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Page 7
On Saturday, the 25th, the captain-general (Menendez) came to visit
our vessel and get the ordnance for disembarkment at Florida. This
ordnance consisted of two rampart pieces, of two sorts of culverins,
of very small caliber, powder and balls; and he also took two soldiers
to take care of the pieces. Having armed his vessel, he stopt and made
us an address, in which he instructed us what we had to do on arrival
at the place where the French were anchored. I will not dwell on this
subject, on which there was a good deal said for and against, although
the opinion of the general finally prevailed. There were two thousand
(hundred) Frenchmen in the seaport into which we were to force an
entrance. I made some opposition to the plans, and begged the general
to consider that he had the care of a thousand souls, for which he
must give a good account....
On Tuesday, the 4th, we took a northerly course, keeping all the time
close to the coast. On Wednesday, the 5th, two hours before sunset, we
saw four French ships at the mouth of a river.[2] When we were two
leagues from them the first galley joined the rest of the fleet, which
was composed of four other vessels. The general concerted a plan with
the captains and pilots, and ordered the flag-ship, the _San Pelayo_,
and a _chaloupe_ to attack the French flag-ship, the _Trinity_, while
the first galley and another _chaloupe_ would attack the French
galley, both of which vessels were very large and powerful. All the
ships of our fleet put themselves in good position; the troops were in
the best of spirits, and full of confidence in the great talents of
the captain-general. They followed the galley; but, as our general is
a very clever and artful officer, he did not fire, nor seek to make
any attack on the enemy. He went straight to the French galley, and
cast anchor about eight paces from her. The other vessels went to the
windward, and very near the enemy. During the maneuvers, which lasted
until about two hours after sunset, not a word was said on either
side. Never in my life have I known such stillness. Our general
inquired of the French galley, which was the vessel nearest his,
"Whence does this fleet come?" They answered, "From France." "What are
you doing here?" said the Adelantado. "This is the territory of King
Philip II. I order you to leave directly; for I neither know who you
are nor what you want here."
The French commander then replied, "I am bringing soldiers and
supplies to the fort of the King of France." He then asked the name of
the general of our fleet, and was told, "Pedro Menendez de Aviles,
Captain-general of the King of Spain, who have come to hang all
Lutherans I find here." Our general then asked him the name of his
commander, and he replied, "Lord Gasto." While this parleying was
going on, a long-boat was sent from the galley to the flag-ship. The
person charged with this errand managed to do it so secretly that we
could not hear what was said; but we understood the reply of the
French to be, "I am the admiral," which made us think he wished to
surrender, as they were in so small a force. Scarcely had the French
made this reply, when they slipped their cables, spread their sails,
and passed through our midst. Our admiral, seeing this, followed the
French commander, and called upon him to lower his sails, in the name
of King Philip, to which he received an impertinent answer. Immediatly
our admiral gave an order to discharge a small culverin, the ball from
which struck the vessel amidship, and I thought she was going to
founder. We gave chase, and some time after he again called on them to
lower their sails. "I would sooner die first than surrender!" replied
the French commander. The order was given to fire a second shot, which
carried off five or six men; but, as these miserable devils are very
good sailors, they maneuvered so well that we could not take one of
them; and, notwithstanding all the guns we fired at them, we did not
sink one of their ships. We only got possession of one of their large
boats, which was of great service to us afterward. During the whole
night our flag-ship (the _San Pelayo_) and the galley chased the
French flag-ship (_Trinity_) and galley....
The next morning, being fully persuaded that the storm had made a
wreck of our galley, or that, at least, she had been driven a hundred
leagues out to sea, we decided that so soon as daylight came we would
weigh anchor, and withdraw in good order, to a river (Seloy) which was
below the French colony, and there disembark, and construct a fort,
which we would defend until assistance came to us.
On Thursday, just as day appeared, we sailed toward the vessel at
anchor, passed very close to her, and would certainly have captured
her, when we saw another vessel appear on the open sea, which we
thought was one of ours. At the same moment, however, we thought we
recognized the French admiral's ship. We perceived the ship on the
open sea: it was the French galley of which we had been in pursuit.
Finding ourselves between these two vessels, we decided to direct our
course toward the galley, for the sake of deceiving them and
preventing them from attacking us, so as not to give them any time to
wait. This bold maneuver having succeeded, we sought the river Seloy
and port, of which I have spoken, where we had the good fortune to
find our galley, and another vessel which had planned the same thing
we had. Two companies of infantry now disembarked: that of Captain
Andres Soyez Patino, and that of Captain Juan de San Vincente, who is
a very distinguished gentleman. They were well received by the
Indians, who gave them a large house belonging to a chief, and
situated near the shore of a river. Immediately Captain Patino and
Captain San Vincente, both men of talent and energy, ordered an
intrenchment to be built around this house, with a slope of earth and
fascines, these being the only means of defense possible in that
country, where stones are nowhere to be found. Up to to-day we have
disembarked twenty-four pieces of bronze guns of different calibers,
of which the least weighed fifteen hundred weight. Our fort is at a
distance of about fifteen leagues from that of the enemy (Fort
Carolin). The energy and talents of those two brave captains, joined
to the efforts of their brave soldiers, who had no tools with which to
work the earth, accomplished the construction of this fortress of
defence; and, when the general disembarked he was quite surprized with
what had been done.
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