OYSDRAKE THE ST(lYOFMGlESiA:HGHTlR THE SKlIENTHlkENTURY r^-^ EDWIN M.BACON A^^' THE BOY'S DRAKE IN THE SAME SERIES Published by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS The Boy's Catlin. My Life Among the Indians, by George Catlin. Edited by Mary Gay Hum- phreys. Illustrated. i2mo . . . net $1.50 The Boy's Hakluyt. English Voyages of Adventure and Discovery, retold from Hakluyt by Edwin M. Bacon. Illustrated. i2mo . . . net $1.50 The Boy's Drake. By Edwin M. Bacon. Illustra- ted. i2mo net 81.50 Lc' vnp,' yortraict k Cafptuvu DraerLL-fJ (t circuii toute la tc^re,m twis mmes,nu}tns deux mois.d r.ums.tl jw-ttch R^vaulmr 'Dlinjldtrre, k u ■ de Tkcemire 15-^7. ct 0fi» ntmr jiairt R^AWilmc.ie 26.umr IsSe^tis^^. FRANCIS DRAKE. THE BOY'S DRAKE STORY OF THE GREAT SEA FIGHTER OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY BY ^ EDWIN M. BACON AUTHOR OF "the boy's HAKLDYT," 'the CONNECTICUT RIVER AND THE VALLEY OF THE CONNECTICUT,' "historic PILGRIMAGES IN NEW ENGLAND," ETC. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1910 ^ Copyright, 1910, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Published October, igio iC!,A27::5n4 PREFACE This "Boy's Drake," the story of the "sea king" of the sixteenth century, the greatest navigator of his day, and the first great Enghsh admiral, whose marvellous exploits were largely in American waters, is offered as a fitting companion to the "Boy's Hakluyt." While Raleigh and Hakluyt are rightly given place in history as founders of the American colonies, to Drake might justly be accorded the distinction of the clearer of the way for these colonies. By his exploits along the Span- ish Main, and his wondrous voyage circumnavigating the globe, and sailing the first English ship up the Pacific coast, he broke the Spanish monopoly and opened the Americas to all Europe. Although adventure rather than discovery, reprisals and warfare rather than exploration, inspired his voyages, he made discoveries that materially changed the narrow map of the world in his time; and with his rediscovery of California he conceived the idea of a "New England" on the Pacific coast that would rival New Spain, and, as he thought, laid the foundation for it, more than forty years before the establish- ment of the New England on the Atlantic side of the continent. It is a spirited story, full of action, daring, and heroism that the contemporary accounts of Drake's achievements tell, and upon these accounts this narrative is based, passages and phrases being not infrequently quoted direct from the originals vi Preface to infuse it with the quaint sixteenth-century flavour. Bits of history are woven in sufficient to give the events of Drake's career the proper setting. Drake's succession of marvellous exploits are frankly de- tailed in these pages. Some of them were lawless, some were the acts of the buccaneer, the corsair, the sea rover; others were magnificent in conception and execution, the performance of a great naval statesman; all were dashing and brave. I have endeavoured so to present them that while my young readers are entranced with the story of his wondrous deeds, they will, at the same time, be impressed with the finer qualities of the greatest captain among Queen Elizabeth's great men. E. M. B. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Born to the Sea 3 11. Parentage and Birthplace 6 III. The Boy Skipper 14 IV. First in American Waters 18 V. Storming Rio de la Hacha 23 VI. First Naval Battle 30 VII. Reconnoitring and Buccaneering ... 46 VIII. Raid on Nombre-de-Dios 54 IX. Attempting Cartagena 78 X. Roaming off the Spanish Main ... 91 XI. Again before Cartagena 107 XII. Off Santa Marta 118 XIII. On the Isthmus of Panama 130 XIV. Taking of Venta Cruz . 148 XV. Second Raid on the Panama Road . . 159 XVI. In Ireland 185 XVII. Circumnavigating the Globe .... 196 viii Contents CHAPTER PAGE XVIII. In the South Atlantic 214 XIX. The Tragedy of Port St. Julien . . . 233 XX. Through Magellan's Straits .... 256 XXI. On the Pacific 265 XXII. "Making" THE Voyage 274 XXIII. Up THE Coast . 301 XXIV. Taken for Gods 317 XXV. Across the Pacific 333 XXVI. Sir Francis Drake, Knight 358 XXVII. Admiral 365 XXVIII. Singeing the King of Spain's Beard . . 400 XXIX. Fighting the Armada 428 XXX. The Last Voyage 471 Index 499 ILLUSTRATIONS Francis Drake Frontispiece <^ FACING PAGE A Galley 36 A Pinnace of Drake's Time 56 As given in the " Illustrious Proof " Town of Cartagena 86 Plan of Cartagena 108 Spanish Galleon 178 An Elizabethan Great Ship or Galleon .... 182 Fac-simile of Title-Page of "Sir Francis Drake Revived" 200 Doughty's Brave Ending 248 They took their leave by drinking each to the other "Some forty Englishmen were clambering into HIS chains and pouring over his sides" . . 296 Chart to Illustrate Drake's Operations on the American Coast in 1577-78 302 Queen Elizabeth Knighting Drake on board the "Golden Hind" at Deptford, April 4, 1581 , 362 X Illustrations FACING PAGE Christopher Carleill, Lieut.-Gen. in Drake's West Indies Expedition 368 Map of Drake's West Indies Expedition, 1585-86 . 392 English Man-of-War about 1588 436 The Battle with the Armada 462. Eight fire-ships with sails full set flaring rapidly down on the wind Sir Francis Drake 494 THE BOY'S DRAKE \ THE BOY'S DRAKE BORN TO THE SEA FRANCIS DRAKE was a born sailor. His father had been a sailor, and he was kinsman of sailors. His childhood home was the hull of a ship. When yet a boy he was master of his own craft sailing the English Channel. At eighteen he was third officer of a trader to the Biscay coast of Spain. At twenty he was in an adventure to the African coast and across the Atlantic to the West Indies, among the earliest of English mariners to penetrate the Span- ish-American preserves. At twenty-two he was made commander of a bark in a squadron bound on a more adventurous expedition to Africa and thence to Spanish America; and he had a hand in a hot naval battle in the Gulf of Mexico. Five years later he was bucca- neering on the Spanish Main — the northern coast of South America along the Caribbean Sea — plundering Nombre-de-Dios, then the treasure-house of the West Indies, wherein was stored the precious metals and jewels brought from Peru and Mexico to Panama, for 3 The Boy's Drake shipment to Spain; crossing the Isthmus of Panama; getting his first sight of the Pacific from a hill-top on the isthmus, and devoutly beseeching God to give him "life and leave once to sail an English ship in those seas." Five years later he was making that voyage, sailing round the world; the first English- man and the second explorer to circumnavigate the globe. At middle-age he had become "the first great sailing admiral the world ever saw." A mariner "more skilful in all points of navigation than any that ever was before his time and in his time," as a contemporary chronicler of his deeds avers; a buc- caneer and a privateer of reckless daring and astonish- ing performance; a naval warrior resourceful and of extraordinary capability — his name became a terror to all enemies of England, open and covert, and to the corsairs of other nations. With conspicuous faults, with strange ideas of the honour of the seas, a plunderer in times of nominal peace of ships and ports, particularly in Western waters belonging to England's enemies, and hence his own, all with such startling audacity and such high hand as to bring upon him the sobriquet of "The Master Thief of the Unknown World," he became and remained, through varying favour of his sovereign, a popular idol. And so "true to his word" was he, so "merciful to those that were under him," though a strict disciplinarian, "and hating nothing so much as idleness"; so brave, "ever contemning danger," wanting "himself to be one (whoever was second) at Born to the Sea every turn where courage, skill, or industry was to be employed" — that he was beloved of his comrades and men and followed eagerly and loyally whithersoever he led. Among the great naval worthies of his period he rose to rank with the foremost as the Sea King of the Sixteenth Century. II PARENTAGE AND BIRTHPLACE THOUGH born to the sea, Drake's birthplace was a farm on an inland river. He was the first-born of twelve sons of yeoman parents. Some of his earlier biographers endeavoured to con- nect him with a titled family. Others presented him as of lowliest origin. The latter had more ground for their theory than the former. They took their cue from the phrase "mean parentage" for '' mediocre loco natus" in the first English edition of the An- nales of Queen Elizabeth's reign, originally in Latin, by William Camden, a learned antiquary and histo- rian of Drake's own time, who had the statement, he says, from Drake himself. But Camden clearly meant "middling" — the middle class. His correct placing is between the two extremes of upper and lower; he was of the higher grade of sturdy, and in his time growing sturdier, middle-class English. His immediate forebears were well-to-do country folk, who had lived on the same farm for generations. The date of his birth was also a matter of specula- tion by the early biographers. Some of them held confidently to a date about the year 1540, finding their 6 Parentage and Birthplace authority in legends upon contemporary portraits of Drake, and also in statements of Camden. The sifted evidence, however, amply sustains a date five years later; that is, 1545, as appears in the Annales of John Stow, the London antiquary, also contempo- rary with Drake. The legends on the portraits are shown to be quite untrustworthy, while the particular statement of Camden has proven to be erroneous, or a "slip of memory" on his part. So the year 1545 has come now to be generally accepted as the true date. Drake was native of the county of Devonshire, that nursery of brave and daring British seamen of Queen Elizabeth's expansive time. Several Devon boys of his period became world famous. There was John Davis, born in 1530, who became Captain John, searcher of the elusive north-west passage to India, and discoverer of Davis Strait, between Greenland and Baffin Land. There were the brothers Hawkins, William and John (the latter born 1532), kinsmen of Drake, who became important ship-masters and mer- chants; the younger. Sir John, at the head of the English mercantile marine in his prime, bold as a navigator and able as a developer of the English navy. From Devon, too, came Humphrey Gilbert (born 1539), half-brother of Walter Raleigh, afterward Sir Humphrey, soldier, navigator, statesman, establisher of the first English colony in North