Had he been well disposed and free to act it would still have been too
late, for the very next morning, September 17, De Bacan was off the
harbour mouth with thirteen heavily-armed galleons and frigates. The
smallest of them carried probably 200 men, and the odds were now
tremendous. Hawkins's vessels lay ranged along the inner bank or wall of
the island. He instantly occupied the island itself and mounted guns at
the point covering the way in. He then sent a boat off to De Bacan to
say that he was an Englishman, that he was in possession of the port,
and must forbid the entrance of the Spanish fleet till he was assured
that there was to be no violence. It was a strong measure to shut a
Spanish admiral out of a Spanish port in a time of profound peace.
Still, the way in was difficult, and could not be easily forced if
resolutely defended. The northerly wind was rising; if it blew into a
gale the Spaniards would be on a lee shore. Under desperate
circumstances, desperate things will be done. Hawkins in his subsequent
report thus explains his dilemma:--
'I was in two difficulties. Either I must keep them out of the port,
which with God's grace I could easily have done, in which case with a
northerly wind rising they would have been wrecked, and I should have
been answerable; or I must risk their playing false, which on the whole
I preferred to do.
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