the 17th, being to leeward of them in consequence of the land breeze, they weighed and made toward us, when we waited their approach, although they preserved the advantage of the weather-gage.  The fight began about nine in the morning, and continued without intermission for nine hours.  In the afternoon, a fine gentle sea-breeze sprung up from the westwards, which gave us the weather-gage; and the Portuguese admiral anchored, either of necessity to repair some defect about his rudder, or of policy to gain some expected advantage.  His vice-admiral and the large Dutch ship anchored to the eastwards, and the lesser Dutch ship to leeward of them all, stopping his leaks.  We were now in great hopes of putting our fire-ship to a good purpose; but being too soon fired and forsaken by those who had her in charge, she drove clear of them all, to their joy and our disgrace.  Seeing them remain at anchor, and keeping to windward of them, we turned to and again close a-head of them as they rode at anchor, raking them as we passed, through and through, fore and aft, especially the admiral, receiving only in return their prow and bow-chases.  By these, as I passed to the north, two unfortunate shots cut asunder the weather leech ropes of the Roebuck’s foresail and fore-topsail, in the middle depth of both sails; owing to which we could not bring her into stays, and were forced, for repairing these sails, to bear down to leeward, between the enemy and the shore; in which course, the three great ships plied their whole broadsides against us, but with less hurt than I could have imagined, God be praised.  Having compassed the three large ships, I luffed up to rejoin our squadron, which still held the advantage of the wind, and plied their great guns on the Portuguese like so many muskets.  When I had got to windward of the smaller Dutch ship, which stood off as I did till he had our fire-ship directly between him and me, he turned tail, and steered right before the wind along shore to the eastwards, with all the sail he could carry.  The other three now set sail to his rescue, and were now so tame, that as the Hart passed along their broadsides, she received only a few shots great and small from any of them, and from some none at all.  The night now coming on, and our people being all wearied by the long continuance of the fight, we all desisted from any farther chase, and came to anchor in our usual road.

In this fight, the London and Hart had very little harm in their hulls and tackling, and less, or rather none, in their men.  The main-mast of the Eagle was hurt in five places, four of which were quite through, and one of her men lost his right arm.  In the Roebuck, I had one man slain by a cannon ball striking his head.  A piece of his skull and some splinters of the ball wounded one of my mates in the forehead, and destroyed his left eye; and two others of my men lost the use of their right hands.  God be praised for our good fortune; for I never heard of so small loss in so long a fight as we now sustained.  I cannot truly state the loss of the enemy:  but, by the report of our merchants, their vice-admiral and another captain were slain, and thirty or forty men in the admiral’s ship alone, the rest as yet unknown.  As to their Moors, they do not count them among the num her of their men.