America, at Newfoundland; and Richard Grenville (born 1541), Raleigh's cousin, afterward Sir Richard, of the "fight- ing Grenvilles," a naval hero of extraordinary type. 8 The Boy's Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh himself, courtier, soldier, ad- venturer, American colonizer, historian, poet, loom- ing large among Queen Elizabeth's men, and at last brought to the block, wantonly sacrificed through the cowardice of her successor, King James, the first of the Stuarts. Francis's birthplace was a cottage on his grand- father's farm called Crowndale, near by the ancient Devon town of Tavistock. The farm lay in a serene valley with pastoral surroundings, and so sequestered that it "seemed shut out from all the world." In front of the cottage meandered the river Tavy, one of the exquisitely picturesque English streams. The cottage was permitted to remain, a decaying landmark, through three centuries, or till the first quarter of the nineteenth century, when its then owner, unmindful of its memories of the great sailor, pulled it down to make way for an ox-shed. Fortunately, a little before its demolition a drawing was made of it, and this was afterward reproduced in an etching. Crowndale had originally belonged l3 Tavistock Abbey, a Catholic monastery, which early in King Henry VIII's time was leased from the Abbot of Tavistock by Simon Drake. This Simon was an uncle of Francis's grandfather. There may have been other Drakes leasing it before Simon. At the dissolution of the monasteries (1536 and 1539) with the beginnings of the English Reformation, it passed into the hands of Sir John Russell, afterward Lord High Admiral of England (1540-42), and later first Parentage and Birthplace Earl of Bedford (1550), a great Devonshire magnate; and thereafter the Drakes held it from him. Francis's grandfather, John Drake, succeeded Simon in its oc- cupancy, and when Francis was born had it under a lease holding through the lives of himself and his wife Margery, and their eldest son John, Jr. Francis's father was Edmund, a younger son of John and Margery. He became early a sailor by trade, while his father and elder brother carried on the farm. When he left the sea and married he returned to the old home and settled down with his bride in the cottage which it may be his father built for him. Of Francis's mother there is no record. This quiet dwelling in the vale beside the Tavy, however, remained Francis's home only through his earliest years. He was given a good start in life with the advantage, counted high in those days, of a titled godfather. This was Lord Russell's eldest son. Sir Francis, the future Earl of Bedford, then a youth of seventeen. According to the custom of the time, young Sir Francis gave the boy his baptismal name. He was also favoured by his relation to the Hawkinses. Captain William Hawkins, the father of William and John, mariner, ship-owner, and merchant, was then a citizen of standing and wealth in the neighbouring port of Plymouth. He had been several times mayor of the city. He was that "Olde M. William Hawkins of Plimoth" whom, so the fascinating chronicler of English voyages of adventure and discovery, Richard Hakluyt, tells us. King Henry VHI highly esteemed 10 The Boy's Drake for his "wisdom, valour, and skill in sea causes/* His father before him had served in Henry VHI's navy. Just what the relation was between the Drakes and the Hawkinses is not clear. By some of Francis's biographers, Edmund Drake is set down as first cousin to old Captain William. One ventures the guess that Edmund was his brother-in-law. Whatever the relation, the old captain's sons, boys of some thir- teen and fourteen when Francis was born, called him cousin. Like the Drakes, the Hawkinses had been of Tavistock for some generations, but they had resided in Plymouth at least since the birth of William, Jr., and John. With such patrons as the Russells, and such associ- ations, Francis's start would seem indeed to have been most auspicious. But he was born in troublous times. His advent was in the midst of the English revolt against the Church of Rome, and those closest to him — his patrons, his father, and his uncle Hawkins — all were aggressive Protestants, open advocates of the new religion against the old. At the very time of the boy's birth Edmund Drake is represented as a lay preacher "hot for the new opinion." Soon after, his people became involved in trouble and at length in persecu- tion, for those were the days of the martyrs, when re- ligious zeal was fanaticism. Protestants and Catholics alike then held those of the opposite faith as infidels, to be converted by force or through torture or destroyed by the sword or at the stake. Matters came to a crisis that overwhelmed Edmund Drake and the others in Parentage and Birthplace ii 1549, during the reign of the boy king, Edward VI, when an order went forth for the adoption of the new Protestant prayer-book on Whit-Sunday. On Whit- suntide a Cathohc insurrection broke out in the west part of England and the Protestant gentry and yeo- men alike were fleeing for their lives, seeking hiding- places, some in woods and caves. Edmund Drake fled with the rest. He hastened with his little family first to Plymouth, apparently to get under the protection of Captain Hawkins and to join the Protestant groups which were considerable in that part. In the height of the tumult the mayor opened the city's gates to the insur- rectionists. Some of the bolder Protestants, presum- ably Captain Hawkins and Edmund Drake among them, took ground and held it for a time on the Island of St. Nicholas, afterward called Drake's island. From this shelter Edmund Drake next fled into Kent. And there, perhaps at Chatham, or below at Gilling- ham, which became the eastern head-quarters of the English navy, he found a permanent asylum for his family on a navy hulk which Lord Russell, or Captain Hawkins, or other friends, were able to procure for him. Thus it was, as the chronicler relates, he came to "inhabit in the hull of a ship"; and that in this float- ing home "many of his younger sons were born." Of Francis's eleven brothers nearly all grew up, and following his example took to the sea. Edmund Drake never returned to Tavistock, and 12 The Boy's Drake with the passing of his father and brother John the family disappeared from that place. Thereafter, Fran- cis Drake, except for the time that the family home was on the river Medway, was associated with Plymouth. While the home was in the ship's hull Edmund Drake was employed as reader of prayers to the sea- men of the navy. In the Catholic Queen Mary's reign he was under the ban in common with other aggressive Protestants. Perhaps he was secretly con- cerned in the Protestant rising in Kent under Sir Thomas Wyatt, in 1554, upon the queen's announce- ment of her design to marry young Philip II of Spain, who cried that the Spaniards were coming "to con- quer the realm." But if so he saved his head. Though at this time he was wretchedly poor, he still managed to struggle along with his up-growing parcel of boys, but upon the accession of Elizabeth to the throne (1558) his fortune mended, and he was promoted from a reader of prayers to sailors to the vicarage of a lonely parish on the Medway, a few miles above Chatham comprising the ancient village of Upchurch — not Upnor, as Camden, with a slip of his quill, wrote, thus giving ground for speculation by after writers as to whether Edmund Drake was really a vicar, for there was no church at Upnor. In this gentle occupation the "honest mariner," now turned preacher, spent tranquilly the last five years of his kindly life. He died at the close of the year 1566, when Francis was twenty-one and at sea. He was fairly educated for his time, and devout. He Parentage and Birthplace 13 was his boys' only school-master. His chief text-book was the Bible — the book of all books he adjured his youngest son, whom he made his heir, to "keep in bosom and feed upon." *'Make much of it," he wrote. "This I do send thee with all the rest of my godly books." Ill THE BOY SKIPPER iRANCIS DRAKE'S first playground was the river, and early he was employed upon it. At nine he was apprenticed by his father, "by reason of his poverty,'* to the master of a bark, and then his real sailor life began. The master was a veteran skipper engaged in coasting about the Eng- lish Channel, and sometimes in carrying merchandise across to France and north to Zeeland. It was a rough school of seamanship, this of a Channel coaster in those rude days. But the hardy boy was equal to it. He had acquired in his playtime a fair knowledge of river life with something of navi- gation, and he fell cleverly into the larger life of the sea. Such handiness did he display in his new call- ing, such spirit and diligence, that he quite won his master's heart. And it was not long before substantial reward came to him unexpectedly. In the midst of his apprenticeship the old skipper died, and it appeared that, "being a bachelor," he had bequeathed the bark to the boy. Thus it was that Francis became a ship- master in his early teens, and sailed his own ship. 14 The Boy Skipper 15 Young Skipper Drake coasted and traded about the "narrow seas" for some time longer with profit. He had varied experiences and some adventure. For now EngHsh adventure on the seas was reviving under the impulse of renewed efforts to expand Eng- lish commerce, which hitherto, with only occasional breaks, had been confined to short voyages to the known coasts of Europe in the then little Old World of trade. Now English mariners backed by English merchants were bent upon expanding their commerce with the search for larger and richer markets, north, east, and west, in competition with their foreign rivals. Begun in young Edward's reign (i 547-53)? extended north-westward in the grim days of Mary (1553-58), the new movement received its real impetus with the incoming of Elizabeth. Soon after the start of her awakening reign broad-visioned statesmen and mer- chants of London, Bristol, and other large ports — "merchant adventurers" they were called — were boldly scheming to break into the monopoly of the "ocean-sea" east and west, which Portugal and Spain were maintaining. To be sure those nations yet held themselves to be protected in their monopoly by old papal acts, assuming jurisdiction over all the kingdoms of the earth. These acts were a bull of 1444, which declared Portugal in possession of all the lands her mariners had then visited on the coast of Africa and as far east as the Indies; and the