Ships were lost during these dark voyages, and said to have had their crews drowned, though most probably these stories were circulated by the captains themselves, and written up afterwards in the log. Of the other five vessels lost, four were lost within 300 miles of Port Royal (Kingston), and more or less near this same position in the map.
_16th_ This day after sunset there rose a dreadful and unaccustomed sea and wind at Jamaica, being very dark and cloudy, with most terrible thunder and lightning, that it caused great fear and astonishment in all the Spaniards.
It had been observed by the Governor, Dr. John Haynes, who gave this account of it to the Spaniards, and who had observed the same weather sign, viz., the dark days and bad winds in the days of the English fleet when it came out of Plymouth to Porto Rico.
This dreadful storm, which lasted all night, continued until the morning of the 16th of June, when it cleared off, the sky being in a fair and moderate clearness with a gentle breeze, and on the next day it became much calmer.
On the 22nd the Governor called the Governor, the Garrison, and the Spanish officers and people together, and told them that now the fleet from Spain had arrived in Jamaica; and if they would come to him he would tell them what he knew of the conduct of the Spaniards at St. Jago in regard to the death of Don Diego Colmenares, the captain of the ship. After this a number of the Spanish officers were brought before the Governor.
He told them that Don Diego Colmenares had sailed from St. Jago six months before in a ship called the _San Felipe de Dios_. He afterwards proceeded to a place called the River of St. Hermes, to take in a cargo of hides, etc. He was to sail again after the rainy season on St. John's day, which was June 24th, and return for St. Jago in December. During this time the Spaniards were to be left unprovided for with necessaries, and this he had reported to the Spaniards in his last letters sent from Jamaica to St. Jago. He also told the Spanish officers that he knew they had a ship at St. Jago fit to go to sea, and that the seamen were willing to work her, and that the captain (himself) had made enquiry about them, and would do anything for their comfort.
"This last was all stuff," as the Spaniards replied; "the very first thing they did, they sent to the coast of St. Jago, and told the governor there to send them a ship loaded with slaves, and they would help to take her; and this they said to the people of Jamaica, in order to get slaves to carry to St. Jago. The people of Jamaica told me so; the _San Felipe de Dios_ had twenty-one negroes taken by the _Othello_ in January last, which they had not paid for yet, which they could easily have done, but that they wanted slaves. On that same ship, the _San Felipe de Dios_ , Don Felipe and his brother left St. Jago in the _Rosario_ , and I know not what they have taken there since; if they have taken the ship or the men, I know not; but this I know, they never came to Jamaica."
The Governor had had an account from an Indian who was at their country house, that about a week before the vessel arrived that was to take them back, a Captain or pilot came aboard of them in the evening, and said he was to take them on a cruise to a distant country, and then he went away, and gave directions that the vessel should sail on the next morning.
About a month before this they had two Spaniards from Porto Rico brought prisoners to St. Jago; Don Felipe Colmenares, Don Alonso, his brother; and they said to the Governor in the presence of these prisoners, that they had been informed that the English would try to intercept them when they were returning to Spain, and so they endeavoured to get to the coast by two days' sailing, and that they succeeded, and landed at the River St. Hermes, at a place called Buena Esperanza, where he (the pilot) told the Spaniards they might go with their ship and cargo of hides, and load as much slaves on board her as she could carry, and that he would land them in St. Jago on their voyage to Spain. He was promised a pretty sum for his pains.
The pilot steered for the coasts of St. Jago, where he took his ship and cargo of hides on board and sailed for Spain, calling at the River of St. Hermes, where he landed the Spaniards he had there in his vessel and goods and loaded slaves; and, in the night, he steered for the coasts of Cuba, and from thence he directed his course homewards to St. Jago, and the next day came to the mouth of a river called the Guanima, about thirty leagues to the eastward of St. Jago, where he loaded with fourteen negroes, and then went to a place called the Stono.
About two days before this, he had been boarded in a small vessel he was in by Captain Moore (whom he told he had never seen), who asked him his name, and where he came from. He answered he had in his boat a cargo of hides, and wanted a pilot to bring him from St. Jago, and that he was going to go from there to Spain.
"He would not take any of his pilotage, which is as much as he can do, excepting to direct his course as he has done, and take in stores at Jamaica, and that was all he meant. And in answer to some information, what was the course he was taking?
"He replied he was going to the Cape de Verdes for Spain, or for where the wind would take him.
"Captain Moore was so much enraged at his going back again, and the Spaniards giving him advice to do so, that he ordered him to be sent on board of a vessel on his departure, and taken on board at a bay on the coast, and to be well secured there till the vessel could be gone from there to St. Jago, in order that they might know where the slaves came from, and prevent their being carried to St. Jago; and not to suffer him to come near Jamaica, nor any of the ships that came from St. Jago, if he knew of any of them. And if he saw any from St. Jago, he should speak to them not to return.
"The other day, being at the River of St. Hermes, a Captain from St. Jago came in there with several slaves and took part of them away, and carried them to St. Jago, after the Governor's officers had agreed with him to send a man to St. Jago for some supplies of clothes, etc., etc.
"And yet when the Governor offered to send a vessel to his brother, Don Felipe, Don Felipe asked him to stop, and wait till a ship was ready to sail, as he had promised the Governor he would, and that a ship was, at that very time, gone to St. Jago.
"When he had done all the damage he could to the Spanish ship at St. Jago, by roasting her bottom, breaking all her windows, etc., etc., and when he saw she was in danger of sinking, he went into the island of Cuba and shipped himself and his crew in a ship of four hundred pieces of eight belonging to St. Jago. Then he returned to the roadstead and saw his ship (the _San Felipe_ ) on fire and burning; he had done this with his hands.
"Captain Moore, having learned the course the _San Felipe_ took, sailed after her, and found her, as well as the wreck, on fire; and finding he could not get her out, he returned to Jamaica."
And in conclusion the Governor said he could not understand what these facts meant; and the Spanish officers said that the Governor should know more of the affair than they did.
The Spanish minister came from Spain on purpose to ask the Governor about it, and to receive an answer.
This is a true account of the business from the best persons to whom I have access in the town, and I send it you as it was given to me by the Governor, the Garrison and the Spanish officers.
I shall shortly write to the Governor concerning the other part of Don Felipe's story, that he was a young man whom he met at a place called Caxa, some where about the Isle of Cuba, where he and two more Spaniards took passage in a ship, and were seen no more by the Spaniards here.
"Don Felipe Colmenares, Don Francisco and Don Miguel Colmenares (brothers), Don Felipe Rodriguez and his wife, Dona Antonia Yanez, Don Antonio Rodriguez, Don Antonio, Don Felipe and Don Miguel Rodriguez, with their wives, Don Antonio, Don Francisco, and Don Miguel Rodriguez."
_Grimoes' story._
Grimoes, said that he was born at Martinique, but came to Jamaica from Puerto Rico, and was a tailor, and had been a
