ABSTRACT
Manso de Contreras gave further details concerning Santa Marta and Cartagena: 'It appears that on the 30th he took the settlement of Santa Marta, burned it and carried off as a prisoner Don Francisco Gutierrez Flores, who was there for this emergency with no more than sixty men. Just as the English began to overrun the country, such a storm blew up that the ships of the Beet, unable to withstand it, dragged their anchors and left the harbour, and as they passed the River Magdalena in the heavy storm they lost several launches and barks with the men in them, and in the morning the rest of the vessels found themselves widely scattered, the Beet being almost completely disrupted. According to some of Drake's prisoners this, together with the strong counter-measures taken at Cartagena [two or three words illegible: perhaps 'on receipt of my'] messages, was the reason why he changed his mind and passed by to Nombre de Dios and Panama ••• [Prisoners have reported that] Francis Drake and his men said that these losses and their failure to achieve their object were due to my messages and to my having guilefully delayed them so long, for they thus missed the good weather and continued their voyage in January, which is a very stormy month on this coast, and if they had gone on, as they intended, within four days, they would undoubtedly have taken Cartagena and Panama.'
