ABSTRACT
On February 19, '86, Ash Wednesday, at noon, the corsair Francis Drake appeared with 23 ships, five large and the rest medium, and in two hours, with the favouring wind he had, he was inside the harbour and safer than in his own country. This happened because the advice of some poor soldiers was not taken, which was to plant six pieces of artillery at the harbour mouth and to station the galleys there to defend the channel. Ships must enter in single file and as they enter they expose themselves on the landward side. Unless he could make the port the currents and winds were against the enemy and he could not have done the place the damage he did.
