In the meantime our men lived without any rule, eating without measure of the fruit of the country, drinking the palm wine which runs in the night from the cut branches of that tree, and continually running into the water to assuage the extreme heat of the season; and not being used to these sudden transitions, which are excessively dangerous, they fell into swellings and agues, by which about the end of the year they were dying sometimes 3, 4, or 5 in a day. When the 30 days were expired, and Windham saw his men dying so fast, he sent orders to Pinteado and the rest to come away without any more delay. Pinteado and the others wrote back to inform him of the large quantity of pepper already gathered, and that they looked daily for more, desiring him to consider the great praise they would all get on their return if the voyage turned out profitable, and the shame that must attend returning without a full loading. Not satisfied with this answer, more especially as the men continued to die in great numbers, Windham sent a second message ordering them to return immediately, or that he would go away and leave them. Thinking to prevail upon him by reasonable means, Pinteado returned to the ships under an escort provided by the negro king.

In the mean time Windham, enraged at Pinteado, broke open his cabin and all his chests, spoiled all the cordials and sweetmeats he had provided for his health, and left him nothing either of his cloaths or nautical instruments; after which strange procedure he fell sick and died. When he came on board, Pinteado lamented as much for the death of Windham as if he had been his dearest friend; but several of the mariners and officers spit in his face, calling him Jew, and asserted that he had brought them to this place on purpose that they should die; and some even drew their swords, threatening to slay him. They insisted that he should leave the coast immediately, and though he only requested them to wait till those who were left at the court of the king of Benin could be sent for, they would by no means consent. He then prayed them to give him a boat, and as much of an old sail as might serve to fit her out, in which he proposed to bring Nicholas Lambert197 and the rest to England, but even this they would not consent to. Finding all his representations in vain, he wrote a letter to the merchants at court, informing them of all that had happened at the ships, promising, if God spared his life, that he would return as soon as possible for them.

Pinteado, thus kept on board against his will, was thrust among the cabin-boys, and worse used than any of them, insomuch that he was forced to depend on the favour of the cook for subsistence. Having sunk one of their ships for want of hands to navigate her, the people departed from the coast with the other. Within six or seven days, Pinteado died broken-hearted, from the cruel and undeserved usage he had met with,-a man worthy to have served any prince, and most vilely used. Of 140 men who had sailed originally from Portsmouth on this unfortunate and ill-conducted voyage, scarcely 40 got back to Plymouth, and many even of those died soon afterwards.

That no one may suspect that I have written in commendation of Pinteado from partiality or favour, otherwise than as warranted by truth, I have thought good to add copies of the letters which the king of Portugal and the infant his brother wrote to induce him to return to Portugal, at the time when, by the king's displeasure, and not owing to any crime or offence, he was enforced by poverty to come to England, where he first induced our merchants to engage in voyages to Guinea. All these writings I saw under seal in the house of my friend Nicholas Lieze, with whom Pinteado left them when he departed on his unfortunate voyage to Guinea. But, notwithstanding these friendly letters and fair promises, Pinteado durst not venture to return to Portugal, neither indeed durst he trust himself in company with any of his own countrymen, unless in the presence of other persons, as he had secret intimation that they meant to have assassinated him, when time and place might serve their wicked purpose.

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The papers alluded to in this concluding paragraph by Richard Eden, do not seem necessary to be inserted. They consist of, a commission or patent dated 22d September 1551, appointing Pinteado one of the knights of the royal household, with 700 rees, or ten shillings a month, and half a bushel of barley every day so long as he should keep a horse; but with an injunction not to marry for six years, lest he might have children to succeed in this allowance. The second document is merely a certificate of registration of the first. The third is a letter from the infant, Don Luis, brother to the king of Portugal, dated 8th December 1552, urging Pinteado to return to Lisbon, and intimating that Peter Gonzalvo, the bearer of the letter, had a safe conduct for him in due form. From the introduction to these papers, it appears that Pinteado had suffered long disgrace and imprisonment, proceeding upon false charges, and had been at last set free by means of the king's confessor, a grey friar, who had manifested his innocence. –E.

As in the first voyage of the English to Guinea, I have given rather the order of the history than the course of navigation, of which I had then no perfect information; so in this second voyage my chief purpose has been to shew the course pursued, according to the ordinary custom and observation of mariners, and as I received it from the hands of an expert pilot, who was one of the chiefest in this voyage199, who with his own hand wrote a brief journal of the whole, as he had found and tried in all things, not conjecturally, but by the art of navigation, and by means of instruments fitted for nautical use200. Not assuming therefore to myself the commendations due to another, neither having presumed in any part to change the substance or order of this journal, so well observed by art and experience, I have thought fit to publish it in the language commonly used by mariners, exactly as I received it from that pilot201.

