True, Detailed, and Thorough Report

Those who had been there before were well known, and they, along with the other soldiers assigned to the reconnaissance, moved forward quickly. Meanwhile, the Vice Admiral, with the ships Gelterlandt, Grüningen, and Nassau, positioned himself within a musket-shot's distance of the new battery artillery fortification. About 16 Spanish ships, both large and small, were located along the shore and on the landward side beneath the Castle of Saint Philip, within a stone's throw. During this time, our men did their utmost to break the enemy. This struggle lasted from ten in the morning until seven in the evening. However, the Vice Admiral noticed that shooting back and forth achieved little benefit, especially as the ship Grüningen was heavily damaged and nearly defenseless. He therefore sent three evers small flat-bottomed boats, each carrying about 20 men, to board the Portuguese ships and seize them. When the Spaniards noticed this, they abandoned the ships and set the largest one on fire. Consequently, four or five other ships were burned at the same time.

When the Admiral and Vice Admiral saw this terror and flight, they held a council and decided that the Vice Admiral, with 14 boats full of people, should attack the aforementioned battery with cuirasses breastplate armor and scale the walls, as the continuous shooting from that position was causing great damage to our ships. They carried this out bravely despite the heavy fire from the battery. The Vice Admiral's trumpeter was the first to scale the walls, followed by the Vice Admiral himself, and then the others. They climbed the walls, which stood eight or nine feet high out of the water. When the Portuguese, who were about 600 strong, saw this, they took to flight and ran through the water toward the city. However, several were slain. Because the battery was completely open toward the city and had no protection from the bottom to the top, they