greater "Bulls of Partition" of 1493, issued after the discovery of America by Columbus, by which the world discov- \ 1 6 The Boy's Drake ered and to be discovered was arbitrarily divided be- tween these two powers, all on the east of an imagi- nary line traced on a map from pole to pole a hundred degrees west of the Azores being assigned to Portugal and all on the west of this line to Spain. But such protection the Protestant merchant adventurers and the Protestant mariners ignored or defied. Already they had penetrated Portugal's preserves and their eyes were turning toward those of Spain. Hearing, perhaps, of such projects as well as stories of adventures accomplished, the "narrow seas" soon became too confined for Skipper Drake, and he longed for wider scope. Opportunity first appeared in the service, it Is sup- posed, of Cousin John Hawkins. This was the offer of the place of purser, or third officer, of a ship voy- aging to the Biscay coast of Spain, in all likelihood one of the Hawkins brothers' fleet of trading vessels. Doubtless Drake gladly accepted the position, and doubtless, too, he satisfactorily performed its duties, but we are only told that it was "in the year 1564," when he was eighteen. The next two years it was his good fortune to be en- gaged In a larger enterprise and probably as a higher ship's officer. This was a venture or ventures with a certain Captain Lovell to Guinea, on the African coast, and across the Atlantic to the West Indies. Of Cap- tain Lovell or of this enterprise there is but scant record. Slight as this record is, it is significant as disclosing the first source of Drake's particular en- The Boy Skipper 17 mity to all Spaniards. It is found only in a line or two of the preface of an account of a famous later voyage of his own published by his nephew and re- vised by himself, simply mentioning, with no details, "wrongs received at Rio de [la] Hacha with Captain John Lovell in the years [i5]65 and [i5]66/' The naval historian Corbett, in his Drake and the Tudor Navy, suggests that Lovell was one of John Haw- kins's captains. If so, Drake was still in Hawkins's service. Be this as it may, in the next year, 1567, or perhaps immediately upon his return after experiencing those unnamed wrongs on the Spanish Main, he sold his coaster and gave himself fully to a new enterprise of Hawkins's, as an investor as well as a sailor, embark- ing in it all of his little property. This was a venture also to the African coast and thence, as it happened, to the Spanish American possessions, though origi- nally planned, at least ostensibly, for Africa alone — to obtain certain great treasure on the Portuguese gold coast, of which word had secretly come from some refugees who were to pilot the adventurers to it. In this enterprise he was to have command of one of the ships of the fleet assembled for it, for, no doubt, as the chronicles say, the knowledge that he had acquired in the Lovell voyages enabled him to be of especial aid to Hawkins in this greater venture. Now, at twenty-two, he is to have a taste of sea life at its fullest, and to engage in his first naval battle. IV FIRST IN AMERICAN WATERS THE Hawkins expedition of 1567 was really a negro-kidnapping and slave-trading affair. It was ostensibly first planned only for the Portu- guese gold coast of Africa, but when certain Portu- guese refugee pilots who were to lead the voyagers to the treasure on the gold coast had deserted the enterprise, Hawkins had got formal leave of the queen to "load negroes in Guinea and sell them to the West Indies." Thus at the start it was definitely a slave-catching and trajfficking venture with the sanction of the high- est authority of England. It must be understood, however, that in those days the slave-trade was by no means regarded by Christian folk in general as wicked. On the contrary, the capturing of infidel human beings and selling them for money was then almost univer- sally held to be as honourable as barter and trade in ordinary commodities. The African slave-trade had been pursued for more than a hundred years by other peoples before the English took a hand in it. It was begun by the Portuguese before the middle of the fif- teenth century, soon after the discoveries by their 18 First in American Waters 19 navigators along the African coast. Their first mar- ket was found in Spain. The trade was extended to Spanish America in a little more than a decade follow- ing Columbus's discoveries. By the year 151 1 Ferdi- nand was permitting the importation of slaves from Spain to Hispaniola (Santo Domingo) in considerable numbers. By 15 17 the trade direct with the Portugu- guese settlements on the African coast had begun under license of Ferdinand's successor, the Emperor Charles V. That year this young monarch, who had come to the Spanish throne from the Netherlands, issued a patent to one of his Flemish favourites giving exclusive right to export four thousand negroes an- nually to Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto Rico. The favourite sold his license to some Genoese mer- chants for twenty-five thousand ducats, and these mer- chants started the business. So it is upon the Geno- ese, not the English, that rests the bad fame of having first established in regular form the commerce in slaves between Africa and America. John Hawkins was the first English navigator to engage in this nefarious business. After the death of their father, old Captain William, which occurred in 1555, he and his brother William had continued the trade of the house to the Atlantic coast of Africa. In several voyages that John made to the Canary Islands he had observed the prosperous slave traffic between Africa and the West Indies; and being assured by the islanders "that negroes were very good merchan- dise in Hispaniola and that store of negroes might 20 The Boy's Drake easily be had upon the coast of Guinea," he "resolved with himself to make a trial thereof." The expedition of 1567 was his third slave-trading venture. The first was made in 1562-63 with three ships and one hundred men, and was astonishingly profitable to those who had invested in it, a not- able band of the captain's "worshipful friends of London." The second voyage, made in 1564-65, was planned on a bolder scale. Now noblemen of prominence joined the investors in the first one. The queen lent one of her ships to head the fleet, which comprised four vessels. The company numbered one hundred and seventy men — "gentlemen advent- urers," sailors, soldiers. A written code for the gov- ernment of the fleet was prepared by Hawkins, which included these injunctions: "Serve God daily, love one another, preserve your victuals, beware of fire, and keep good company." Considering the unholy object of the enterprise — the capture of human beings and their sale into slavery — the admonitions to "serve God daily" and to "love one another" sound like a mockery to twentieth-century ears. But here again we must remember that those were benighted times. It is difficult to believe that these slavers of three hun- dred and fifty years ago could have been honestly devout men. But so they surely felt themselves to be. While the holds of their ships were packed thick with their wretched human freight, morning and even- ing prayers were held upon the decks above. For every success of whatever nature God was praised. First in American Waters 21 When the slave-ships were long becalmed at sea and at length a breeze came up in the nick of time to save them from misery, thanksgivings v^ere offered the Heavenly Father. "Almighty God," wrote Hawkins on one such occasion, "who never suffereth His elect to perish, sent us the ordinary breeze." Although more diplomacy and show of force were required in bartering the "freight" in the West Indies (for after the first voyage Spain had promulgated stricter orders to the colonial governors to permit no English vessel to trade there in future), this second venture was as prosperous as the first one. These successes brought Hawkins into such high favour that he was enabled easily to plan on a yet larger scale his third voyage, in which young Drake was enlisted. Meanwhile his accomplishments had been recognised, and the slave-trade practically en- dorsed, by the grant to him of a coat of arms: a black shield displaying a golden lion walking on waves, and above the lion golden coins, and for a crest a little black bust of a Moor in chains, "bound and captive," with golden amulets on his ears and arms. The fleet assembled for this expedition at Plymouth. Two ships were provided from the royal navy: the "Jesus of Lubec," which had been employed in the second voyage, and the "Minion"; the others were the "William and John," owned by the Hawkins brothers and named for them; the "Swallow"; the "Judith," described as a "bark," fifty tons, owned by John Hawkins; and the "Angel," the smallest 22 The Boy's Drake craft, of only thirty-two tons. Drake had the com- mand of the "Judith." The complement carried was five hundred men. The "Jesus of Lubec" was the flag-ship. Hawkins was denominated "general and captain" of the expedition. The investment in it was large. The Hawkins brothers alone put in a sum equal to sixteen thousand pounds in English money of to-day, while John Hawkins's personal effects and "furniture" on the "Jesus" were valued at four thou- sand. And Drake, as we have seen, embarked all that he possessed. The six gallant ships, practically a naval squadron, sailed out of Plymouth harbour on the second day of October, 1567, in fine array, with Hawkins's promise to Queen Elizabeth to bring back home "a profit (with God's help) of forty thousand marks without of- fence to her friends and allies"; and with Drake, now twenty-two, ambitious for adventure, and "burning," incidentally, "to win compensation for the wrongs," whatever they were, "that he had suffered with Cap- tain Lovell at Rio de la Hacha" on the Spanish Main in America. STORMING RIO DE LA HACHA ONCE off the Guinea coast Drake's adventures began. Whenever a Portuguese ship v^as sighted she was given chase and overhauled. Somewhere between the Canaries and Cape Blanco the "Minion" captured a "caravel," which, being a "smart" new vessel, was added to the squadron, and Drake was transferred from the httle " Judith " to her command. She was the "Grace of God" by name and a good specimen of her class of ship. The cara- vel of that day is described as a fast-sailing, weath- erly vessel for ocean navigation. It had a single deck and half-deck, a square stern and forecastle, and was usually rigged with four masts and bowsprit, the fore- mast carrying two square sails and each of the others a lateen. When taken, the "Grace of God" was found in the hands of a French Protestant privateer or pirate, one Captain Bland, who had himself capt- ured her from her Portuguese master. He surren- dered her philosophically, and joined his fortunes to the expedition. 