whatever into the voyage itself, nor by what accident the ships, which had set out for the East Indies, had come into the West Indies; neither what became of the ships, nor the nature of the sickness which had reduced their men to four, but wholly refers to what passed after these sailors had quitted their ship, and landed on the island of Utias, near Porto Rico.  All these circumstances were probably communicated in a former letter, alluded to in the commencement of that which was intercepted, as it proceeds upon having received a commission from the royal audience, to punish certain offenders who had usurped a great quantity of property belonging to the King of Spain in the island of Utias; the plunder taken by the English, and with which these four men had landed in that island—­E.

* * * * *

It appears by this letter, that three English ships bound for the East Indies, belonging to Portugal, had captured three Portuguese ships, one of them from Goa, from the captain of which they took a large rich precious stone, which the captain had charge of for the King of Spain; the particulars of which had been communicated the year before in a letter from Alcasar to the king, together with a copy of the declaration of one Thomas, of the goods he and his three companions had in the said island of Utias.  They had also many bags of ryals of eight and four, intended for the pay of the garrison in a frontier castle of India, and much more goods belonging to the Portuguese.

After this all the men died of some unexplained sickness, except four men, whose names were Richard, Daniel, Thomas, and George.  These men, with all the jewels, money, and rich goods they could remove, put into a river or bay of the island of Utias,[30] three leagues from Porto Rico; where, after landing their goods, their boat sunk, and they remained on that island with only a small boat made of boards, which they had taken from some fishermen at Cape San Juan, the north-east headland of Porto Rico.  With that small boat they crossed over to Porto Rico in search of water, and, on their return to Utias, left George behind them on Porto Rico.  He, being found by Don Rodrigo de Fuentes and five others, gave information of all that had happened to them, and of the large stone, jewels, gold, plate, testoons, and other rich goods that were in the said island, and of the places where the other three Englishmen and their goods might be found.

[Footnote 30:  From the context, it would appear, that the island of Utias is to the east of Porto Rico, among or towards the group called the Virgin isles.  The ships of Wood were probably suffering from scurvy and famine, like the Edward Bonadventure; and, endeavouring, like Lancaster, to seek relief in the West Indies, may have perished among the Virgin isles.—­E.]