necessaries fit for so great an expedition; for had not this fleet met with a ship of Biscay, coming from Newfoundland with fish, which relieved their necessities, they had been reduced to great extremity.  In this expedition Sir Francis Drake sailed in the Elizabeth Bonadventure; captain Frobisher, in the Aid was second in command; and captain Carlee was lieutenant-general of the forces by land, Sir Francis having the supreme command both as admiral and general.

The services performed in this expedition were, the taking and sacking of St Domingo in Hispaniola, of Carthagena on the continent of America, and of St Justina in Florida, three towns of great importance in the West Indies.  This fleet was the greatest of any nation, except the Spaniards, that had ever been seen in these seas since their first discovery; and, if the expedition had been as well considered of before going from home, as it was happily performed by the valour of those engaged, it had more annoyed the king of Spain than all the other actions that ensued during that war.  But it seems our long peace had made us incapable of advice in war; for had we kept and defended those places when in our possession, and made provision to have relieved them from England, we had diverted the war from Europe; for at that time there was no comparison betwixt the strength of Spain and England by sea, by means whereof we might have better defended these acquisitions, and might more easily have encroached upon the rest of the Indies, than the king of Spain could have aided or succoured them.  But now we see and find by experience, that those places which were then weak and unfortified, are since fortified, so that it is to no purpose for us to attempt annoying the king of Spain now in his dominions in the West Indies.  And, though this expedition proved fortunate and victorious, yet as it was father an awakening than a weakening of the king of Spain, it had been far better wholly let alone, than to have undertaken it on such slender grounds, and with such inconsiderable forces[335].

[Footnote 335:  It must be acknowledged that the present section can only be considered as a species of introduction or prelude to an intended narrative of an expedition:  Yet such actually is the first article in Sir William Monson’s celebrated Naval Tracts, as published in the Collection of Churchill; leaving the entire of the narrative an absolute blank.  Nothing could well justify the adoption of this inconclusive and utterly imperfect article, but the celebrity of its author and actor:  For Sir William Monson, and the editor of Churchill’s Collection, seem to have dosed in giving to the public this Vox et preterea nihil.—­E.]

SECTION III.

Cruizing Voyage to the Azores by Captain Whiddon, in 1586, written by John Evesham[336].