Identifier: draketudornavy02corb (find matches)
Title: Drake and the Tudor navy, with a history of the rise of England as a maritime power
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Corbett, Julian Stafford, 1854-1922
Subjects: Drake, Francis, 1540?-1596
Publisher: London : Longmans, Green
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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nd under thedirection of Englishmen in the Spanish service. While the Spaniards were thus absorbed in theirheroic effort to recover their command of the sea, theEnglish were as active in seeking to take advantage ofthe position they had won. Measures were taken to getinformation as to the movements of the fleets ; regularreports came in from spies, and accurate drawings of thenew treasure frigates were sent home with their dis-tinguishing marks that the English cruisers might knowwhat to look for.1 Some of these reports are of highinterest, and one especially, received about this time,gives a particularly full account of the Spanish system.It is as follows : The fleet of New Spain or Mexico departeth for theIndies from Spain about the 25th of June. It returneth for the Havana with treasure aboutthe 15th of May ; goeth from the Havana about the 1stof August, within four days more or less. There are in this fleet some five of the kings ships-of- 1 See especially S.P. Spain, Bundle xxix.
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DRAKES DISGEACE 367 war with two hundred soldiers apiece, in which theybring the treasure. The rest of the ships are laden with hides andcochinilla, and they have no great defence but themariners. Sometimes they are thirty, thirty-five, andforty ships. The fleet of Terra Firma or Peru goeth from Spainthe 15th of January. They bring no treasure but of parti-cular men (i.e. except treasure belonging to private owners)when they come from Nombre de Dios to the Havana. This fleet containeth six of the kings ships-of-war,every of them having three hundred soldiers apiece.They go from Cartagena for the Havana with the treasureabout the 20th of April. This fleet cometh one year and stops another. When they have knowledge of any English enemiesthey part from the Havana between the 15th and 25thof December, and when they have no news of enemiesthey part thence three days before the feast of St. JohnBaptist (i.e. about Midsummer day). The Pataos of advice (i.e. Avisos), which the kingsends, keep

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