ABSTRACT
Corsairs have been more numerous than usual this year, wrote a Spanish official from Santo Domingo in June 1591, and English sources suggest that he was right. In this year there were at least eleven English privateers abroad in the West Indies, five set forth by John Watts and partners, two by another group of London merchants, three by Sir George Carey, and one other. Watts' fleet consisted of the Centaur, commanded by the leader of the expedition, William Lane, with John Gall master; the Pegasus, under Stephen Michell captain and Abicocke Perry master. Nor were the rest of Watts' ships—the Centaur, the Pegasus and the John—to remain long with Thomas Howard. Apart from the Margaret, the Prudence was presumably one of the five and since the Prudence is found some three weeks later in company with the Pegasus, the Centaur and the John, it seems feasible that these three were also present at La Yaguana.
