arrived with the intention of making an attack upon them. The
French made all haste in their movements, for our men had no arms on
board, and had only embarked the provisions. When day appeared, and our
people discovered the French, they addressed their prayers to Our Lady
of _Bon Secours d'Utrera_, and supplicated her to grant them a little
wind, for the French were already close up to them. They say that Our
Lady descended herself upon the vessel; for the wind freshened and blew
fair for the bar, so that the shallop could enter it. The French
followed it; but as the bar had but little depth and their vessels were
large, they were not able to go over it, so that our men and the
provisions made a safe harbor.

"When it became still clearer they perceived, besides the two vessels of
the enemy, four others at a distance, being the same which we had seen
in the port the evening of our arrival. They were well furnished with
troops and artillery, and had directed themselves for our galleon and
the other ship, which were alone at sea. In this circumstance God
afforded us two favors: the first was, that the same evening after they
had discharged the provisions and the troops I have spoken of, at
midnight the galleon and the other vessel put to sea without being
perceived by the enemy; the one for Spain, and the other for Havana for
the purpose of seeking the fleet which was there; and in this way
neither was taken.

"The second favor, by which God rendered us a still greater service, was
that on the day following the one I have described there arose a great
storm, and so great a tempest that certainly the greater part of the
French vessels must have been lost at sea; for they were overtaken upon
the most dangerous coast I have ever seen, and were very close to the
shore; and if our vessels, that is, the galleon and its consort, are not
shipwrecked, it is because they were already more than twelve leagues
off the coast, which gave them the facility of manoeuvring as well as
they could, relying upon the aid of God to preserve them."

Menendez had ascertained from the Indians that a large number of the
French troops had embarked on board of the vessels which he had seen off
the harbor, and he had good ground for believing that these vessels
would either be cast helpless upon the shore, or be driven off by the
tempest to such a distance as would render their return for some days
impossible. He at once conceived the project of a