Some were so near we could hear their trumpets and bells, and see the glitter of the sun on the muzzles of their guns.

Then about sundown, with great ceremony, a priest came forward, and recited what I took to be a mass; and after him, at the sound of three bells, the whole company trooped to the middle deck, where at the main-mast the purser read aloud a long proclamation in Spanish, at the end of which huzzahs were given for the King, and the lanthorns lit for the night.
I confess I turned in to my berth that night uneasy in my mind.

For I never saw ships such as these; no, not even in the Medway.

What could our small craft do against these floating towers?
and what sort of hole could our guns make in these four-foot walls?
And when it came to grappling, what could our slender crews do against this army of picked men, who, even if half of them fell, would yet be a match for any force our English ships could hold?
So I turned in with many forebodings, and all night long I could hear the laugh and song of coming victory, mingled now and again with the fanfare of the trumpets, and the distant boom of the admiral's signal- gun.
Next morning, when we looked out, there was land in sight ahead..