The hurricane season was approaching, and he made the best of
his way homewards with his spoils, in the fear of being overtaken by it.
Unluckily for him, he had lingered too long. He had passed the west
point of Cuba and was working up the back of the island when a hurricane
came down on him. The gale lasted four days. The ships' bottoms were
foul and they could make no way. Spars were lost and rigging carried
away. The _Jesus_, which had not been seaworthy all along, leaked worse
than ever and lost her rudder. Hawkins looked for some port in Florida,
but found the coast shallow and dangerous, and was at last obliged to
run for San Juan de Ulloa, at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
San Juan de Ulloa is a few miles only from Vera Cruz. It was at that
time the chief port of Mexico, through which all the traffic passed
between the colony and the mother-country, and was thus a place of some
consequence. It stands on a small bay facing towards the north. Across
the mouth of this bay lies a narrow ridge of sand and shingle, half a
mile long, which acts as a natural breakwater and forms the harbour.
This ridge, or island as it was called, was uninhabited, but it had been
faced on the inner front by a wall.
Pages:
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73