23 24 The Boy's Drake More Portuguese caravels, and all having human freight, were taken in the negro hunt on the rivers along the coast from Rio Grande to Sierra Leone, and their negroes shifted to the ships of the fleet. Yet by mid- January the whole number of slaves collected in one way and another amounted to scarcely one hundred and fifty, while the fleet's forces had become reduced by the loss of not a few men by sickness and poisoned arrows in fights in the slave hunts. In this situation, and since the season was advancing, it was seriously proposed to end the voyage at Elmina and there force the sale of their cargoes, both negroes and merchan- dise, that they had brought out. But while the matter was debating a native "king" at war with another chief sought the Englishmen's assistance in an assault upon a town of the rival chief. This village, he told them, contained some eight thousand inhabitants, and he promised to turn over to them all of the natives his fighters might capture. The offer was accepted and a successful assault ensued by land and sea. Hawkins himself headed a force of two hundred of his men in the land attack, and Drake may have had a part in the assault from the water. The result of the aff'air was the addition of some three hundred men, women, and children to the fleet's stock. The native "king" and his men had captured some six hundred, but of these none was received by the English, for the wily monarch, like those Arabs of whom we have read, quietly broke camp in the night after the assault and stole away, taking all his captives with him. Storming Rio de la Hacha 25 However, with their own captives they now had a sufficient number to warrant the continuation of the voyage as projected. In the Rio Grande, where the fleet rendezvoused for the western voyage, the French Captain Bland was given charge of the "Grace of God," and Drake returned to the command of the "Judith." About two months — fifty-five days really — were con- sumed In the toilsome passage across to the West Indies. The Island of Dominica was first made, and here the trading began. Thence the fleet coasted from place to place, the Englishmen pursuing their traffic, but "somewhat hardly" In the face of the orders against all trading of English ships In Spanish America, which the colonial governors dared not dis- obey without at least a show of resistance. At Bur- burata, on the coast of Venezuela, they tarried two months, trimming and dressing the ships. In those days, before the coppering of ships' bottoms and "antl-fouling" compositions were known, vessels after six months of sailing in tropical waters became so clogged that careening — bringing a ship to lie on one side for cleansing, calking, or repairing — was absolutely necessary. Another stop of some days was made at the Island of Curasao, where fresh provisions were taken on. While tarrying here the general com- missioned Drake to go forward with his "Judith" and the "Angel" to Rio de la Hacha, probably to make a reconnoissance. This was Drake's opportunity and he grasped it 26 The Boy's Drake with alacrity. And with what reckless audacity he executed this commission the story of his perform- ance at the outset discloses. Arriving before the little town, then a sprawling place of scattered, hut-like houses, he found that it had been re-enforced since his previous visit with Captain Lovell. Every approach was guarded by new works, and a hundred "harquebusiers" — soldiers armed with a form of gun known as a harquebus — had been added to the garrison. He anchored his miniature squadron in easy reach of the port, and was at once challenged by a fire from the shore batteries. As promptly he retorted in kind, opening fire point-blank on the town. Thus, without a word of explanation of his presence his reconnois- sance had become an assault. His first shot went straight through the government house. Afterward he withdrew his ships out of range of the batteries, and there they rode for five days "despite the Spaniards and their shot." Thus they blockaded the town. While they were so riding a "caravel of advice" from Domingo — a governmental despatch-boat — hove in sight, approaching the port. Instantly anchors were hauled in and both ships gave her chase. Soon she was driven ashore and then triumphantly "fetcht from thence in spite of two hundred Spanish harque- bus shot." This high-handed proceeding ended, they returned to their anchorage as before and continued the blockade till Hawkins came up with the other ships of the fleet, to open his trade with the town. Storming Rio de la Hacha 27 It was all a lawless performance in a time of peace, rightly called by Drake's critics an act of piracy. None the less, such was the blunted morality of the seafarers of those rough days, his comrades saw noth- ing to condemn in it. Rather they held it a thing joyously to applaud, and gayly to boast of. Though he must have exceeded his orders, there is nothing to show that he received any censure from Hawkins. The performance, however, embarrassed the gen- eral. It shut the town tight against him as a hostile intruder. The governor — or treasurer, as the head officer here was termed — refused not only to permit trade, but even a landing of his men to obtain fresh water for the ships. Neither diplomacy nor protests of good intention could move the irate official. It was apparent that nothing could be accomplished here through peaceful negotiations. The way, if opened at all, must be opened by force. So the general pro- ceeded to apply the lever of force and with his cus- tomary vigour. Two hundred men were landed with "field ord- nance," which they planted on the shore for their protection. The bulwarks were assaulted and quickly broken through. Then the Spanish forces were driven "about two leagues up into the country." Thus the invaders "valiantly took the town." Only two of the English force were lost, and no hurt was done the Spaniards, because after they had discharged one volley they all fled. Once in possession of the place the Englishmen fostered friendly relations with 28 The Boy's Drake its people, and trade was soon under way briskly, but conducted, however, only in the night-time with a show of secrecy, to save, perhaps, the governor's stand- ing with the home government in Spain. From this port the fleet continued along the coast westward, visiting various small settlements, where Hawkins in his own account says "the Spanish in- habitants were glad of us and traded willingly." At length Cartagena, the capital of the Spanish Main, was reached. Here they were again repulsed. The governor was "so straight" that no trafl&c whatsoever could be had without force. Since now much of their "merchandise" had been bartered, and the season of hurricanes in these parts was at hand, it was deter- mined to press the issue no further, but to steer for safer waters, and thence turn homeward. Before leav- ing, however, a side "demonstration" was made by the "Minion," which bombarded the "castle," or fort, while some of her men landed. These discovering in a cave a quantity of Malmsey wine and sack, took off as much of the stock as they could carry. But there was honour among these thieves, for they left in exchange some woollen and linen cloth which they assumed to be of equivalent value. From Cartagena the course was directed north. But the hurricanes were not escaped. Leaving Cuba to the eastward and thence sailing toward Florida, the fleet were caught in an "extreme tempest" which raged fiercely for four days. The ships were "most dangerously tossed and beaten hither and thither." Storming Rio de la Hacha 29 Working into the Bahia de Ponce behind the grim Tortugas, a fortnight or more was spent in searching for a haven on the Florida coast where repairs could be made. But in vain, for ever3rwhere the water was found to be too shoal. Meanwhile a second storm struck them, this one lasting three days. At length the limping fleet were forced to cross the Gulf of Mex- ico, and for their succor boldly make for the haven of Vera Cruz — San Juan d'Ulloa, which then served the City of Mexico. Thus they sailed into new and unexpected advent- ures, which ended in disaster. VI FIRST NAVAL BATTLE THE adventurers knew they were taking great hazards in crossing this bay of Mexico and at- tempting a probably inhospitable port in their crippled state. It was not shipwreck they feared so much as encounter with enemies on the way. They would strike the path of Spanish armed ships in the voyage between Spain and Mexico, the capital of New Spain, and they were well aware that the command- ers of such craft if met would treat them as cor- sairs or pirates. They might be overhauled by one of those new Spanish galleons built for service as an India guard, to be employed by Pedro Menendez, captain-general of the West India trade, in clearing Spanish America of all foreign intruders. But there was no alternative. There was no nearer port than San Juan d'Ulloa where they could provision and repair before taking the open sea for England. There was, indeed, no other port on the Mexican coast. So they sailed, taking every precaution to guard against surprise. They did, indeed, fall in with Spanish ships, but these were small and harmless. 