garrisoned and kept; but Howard and all the other senior officers were opposed to the project, and anxious to return to England. The place, therefore, was given over to pillage, its fortifications were razed, and many of its principal buildings, the churches excepted, were burnt.
On July 5th, the fleet weighed again and proceeded to Faro in Algarve, a hundred miles to the westward. The town had been deserted, the inhabitants carrying off nearly all their goods, and little spoil beyond the bishop's library was taken.[1]
Essex was not wholly satisfied with what had been done, and suggested sailing to the Azores, and there lying in wait for the home-coming East India carracks. Lord Thomas Howard and Admiral Duijvenvoorde concurred; but all the other officers seem to have been beset by a fear of losing what they had gained, and by a desire to hasten home to enjoy it. Essex thereupon asked that those ships which were short of stores or had many sick on board might be sent to England, together with the land forces, and that he, with two of her majesty's ships and ten other vessels, might be suffered to go to the Azores and look for the carracks. The council would not, however, consent even to this; whereupon Essex insisted upon each member delivering his views in writing, in order that his own attitude might be vindicated.
The sole concession that he succeeded in obtaining was that on the homeward voyage a visit should be paid to Corunna; but neither in Corunna, nor in the neighbouring port of Ferrol, was a single Spanish ship found. Essex, still anxious to effect something more, would have taken Corunna, and attacked such Spanish vessels as were in Santander and San Sebastian. Once more the gallant Duijvenvoorde supported him, and once more the two were overruled.[2] And so the fleet returned to England,[3] with the two galleons, a hundred brass guns, and an immense amount of very valuable miscellaneous booty.
Then followed an amusing and undignified struggle for the plunder, most of the officers protesting that little or none had fallen
- ↑ This booty fell to Essex, who succeeded in retaining it in spite of Elizabeth's efforts to secure it. He afterwards gave part of it to Sir Thomas Bodley, and so it became the nucleus of the Bodleian Library.
- ↑ For Essex's defence of his conduct, see Cotton MSS. Julius, F. vi. 103, fol. 271.
- ↑ Reaching Plymouth on August 8th, 1696. Essex, who convoyed the St. Andrew, and a fly-boat laden with ordnance, arrived two days later.
