Great Epochs in American History, Vol. II | Page 7

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