30 First Naval Battle 31 One had on board a Spaniard of some note, Don Augustin de Villa Nueva, and was bound for Santo Domingo. Another was a wine ship with a full cargo. A third was a passenger ship bound for San Juan d'Ulloa. All carried passengers, the three having a total of one hundred. All were quietly captured by Hawkins, and taken along with him in order that they might be useful as hostages in negotiations he might have to force upon arrival at the port. Of Villa Nueva he made "great account," using him "like a nobleman." This consideration was in the end basely repaid by the treacherous don, as we shall see. San Juan d'Ulloa, reached without mishap, ap- peared to be, as it then was, an uninviting little haven, protected by a low island but a "bow shot" in length, about half a mile from the main-land. The town of Vera Cruz was not then opposite this islet, but lay some fifteen miles northward. The islet was the haven's one protection from the furious "northers" — the northerly gales prevalent along this coast, between October and March — and all ships had to be moored with their anchors made fast to it. The quay was on the landward side of the island, where it was arti- ficially scarped. As the fleet came up and rode outside, a boat was seen approaching from the shore. This boat con- tained the representatives of the royal officers of Vera Cruz. They were making a mistake. When sighted from Vera Cruz the squadron were supposed to be the annual flota which had been daily expected from 32 The Boy's Drake Spain under the escort of royal galleons, and they had been sent down to receive the letters and despatches of the king brought out by the Spanish commander. They found out their mistake only when their boat was in the midst of the English fleet and was suddenly seized and they were led before Hawkins on the "Jesus." Great was their dismay. Hawkins's assur- ance that he had been forced hither by stress of weath-' er, and that his company's only demand was "victuals for their money" and opportunity to make repairs, somewhat " recomforted " them; still they were un- easy. But, since in the face of the superior English force they were powerless, they offered the hospital- ity requested with what grace they could summon. And, for the same reason, they gave their enforced guests leave to take possession of the island and set up some guns that were there. This privilege must have been reluctantly granted, for its advantage was ob- vious. Hawkins exacted it that he might cover his squadron and command the entrance to the port. Had he not the island in his custody the Spaniards might at their pleasure cut the cables of his ships, and with the first norther send them ashore and to destruction. Hearing of the expected Spanish fleet, he was bound to guard his own. So the English ships entered the Spanish haven and moored at the quay, while the English soldiers mounted the Spanish guns — seven pieces of brass — on the island. All of the hostages were released except two — one of these being Don Augustin de Villa Nueva. Then the First Naval Battle 33 despatch of a messenger to the viceroy at Mexico city, two hundred miles off, was procured to explain how the English fleet came to be here as Hawkins had ex- plained to the Vera Cruz officials. The messenger was further to ask that such orders be given as would prevent any conflict between his fleet and the expected Spanish squadron. Meanwhile repairs on the ships were begun and diligently pursued. There were found in the haven twelve ships, all freighted with silver and gold, the year's produce of Mexico, awaiting the flota. All these vessels, while the English held the island, were in Flawkins's grasp, and he prided himself on not taking them. It was on a Thursday, the i6th of September, that the fleet were moored. The very next morning the Spanish squadron hove in sight. There were "thirteen great ships," two of them armed galleons: an admi- ral (flag-ship) and a vice-admiral. Don Francisco de Luxan was the commander, or general, and on board of the flag-ship was Don Martin Enriques, a new vice- roy of Mexico. As they came to ride off" the port, some three leagues seaward, Hawkins sent out an officer to advise their commander of the circumstances of his being here, and to desire the Spaniard to understand that before he would suffer his squadron to enter the port some order should pass between them for their mutual safety and the maintenance of peace. Luxan politely replied that with him was a viceroy having authority both in *'all this Province of Mexico," and "in the sea," and at this 34 The Boy's Drake chief man's request he would ask Hawkins to forward his conditions. Meanwhile Enriques had sent a mes- senger, who apparently crossed Hawkins's, with a haughty request to be informed "of what country those ships were that rode there in the King of Spain's port ?" Hawkins made courteous reply that they were "the Queen of England's ships," and were there for "vic- tuals for their money, and for repairs." If the Span- ish general would agree peacefully to give them their desires they would go out on the one side of the port and the Spaniards should come in on the other side. The viceroy's answer was still haughty. He was a viceroy and had a thousand men, he announced, and therefore would come in. Hawkins's retort was tart: "If you be a viceroy I represent the queen's person and I am a viceroy as well as you. If you have a thousand men my powder and shot will take the better place!" With this preliminary skirmishing the viceroy came down from his lofty attitude. He would consider Hawkins's conditions — and with quite amiable assur- ances of the faithful performances of any or all that might be accepted. Yet the English were embarrassed. Hawkins was between two horns of a dilemma. Either he must keep the Spaniards out and subject them to wreck on the coast with the first norther, or suffer them to come in and perform some treachery, as he verily believed they would attempt, for he had little or no faith in Spanish promises. If he left them out and they were First Naval Battle 35 wrecked, the loss by such disaster would be so great that he feared his queen's censure of his act. It was this reflection finally that brought him to his decision. He would let them in, and trust by good policy or stratagem to checkmate them if they played false. So he named his conditions, in five articles: victuals for his company's money; license to sell as much of their ** wares" (they had fifty negroes yet unsold and a con- siderable quantity of merchandise) as would suffice to supply their wants; to be suffered peaceably to repair their ships; the island to remain in their possession while they stayed in the port, with the seven guns they had planted there; the delivery of "twelve gentlemen of credit" on either part as hostages. The viceroy de- murred particulary at the condition of leaving the island in the EngHshmen's hands. But to this Hawkins held firm. Nor would he consider any change in the other articles, save a reduction of the hostages to ten in num- ber. With this single amendment, therefore, the vice- roy was obliged to content himself. Then the articles were signed, and sealed with the viceroy's official seal; proclamation was made with the blare of trumpets; commandment was given that none on either side should violate or break the peace upon pain of death; the required number of hostages passed from fleet to fleet; the English and Spanish command- ers came together and gave each to the other the word of honour to abide by the agreement; the viceroy gave his pledge. Then the English opened the port. Four days had been occupied in these negotiations 36 The Boy's Drake and ceremonies. On Monday evening the Spanish fleet came up and anchored just outside the port. The next morning they entered, exchanging salutes with the EngHsh fleet, "as the manner of the sea doth re- quire." All of Tuesday and of Wednesday were spent in berthing the ships. At first the Spaniards proceeded to take up berths among the English. But this Haw- kins would not have. The fleets must be apart, "the English by themselves, and the Spanish by themselves." Thus they were finally berthed. Such was the small- ness of the space available, however, that the interval between the two groups was only about twenty yards. So close ashore were the ships that their "beaknoses" overhung the quay; and those of each group lay "hard aboard " one another. Of the English group the " Min- ion" lay nearest the Spanish group. Next to her was the "Jesus." Drake's "Judith" was probably at or near the end of the Enghsh line. In the labor of placing the ships the captains and the "inferior men" of both fleets worked amicably side by side, and all seemed to promise well. But while all these demonstrations of "great cour- tesy" were making, the viceroy and the Spanish com- mander were perfecting a plot for "chastising the corsairs," as the viceroy put it. While the conditions were under consideration, and the Spanish fleet were at their first anchorage seaward, the viceroy had ordered a considerable force of soldiers from Vera Cruz; and on Monday night, as his fleet were lying just outside the port, he had managed secretly to get these troops First Naval Battle 37 aboard his ships. When the Spaniards were finally moored in the port a "great hulk" — a cargo vessel — of some six or nine hundred tons was placed as the outermost vessel, next the English fleet. During the night of Wednesday the English found that this hulk had been connected with the head cable of the "Jesus" by a hawser. On Thursday morning a suspicious activity was ob- served on the Spanish side. There was a shifting of weapons from ship to ship; a cutting of ports in their ships to command the English vessels; the bending of guns toward the island; the passing to and fro of com- panies of men more than were seemingly required for the ordinary business of the fleet. Hawkins immedi- ately sent a messsenger to the viceroy to inquire what all this meant. The viceroy as promptly replied that he "in the faith of a viceroy" would be "their defence for all villanies," and would order the suspicious move- ments stopped. But they did not stop. Meanwhile, on shore some of the Spaniards were fraternizing with English seamen and supplying them with liquor. It was seen that the "great hulk" was filled with men. Hawkins despatched another messenger to demand of the viceroy that these men be instantly removed from the hulk. For this mission the master of the "Jesus," Robert Barrett, was chosen because he could speak Spanish. He never returned. The moment had arrived for the plot to be sprung. It was the time for dinner on the English fleet, late forenoon, as was the custom in those days. On board 38 The Boy's Drake the "Jesus," Hawkins with his officers and the principal hostages had taken their seats at the table. Beside Hawkins sat Don Augustin de Villa Neuva, still hon- oured like a guest. As the repast was to begin a trusty attendant, one John Chamberlayne, suddenly espied a poniard in this gentleman's sleeve, and snatched it from its hiding-place. Hawkins sprang to his feet and or- dered Villa Neuva to be imprisoned in the steward's room, under guard. Almost immediately from the Spanish flag-ship's deck a white napkin was seen to flutter in Luxan's hand. It was the signal to the treacherous Nueva to perform his act in the plot — to stab Hawkins with his dagger. Another moment and a trumpet rang out from the Spanish flag-ship the call, "To arms!" Instantly the