And whereas King Don Antonio hath made very honest request unto us (upon hope he conceiveth that the noblemen and gentlemen of Portugal, so soon as they shall see him repair upon that coast with convenient forces, will presently take arms for him and will seek to expulse the Spaniards) that somewhat may be attempted by you for the recovery of his said kingdom, which as he conceiveth may be easily done in respect of the great goodwill that is borne unto him by the people there [and the evil will borne by them to the Spaniards inserted above by Burghley] we would have you carefully and substantially to inform yourselves before you proceed to attempt anything to that purpose [inserted by Burghley over that way crossed out] whether the people stand so affected towards him as he pretendeth … And in case upon enquiry you shall find that neither the love borne unto him is so great as he pretendeth and that the forces of the King of Spain are such as nothing can be attempted without very great hazard, our pleasure is that you shall then forbear to attempt anything [towards Lisbon for any enterprise to be there attempted other than the destroying of the ships there inserted above by Burghley].

My revenue no greater than it was when I sued my livery; my debts at the least two or three and twenty thousand pounds.

No way left to repair myself but mine own adventure, which I had much rather undertake than to offend Her Majesty with suits as I have done heretofore. If I speed well, I will adventure to be rich; if not, I will never live to see the end of my poverty.

The extremities were great, 150 sick besides those which had been sick, so as the whole were not sufficient to clean the ship and attend the sick. But God yielded me favour to bring home Her Majesty’s ship with 18 persons able to do work. Dead about 114 men.

When they went for England, the King took the fifth man of his country, and now the third man.

In going into the Groyne we lost a number of brave men in dislodging. Then at the least 2,000 took their course, some for England, some for France. There we took our sickness, partly by the hot winds but chiefly by the old clothes and baggage of those which returned with the Duke of Medina out of the journey of England. There we lost many a day, in the which time the enemy armed and placed his forces where he thought most necessariest, chiefly in Lisbon.