake it from the pirates, the honour and interest of his