Spaniards were upon the English in a fierce assault from all sides. The soldiers from Vera Cruz, who had been in ambush on the main-land, were rushed in the Spaniards' long-boats to the island and there began cutting down the English guard like grass beneath the scythe to gain the batteries. The Spanish seamen ashore drew daggers upon the English sailors as their erstwhile boon companions ran to the cover of the Enghsh ships. The "great hulk" with three hun- dred men in her was hauled by the hawser alongside the " Minion," and the three hundred swarmed over her sides. In the first onslaught all the English on the island were slain save three, who escaped by swimming to the "Jesus." One of these is said to have been Drake. First Naval Battle 39 A Spanish account says that he saved himself only by "swarming" aboard ship by a hawser. On the "Minion" the resistance was more effective. At the first suspicion of treachery that fateful morn- ing Hawkins had warned her captain to be on the alert. As the men poured out of the Spanish hulk upon her, Hawkins — shouting, "God and St. George upon those treacherous villains, and rescue the 'Minion'! I trust in God the day shall be ours!" — sent his force of the "Jesus" with a gallant rush to her defence. At the same time a perrier-ball shot from her set the Span- ish vice-admiral afire before she could get off a shot. The "Minion's" first shot had hit her on her broad- side in such wise that she began to take in water, while the perrier-shot, setting fire to a barrel of powder, finished her. Before the attack on the "Minion" could be renewed she had leased her headfasts, in other words, slipped her shore moorings, and hauled clear of the Spanish hulk by her sternfasts, and now opened a I heavy fire upon the burning vice-admiral. As she drew away from the hulk the latter swung aboard the " Jesus" and attempted to take her by boarding. But the at- tempt was defeated. Simultaneously two other of the enemy's ships assaulted the "Jesus," and there was hard hand-to-hand fighting on both sides. At length Hawkins managed to cut his headfasts and get out by his sternfasts. This brought him to a position again beside the "Minion," and about two ships' lengths from the Spanish fleet. Now the battle waged hotter. Within an hour the Spanish flag-ship was apparently sunk, the 40 The Boy's Drake vice-admiral was consumed, and one other of the Spanish vessels was in a sinking condition. The vice- admiral finally blew up. In the engagement between the ships, therefore, the day was with the English. But now the batteries on the island in the enemy's hands opened a deadly fire upon them. It seemed as though the English fleet must soon be annihilated. Still the English fought stub- bornly in the face of this fire. The "Jesus" soon be- came "sore spoiled." The little "Angel" was sunk. The "Swallow" was disabled. The "Grace of God" had her main-mast struck overboard when her captain, the Frenchman Bland, was making a courageous at- tempt to get her to the windward of the Spanish, then to set her afire and send her flaming into the midst of them. With her main-mast gone he fired her where she lay, and taking to his pinnace with all his men came aboard the "Jesus." Night now approaching, and the "Jesus," her hull "wonderfully pierced with shot," being mortally hurt, with her rigging cut, it was determined to transfer her provisions and treasure to the "Minion" after dark, and abandon her. Thereupon the "Minion" was or- dered, "for safeguard of her masts," to be brought under the "Jesus'" lee. Drake also was ordered to bring his "Judith" up to the "Minion," and take aboard his ship what men and provisions he could out of the port. All of this Drake did. But before the transfer from the "Jesus" to the "Minion" was well under way, it was suddenly seen that the First Naval Battle 41 Spanish had set two of their ships afire, and that these all aflame were bearing directly against them. At this awful sight the English seamen were thrown into a panic. The "Minion" now had her sails up, and with- out waiting for orders from captain or master her men started her off to flee the port. So quick was their action that Hawkins had barely time to swing aboard her from the "Jesus " as her sails began to draw. Those of the "Jesus'" men who could scramble into a small boat managed to follow and board her. The others, left to their fate on the abandoned ship, were "most cruelly slain by the Spaniards." Drake, having speedily warped his "Judith" clear, had got outside. Both had escaped the fire-ships, and once outside, beyond shot of the island, they were no further mo- lested. So the furious battle ended. Of the aggressors, all the fighting-ships were gone with more than five hundred of the thousand men of whom the viceroy had boasted. On the English side only the maimed "Minion" and the httle "Judith" survived, with less than half of the force that had entered the port. For that night the two battered and overloaded English ships rode at anchor only two bow-shots from what were left of the enemy's ships. A brisk wind was blowing, threatening a gale. When morning came the "Judith" had disappeared. The "Minion," thus alone, recovered an island a mile from the port, sup- posed to have been Sacrifice Island. Here she was struck by the dreaded norther. She rode through that 42 The Boy's Drake night under the island's shelter "greatly distressed," for she had but two cables and two anchors left, and was "sore beaten" by the enemy's shot and strained from working her own guns. Fortunately, the next morning the storm was over and the weather fair, so that she might venture to take the sea. Then the wretched ship, overloaded, scant of provisions, unsea- worthy, again set sail, bound indefinitely for some place where repairs could be made, then for home. The details of her progress : how after fourteen days of wandering they were forced by hunger to land at a point near the bottom of the bay; how here the two hundred men crowding her were " indiflFerently parted, one hundred on the one side and one hundred on the other," and one of these lots left ashore with what pro- visions could be spared and Hawkins's promise, if the ship ever reached home, to come or send for them or their survivors; the record of the adventures of the sur- vivors, their wanderings, sufferings, miseries; the nar- rative of the further voyage of the forlorn "Minion," its hardships and trials, and her final bringing up in an English haven nearly four months after the departure for Sacrifice Island — all this is another and a thrilling story, in which our hero does not figure. Drake with his "Judith," reaching home only five days before the "Minion," appeared in Plymouth Sound on the evening of January 20, 1569. Ignorant of the fate of the "Minion" after he had parted from her on the night following the battle, he believed that she was lost. He was severely blamed for what was First Naval Battle 43 called his desertion of her that night. Hawkins, in his official report, remarked upon it in a terse sentence dis- closing his feeling — "which bark [the "Judith"] the same night forsook us in our great misery," — and re- frained from further mention of this ship or Drake. Ac- cusations against him were pending when an official in- quiry into the San Juan d'UUoa affair was opened by the lord admiral; but he did not appear, if summoned, for he was then conveniently, as his critics would say, away at sea again. The evidence of history, however, is that he was blameless. Instead of dehberately leaving his comrade ship in the lurch, he was evidently parted from her by the gale and obliged immediately to put to sea for the safety of his overtaxed vessel, crowded with the men he had taken off the "Minion." Since home was now the only safe port, he made for England as direct and as speedily as he could. Indeed, his bravery and loyalty should not be questioned; while his skilful seamanship in navigating his overloaded ship across the seas and at last bringing her safely to port at Plymouth is deserving of high praise. Drake came out of this adventure, as has been said, with the loss of all that he had embarked. Hawkins's losses were heavier only because his interests were larger. Much of the treasure of the "Jesus of Lubec" must have been transferred to the "Minion" in the hurried work before the Spanish fire-ships bore down upon them, for, according to the Spanish reports, the only things of value found upon the derelict "Jesus" after the battle were the general's silver cabin service, 44 The Boy's Drake some bales of cloth, and fifty negroes. Doubtless the negroes were at once taken into slavery by the Span- iards. On the abandoned "Jesus" were also found the Spanish hostages. "Not a hair of their heads had been touched, and they had nothing but praises of their gentle treatment" by the English. In marked con- trast was the treatment that the English hostages re- ceived at the hands of the Spaniards. They were held prisoners by the viceroy in Mexico for four months. Then they were sent to Spain, and there one of the Eng- lish narrators had "heard it credibly reported, many of them died with the cruel handling of the Spanish in the Inquisition house." The survivors were finally de- livered to their homes in England. The viceroy's explanation of his treachery at San Juan d'Ulloa was lamentably weak. He believed, he said, that Hawkins meant to break his word and fire the Spanish fleet. There appeared no ground what- ever for such belief, if he honestly entertained it. All accounts agree as to Hawkins's faithfulness to the agreement. The battle was one of the bravest fought. In all the naval annals of England, as the historian Corbett testifies, it has been "rarely surpassed as an heroic and successful defence against a treacherous surprise." The Spaniards fought as bravely; their discomfiture came through the greater weight of metal that the English ships possessed. Their experience in this affair of San Juan d'Ulloa made both Hawkins and Drake ever after the implac- First Naval Battle 45 able enemies of Spain and of all Spaniards. Drake was the more impatient for revenge and reprisal, and his active mind shortly became busied with the con- coction of a new venture of his own. VII RECONNOITRING AND BUCCANEERING UPON his landing at Plymouth Drake was met by Hawkins's brother William, eager for news. When the "Judith " was seen coming into Plym- outh Sound alone William Hawkins was prepared for ill-tidings, for a rumour of disaster to the expedition had preceded Drake by some days. This rumour was conveyed