Cavendish was now joined by another vessel of his squadron, and made for _Espirito Santo_. It not being deemed prudent for the ships to attempt to cross the bar, a party of eighty men were sent over it in boats, the orders of their commander, Captain Morgan, being to discover a good landing-place near the town. Disobeying the positive commands of his superior, he landed with a number of his men, with the result that he was himself killed, together with a large proportion of his force, upon which Cavendish left the coast of _Brazil_ in despair, and died, it is said, of grief on his homeward voyage.
The next English expedition to _Brazil_ was better designed. Three ships, the largest of them being of about two hundred and forty tons, were fitted out by certain citizens of London, and sailed under the command of James Lancaster, who was well acquainted with the Portuguese, having lived amongst them. _Pernambuco_ was his point of attack, and for this purpose he secured two Frenchmen as interpreters in the language of the neighbouring natives. One of his vessels, commanded by Barker, had to put back to refit, but this officer rejoined him off Cape _Blanco_, having already captured four-and-twenty Spanish and Portuguese sail. They then made for _Pernambuco_, and on the way fell in with another English squadron under Captain Venner, consisting of four vessels. Venner readily agreed to assist Lancaster in securing a rich prize from a ship from India which had been wrecked near _Olinda_, at the port of which place her cargo was stowed. Venner was to receive a fourth of the value of the prize.
They arrived off _Recife_ towards the end of March, 1595, where they discovered three large Dutch ships lying at the entrance. Lancaster manned five of his prizes, with orders to board the Dutch vessels should they offer opposition. His men were embarked in boats, and he himself took command of the galley, rowed by eighty of his ship’s company. This happened at night, and when morning came they found that the boats had drifted half a mile to the north. It was now ebb-tide, and they were forced to remain off the port in full sight of the place; but they had the satisfaction of seeing the Dutch vessels move away from the entrance. About noon, Lancaster received a message from the governor, requesting to know his object. The reply, given in curt seaman’s terms, was that he wanted the Indian prize, and that he meant to have it. On this declaration the Portuguese manned the small work at the mouth of the harbour and collected their entire force of six hundred men. At two o’clock the tide turned, when Lancaster led the way, running his boat on shore immediately under the battery, the other boat’s crew following his example. The place was then gallantly stormed; upon which Lancaster made signal for his ships to enter the harbour. He left a garrison in the fort and planted its guns against _Olinda_; after this he marched on _Recife_, which place he found abandoned, and where he obtained the sought-for prize.