[1][5] By virtue of the Iberian Union, the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 was in abeyance, and as the Anglo–Spanish War was still ongoing, Portuguese shipping was a fair target for the English navy and privateers.

[1] At the latter end of 1593, the Earl of Cumberland, hoping to capitalize on the success of the previous year's capture of the Madre de Deus, prepared at his own expense three ships of 250 to 300 tons, with two artillery decks each and a total of 420 sailors and soldiers.

[3] The fleet leaving Goa had also included Santo Alberto and Nossa Senhora da Nazareth; both sprang fatal leaks earlier in the voyage and were beached on the coast of Mozambique.

[9]: 45  Among them were also two VIPs: Nuno Velho Pereira, the former colonial governor of Mozambique, and Dom Braz Correia, the captain of the fleet that had been returning from the Indies.

By the time the Chagas reached the Azores, disease had claimed almost half the complement, many of whom were women and children, and much of the food had been thrown overboard in order to lighten the ship during gales off South Africa.

[8] The English, having noticed that Cinco Chagas had no guns aft, returned to the attack in a deft manoeuvre and concentrated their fire on the stern panel of the carrack.

[3] According to the only known eyewitness account, written by Melchior Estácio do Amaral in 1604: the sea was purple with blood dripping from the scuppers, the decks cluttered with the dead and the fire raging in some parts of the ships, and the air so filled with smoke that, not only we could sometimes not see each other but we could not recognize each other.

[11] However, one lady, Dona Isabel Pereira, whose late husband Diogo de Melo Coutinho had been Captain-major and Tanadar-mor of Ceylon, and her 16-year-old daughter Dona Luisa de Melo Coutinho, steadfastly refused to undress for the privateers and, tying themselves together with a sash of St. Francis (i.e., the cord which a Franciscan friar would tie around his waist), they went to the opposite side of the ship from the English and leapt into the sea.

[11] The carrack burned all through the night until just after dawn, when the flames reached the powder magazine in her lower hold, containing "her poulder which was lowest being 60 barrels" which then ignited and "blew her abroad, so that most of the ship did swim in parts above the water".

[6] With heavy losses already due to disease, and with officers wounded or killed, supplies running low, and a gale forcing them apart, Cumberland decided against engaging the carrack and sailed home.

[4] Alonso de Bazán failed to intercept Cumberland partly because he was hoping to protect the West Indian treasure fleet which was still in the Caribbean.

[9]: 57  Another fleet under Don Antonio De Urquiola also failed to find the English, despite his having been in the same area when they headed home past Cape St. Vincent in September.