by way of Spain in a letter from one of the correspondents there of Bernardino Spinola, a great Italian banker, then of London, supposed to have been a private investor in the Hawkins enterprise. It was a report current in Seville that Hawkins, having landed somewhere in Spanish America and gone into the in- terior to make his trade, had been led into ambush and he and all his men massacred. Drake gave the true story in a hurried account of the San Juan d'Ulloa affair, while the men who had crowded the little "Judith" held the welcoming folk ashore spellbound with their stories. Immediately upon receiving Drake's report William Hawkins sat down and wrote a statement to William Cecil, the Secretary of State, and to the Privy Council, ending with an earnest appeal to the govern- 46 Reconnoitring and Buccaneering 47 ment for the grant of a commission of reprisals upon Spain for his brother's and his own wrongs, as a part- ner with him. And before that first night had passed Drake was speeding off with these letters for London. Thus he was brought to the attention of Cecil, then the foremost minister of the crown. With the execu- tion of his mission he doubtless repeated his story and put in a stout word for himself. England was now on the verge of open war with Spain, and the news of the San Juan d'Ulloa affair served to fan the flame against Philip. But neither sovereign was ready to cast the gauntlet. Each was "willing to wound," and se- cretly to injure the other, and was doing so; but neither was prepared, though each may have dared, to strike. So the petitions of the Hawkinses, John joining that of his brother upon his arrival home, for redress through reprisals, if compensation for their losses could not otherwise be promptly obtained, were held up. Meanwhile Drake took temporary service in the queen's navy. Early in the spring (1569) following his return he seems to have become master of one of the queen's ships. The naval historian Corbett suggests that in this service he may have sought refuge from the accusations against him of desertion of Hawkins and the "Minion." As to this, however, his other biographers are silent. They generally glide over this year. One remarks vaguely on naval service by him as covering "some time" and as being to his "great ad- vantage." As to the accusations of desertion of Haw- kins and the "Minion," they were not repeated at the 48 The Boy's Drake official inquiry by the lord admiral into the San Juan d'Ulloa affair. And it is reasonable to assume that his explanation of his act was satisfactory to Hawkins, for both the brothers Hawkins are soon found again in friendly relations with him. Corbett ventures that part of his naval service was as captain of one of the guard — seven large war-ships — of the wool fleet to Hamburg, which sailed in April and returned early in June. At all accounts, he was ashore and at home in Devon early in July, for on the fourth day of that sunny month he was married to a Devonshire lass, one Mary Newman, at St. Budeaux, on the Tavy. If he were with the wool-fleet guard his courtship of his sweetheart must indeed have been, as Corbett says, a real sailor's courtship for brevity. The honey-moon, too, was short, for he was soon again aboard ship, or away making preparations for another voyage to the Spanish Indies. Now his own plan of campaign, formulating in his busy brain through this year, against the Spaniards for compensation for his losses, was ripening fast. Sat- isfied that no amends could be had, at least imme- diately, from the Spanish Government in the ordinary ways, through diplomacy or through letters of the queen, he was now boldly to take the matter in his own hands and recoup himself out of the riches of Spanish America. It was a lawless plan and piratical, but to his mind justifiable. Moreover, it had the endorsement of an honest cleric. A navy chaplain, perhaps the chaplain on his ship of the wool-fleet guard, had "comforted" him with the assurance that "having been thus treach- Reconnoitring and Buccaneering 49 erously used by the Spaniards he might lawfully re- cover in value of the King of Spain and repair his losses upon him [the king] wherever he could." In other words, that it was legal and honourable for an injured individual to take the law into his own hands and exact reprisals from a whole nation for hurts suffered through the treacherous acts of a single part of that nation not in a time of war; to rob and pillage those who had done him no wrong in compensation for injuries from others, because they were of the same nationality. Further, in the eyes of this Christian minister, it was right mor- ally when the people upon whom the reprisals were to be made were of one religion and the injured individual of another. It was a strange doctrine for a godly man of whatever creed to preach. Yet it was very "taking," we are told, in England in that rude day three centuries and more back. Good Protestant bishops were coun- selling that "to prey upon Catholics was pleasing to the Lord." It was the "sea divinity" of the time in which Drake and his contemporary Protestant seafarers had been reared; and no sooner had he made his design known than volunteers, with no such pretence as he had for this action, flocked with ardour to join him. His plan was first to make a reconnoitring voyage further to acquaint himself with the Spanish-American coast, and to ascertain the state of the Spanish settle- ments. Accordingly, early in the new year, 1570, he quietly set out from Plymouth upon this adventure, two little ships, the "Dragon" and the "Swan," com- prising his "fleet." It was given the colour of a trad- 50 The Boy's Drake ing voyage. A number of merchants, statesmen, and naval officers were presumably interested with him; or perhaps, as Corbett suggests, he was acting for them to obtain intelligence of the colonies that might be useful in case of actual war. The expedition was pre- pared under the eyes of Wilham Hawkins; and it is not an unreasonable assumption that both the brothers Hawkins were friendly to it if not secretly concerned in it. The only known account of this voyage is in man- uscript and of Spanish origin. Though coloured to suit its particular market and probably exaggerated, it shows clearly enough that buccaneering was freely and profitably indulged along with the soberer work of reconnoitring. The manuscript has this taking title, "A summary relation of the harms and robberies done by Fr. Drake an Englishman with the assistance and help of other Englishmen." And thus its translation, in part, runs: "In the year 1570 he went to the Indies in a bark of forty tons with whom there went an English merchant called Richard Dennys and others, and upon the coast of Nombre-de-Dios they did rob divers barks in the river Chagres that were transporting merchan- dise of forty thousand ducats of velvets and taffetas beside other merchandise, besides gold and silver in other barks, and with the same came [returned] to Plymouth where it was divided amongst his partners." To reconnoitre about Nombre-de-Dios was Drake's chief aim. For this old Spanish town on the north- west of the Isthmus of Darien was at that time the store- Reconnoitring and Buccaneering 51 house of the harvest of gold, silver, and gems brought from Peru and Mexico to Panama, and thence across the isthmus, where the precious crop was held to be shipped annually in the treasure-ships to Spain. He found the place, as well as the long coast of the Spanish Main, generally with slight defence, and saw that clev- erly surprised and attacked it would fall an easy prey. With this information, and after bartering his goods at Capo de la Vela, the port of ancient Coro, Venezuela, opposite the island of Curasao, and at Jamaica, he returned home. A second voyage for further reconnoitring was im- mediately projected, and Drake was off upon it the next spring (157 1). This was apparently a venture on his personal account, equipped from the proceeds of the former one, and with buccaneering quite as much in view as reconnoitring. Only one ship was em- ployed — the little "Swan" of the first voyage. Little is recorded of this expedition beyond the illu- minating statement that several prizes were taken, and the word of one of Drake's most devoted men, Thomas Moone, ship's carpenter, that it was ''rich and gainful." A Spanish reference is made to it in the complaint that Drake "cut out" (that is, carried off) a ship of one hun- dred and eighty tons from the harbour of Cartagena. There is a legend that he actually went ashore at Nombre-de-Dios, disguised as a Spaniard, and famil- iarised himself with the topography of the town. He dis- covered hidden in the recesses of the Gulf of Darien, along the line of the treasure-ships bound for Spain, yet 52 The Boy's Drake remote from it, a romantic harbour, an ideal "pirate's lair," and here established a base for his future opera- tions. It was a safe haven in all weathers, a fine, deep, round bay lying between two high points, eight or ten cables' length either way, with a narrow mouth secluded in a wealth of tropical growths. Drake named it " Port Pheasant," because of the "great store of those goodly fowls" upon which he and his men feasted luxuriously. Good fish also abounded in the little bay. The place has been identified as the "Puerto Escondito," or "Secret Harbour," of the Spaniards, lying some twelve miles to the southwest of the modern Caledonian Bay, a hun- dred miles from Santiago de Tulu at the east, and about the same distance from Nombre-de-Dios westward. To this snug harbour Drake brought his prisoners taken with the prizes; and from it he made secret excursions along the coast to ascertain the manner of transporting the treasure across the isthmus. Thus he learned how it was brought from Peru and Mexico by ships to Panama; how thence carried in chests and goat-skins by mule-trains overland, or by water from Venta Cruz, the modern Cruces, on the Chagres River, to Nombre- de-Dios; how all the way it was protected by military guards captained by some of the best soldiers of Spain. His reconnoissance completed, he liberated his pris- oners, buried a quantity of stores in his lair against his next coming, and turned homeward, his Httle "Swan" loaded with plunder he had taken. Now having got all the "notice of the persons and places aimed at" that he desired, he was fully prepared Reconnoitring and Buccaneering 53 for the second and decisive step in his bold scheme. An astonishing voyage promptly follov^ed, in which his remarkable qualities v^ere to be