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On the 11th October 1554, we departed from the river Thames with three good ships. One of these named the Trinity, was of 140 tons burden; the second, called the Bartholomew, was 90 tons; and the third, called the John Evangelist, was 140 tons. With these three ships and two pinnaces, one of which was lost on the coast of England, we staid fourteen days at Dover, and three or four days at Rye, and lastly we touched at Dartmouth. Departing on the 1st November, at 9 o'clock at night, from the coast of England, off the Start point, and steering due south-west all that night, all next day, and the next night after, till noon of the 3d, we made our way good, running 60 leagues. The morning of the 17th we had sight of the island of Madeira, which to those who approach from N.N.E. seems to rise very high, and almost perpendicular in the west. To the S.S.E. is a long low land, and a long point with a saddle through the midst of it, standing in 32° N. [lat. 32° 30' N. long. 16° 12' W.] And in the west part are many springs of water running down from the mountain, with many white fields like fields of corn, and some white houses in the S.E. part. Also in this part is a rock at a small distance from the shore, over which a great gap or opening is seen in the mountain.

The 19th at noon we had sight of the isles of Palma, Teneriffe, and Grand Canarea. The isle of Palma rises round, and stretches from S.E. to N.W. the north-west part being lowest. In the south is a round hill over the head-land, with another round hill behind and farther inland. Between the S.E. end of Madeira and the N.W. part of the island of Palma, the distance is 57 leagues202, Palma being in 28°.(lat. 28° 45' N. long 17° 45' W.) Our course between the S.E. end of Madeira and the N.W. part of Palma was S. and S. by W. so that we had sight of Teneriffe and the Grand Canary. The S.E. part of Palma and N.N.E. of Teneriffe lie S.E. and N.W.(rather E. and W.) distance 20 leagues(33 leagues.) Teneriffe and Grand Canarea, with the west part of Fuertaventura, stand in 27° 30'203. Gomera is a fair island, but very rugged, W.S.W. from Teneriffe, the passage between running from N. by W. to S. by E. In the south part of Gomera is a town and good road-stead, in lat. 28° N. Teneriffe is a mountainous island, with a great high peak like a sugar-loaf, on which there is snow all the year, and by that peak it may be known from all other islands. On the 20th November we were there becalmed from six in the morning till four in the afternoon. On the 22d November, being then under the tropic of Cancer, the sun set W. and by S. On the coast of Barbary, 25 leagues N. of Cape Blanco, at 3 leagues from shore, we had 15 fathoms water on a good shelly bottom mixed with sand, and no currents, having two small islands in lat. 22° 20' N.204 From Gomera to Cape de las Barbas is 100 leagues (116), the course being S. by E. That cape is in lat. 22° 30,(22° 15') all the coast thereabout being flat, and having 16 and 17 fathoms off shore. All the way from the river del Oro to Cape Barbas, at 7 or 8 leagues off shore, many Spaniards and Portuguese employ themselves in fishing during the month of November, the whole of that coast consisting of very low lands. From Cape Barbas we held a course S.S.W. and S.W. by S. till we came into lat. 20° 30', reckoning ourselves 7 leagues off shore, and we there came to the least shoals of Cape Blanco. We then sailed to the lat. of 13° N. reckoning ourselves 20 leagues off; and in 15° we did rear the crossiers, or cross stars, and might have done so sooner if we had looked for them. They are not right across in the month of November, as the nights are short there, but we had sight of them on the 29th of that month at night. The 1st of December, being in lat. 13° N. we set our course S. by E. till the 4th at noon, when we were in 9° 20' reckoning ourselves 30 leagues W.S.W. from the shoals of the Rio Grande, which extend for 30 leagues. On the 4th, being in 6° 30', we set our course S.E. The 9th we changed our course E.S.E. The 14th, being in lat. 5° 30' and reckoning ourselves 36 leagues from the coast of Guinea, we set our course due E. The 19th, reckoning ourselves 17 leagues from Cape Mensurado, we set our course E. by N. the said cape being E.N.E. of us, and the river Sesto E. The 20th we fell in with Cape Mensurado or Mesurado, which bore S.E. 2 leagues distant. This cape may be easily known, as it rises into a hummock like the head of a porpoise. Also towards the S.E. there are three trees, the eastmost being the highest, the middle one resembling a hay-stack, and that to the southward like a gibbet. Likewise on the main there are four or five high hills, one after the other, like round hummocks. The south-east of the three trees is brandiernaure? and all the coast is a white sand. The said cape stands within a little of six degrees (lat. 6° 20' N. long. 10° 30' W.) The 22d we came to the river Sesto or Sesters, where we remained till the 29th, and we thought it best to send our pinnace before us to the Rio Dulce, that they might begin the market before the arrival of the John Evangelist. At the river Sesto, which is in six degrees less one terce, or 5° 40', we got a ton of grains205. From Rio Sesto to Rio Dulce the distance is 25 leagues, Rio Dulce being in 5° 30' N. The Rio Sesto is easily known by a ledge of rocks to the S.E. of the road206, and at the mouth of the river are five or six trees without leaves. It is a good harbour, but the entrance of the river is very narrow, and has a rock right in the mouth. All that coast, between Cape Mount and Cape Palmas, lies S.E. by E. and N.W. by N. being three leagues offshore207, and there are rocks in some places two leagues off, especially between the river Sesto and Cape Palmas.