ABSTRACT
Your Majesty will have learned of the fall of this city and loss of the galleys from a letter3 which Governor Pedro Fernandez de Busto sent by the advice-boat that anchored four leagues from this port, the English fleet being in possession of the harbour. Lest it fall into the enemy's hands he sent this vessel without informing us of its departure. In case that advice-boat may have run into danger, and because it is so important to inform Your Majesty as soon as possible that Your Majesty may take measures for the good of the royal service, this vessel is despatched, Blas Gonzalez' master. And from the fully detailed relation which we send herewith Your Majesty will learn what happened from the receipt of the first warning concerning this corsair's approach and design, and what measures of preparedness and defence the governor and Don Pedro Vique, commander of the galleys, took before and after the news of the fall of Santo Domingo reached here. It all seems a scourge and chastisement which Our Lord was pleased to visit upon us on account of our sins, because in burning and looting it the English left this city so completely destroyed and desolate that its present condition merits the deepest pity.