brilliantly and au- daciously displayed, and which was to startle Spain and to lay the foundation of his fame and fortune. VIII RAID ON NOMBRE-DE-DIOS DRAKE assembled his forces for this piratical venture in the early months of the new year (1572), without hinderance from the govern- ment, despite his suspected hostile intent. To the Span- ish complaints of his two previous voyages the reply had invariably been that he was a private adventurer for whose actions the government was not responsible. The same attitude of irresponsibility was assumed toward this more threatening expedition. Though its object was veiled the Spanish spies in England had little doubt of its real nature, and they strongly suspected that high government officials were sanctioning it. In Spain it was believed that the queen herself was a subscriber to the project. There was little or no authority for this be- Hef, yet the government's attitude gave colour to it. Upon stronger grounds rested the suspicion of official sanction. From contemporary manuscripts is quoted the statement that Sir William Wynter of the navy was one of Drake's partners. Another named was John Hawkins. The explanation of this official favour toward the undertaking, or tolerance of it, is found in the political 54 Raid on Nombre-de-Dios 55 situation at the moment. The strain between Eng- land and Spain had become so tense that war seemed now close at hand, strenuous though the queen still was to avoid an open rupture. Already both nations had committed overt acts that, in modern days, would have meant actual war. Protestant and Catholic were ar- rayed against each other with increasing bitterness. The bull of Pope Pius V excommunicating Elizabeth and absolving her Catholic subjects from their alle- giance, secretly issued in 1569 and published the next year, had been followed by severe laws against the Catholics in England. A Catholic rising was looked for any day. In Spain, as the pope's zealous agent, the Protestants saw the inflamer of a Catholic crusade for the destruction of the "heretic" queen and the annihilation of Protestantism. And Drake was not alone among Protestant mariners making for Spain during this spring of 1572. Scorn- ing the threats of Philip against Protestants or other foreigners visiting his seas, scores of others were sailing or making ready to sail while Drake was hurrying his preparations forward. Two of his associates, or cap- tains supposed to have been his associates, in the San Juan d'Ulloa affair, had already sailed. One was Cap- tain James Rouse, assumed to be the same who had been master of the "William and John" that was lost in that battle. He was sent out on his present venture by Sir Edward Horsey, then governor of the Isle of Wight. Another, sailing from Plymouth, was Captain John Garrett, supposed to have been the master of the 56 The Boy's Drake *' Minion," the survivor, with Drake's "Judith," of San Juan d'Ulloa. With both of these captains went some of Drake's sailors who were on his second reconnoitring voyage. In this same spring also an unusual number of Huguenot "sea-dogs," half-privateers, half-traders, were sailing from French ports for the same waters. The Huguenot corsairs were now taking advantage of Spain's occupation with affairs in Europe which had left her ocean commerce and her American possessions unprotected. From Havre alone some twenty sail had already set out for Guinea and the West Indies. One of these French captains Drake was to meet and to take into partnership in a daring operation that followed the Nombre-de-Dios raid, and the chivalrous French- man was to lose his life in the affair, as told farther on. The squadron which Drake assembled for this voy- age, destined to become famous, comprised, like that which made his first reconnoitring voyage, two small ships only, but these were set up like men-of-war. Both were equipped with all kinds of fire-arms and artificers' stuff and tools carried by the best-furnished naval vessels of the time. Three "dainty" pinnaces (small oared vessels, larger than a ship's boat, and carrying a single sail) were cleverly made in parts and stored aboard the ships, to be set up on the arrival out, "as occasion served." The two ships were the "Pascha," a stanch craft of seventy tons, and again the " Swan," which was of twenty tons. The " Pascha " was designated the "admiral," or flag-ship; the "Swan" the "vice-admiral." The latter was captained by one of Raid on Nombre-de-Dios 57 Drake's brothers, John Drake. Another, and younger brother, Joseph, was one of the flag-ship's crew. The company numbered in all seventy-three men and boys. They were all volunteers, and all lusty young fellows under thirty, save one, who was fifty. Drake himself was twenty-seven. It was on Whitsunday eve, the 24th of May (1572), that the warlike little fleet sailed out from Plymouth Sound, "with intent," fully understood by all con- cerned in the venture, "to land at Nombre-de-Dios." The start v/as auspicious with a merry wind, and, the breezes favouring them throughout the run across the Atlantic by the then usual route, they made the outer West Indies in twenty-five days without striking a sail. Or, as opens the official narrative revised by Drake (which shall in the main tell the story here in its quaint old English, with a tangled sentence now and then straightened out, and an explanatory word along the way as to places, things, or peoples alluded to): "The wind continued prosperous and favourable at North east, and gave us a very good passage without any alteration or change: so that albeit we had sight of Porto Santo one of the Mad^ras [June 3] & of the Canaries also within twelve dayes of our setting forth: yet we never strook [struck] sayle, nor came to anchor, nor made any stay for any cause, neither there or else where, untill 25 dayes after; When we had sight [June 28] of the Island of Guadalupe, one of the Islands of the West Indies goodly high land." The next morning they entered the channel between 58 The Boy's Drake Guadalupe and Dominica, and here were espied two canoes coming from a "rocky Island three leagues [nine miles] off Dominica." The canoes were found to contain Indian fishermen, and the island proved to be a summer fishing place of the Dominican natives. Inviting it evidently appeared to our voyagers as they approached and viewed it, for they decided to stop here a bit and refresh themselves, and also water their ships "out of one of those goodly rivers which fall down off the mountain." Accordingly, the ships were anchored off it, and a landing made. Some "poore cottages" built of palmetto boughs and branches were found scattered over the isle, but no inhabitants, "civill or savage," were seen. Since they "could know no certaine cause of the solitarinesse," the voyagers surmised that these huts were temporary houses for the Dominican fishers during the fishing seasons. Three days were agreeably spent here, and then, on the first of July, they again set sail, not again to anchor till they reached the secret harbour of "Port Pheas- ant," in the Gulf of Darien, the lair which Drake had discovered on his previous voyage and prepared as a base for his operations, as related in the preceding chapter. On the fifth day out (July 6), they had "sight of the high land of Santa Martha" — the Sierra Nevada lying behind Santa Marta, Colombia, on the Spanish Main — as they passed off at sea. They finally sailed into the Gulf of Darien, and on July 12, having had two days of calm, arrived off Port Pheasant unper- ceived by any Spaniards. Raid on Nombre-de-Dios 59 Here, a hundred miles east of Nombre-de-Dios, and that distance from any Spanish settlement east or west, Drake felt secure, and, leaving the squadron in charge of his brother, Captain John Drake, made for the shore in his ship's boat, unarmed, and with only a few com- panions. But as they were rowing toward the shore they were startled at the sight of smoke rising above the thick growths that shrouded it. Suspecting that some sea-rovers, if not the Spaniards, had discovered the place, Drake returned for the other ship's boat, and causing this to be "manned with certain muskets and weapons," boldly set off again to turn out the intruders, whoever they might be. Cautiously landing, he could see no one. So fruitful was the soil that since Drake's visit of the year before all the paths and "alleys" that his men had then cleared were overgrown with a tan- gle of bush, vine, and grass. Pushing still cautiously through the tangle the party came upon a "mighty great tree, greater than any four men joining hands could fathom about," and nailed fast to this tree was a "plate of lead" upon which they read this inscrip- tion, roughly traced: ^'Captain Drake, if you fortune to come to this Port, make hast away; For the Spanyards which you had with you here the last year, have bewrayed this place and taken away all that you left here. I departed from thence this present 7, of Inly 1572. Your very loving friend, loHN Garrett." 6o The Boy's Drake This was the Captain Garrett who had sailed from Plymouth some days before Drake, having in his crew several men of Drake's former crew, and these men had discovered the lair to him. The rising smoke came from a smouldering fire which Garrett and his men had made before their departure, only four days back, in another great tree near by that upon which the warning had been posted. It was disturbing, to be sure, to find that his secret base of operations had been betrayed to the enemy by the prisoners he had so generously released, and that it had been plundered. But Drake had no thought of making "hast away," at least till the work he had planned to have done here should be accomplished. Accordingly he set his men about this work just as though his secret had not been disclosed, and no warn- ing received. So soon as the ships were moored he ordered the pinnaces in parts to be brought ashore, and the carpenters to begin putting them together, while he and the others started the building of a fort for their protection. This fort, enclosing a plot of three- quarters of an acre, was quite an affair. Its construc- tion was "performed," as the narrative describes, "by felling of great trees and bowsing [pulling hard, all to- gether] and haling [dragging] them together with great Pullers [pulleys] and halsers [hawsers] untill they were inclosed to the waters; and then letting others fall upon them, untill they had raised with trees and boughs thirty foot in height round about, leaving only one gate to issue at neer the waters side." Every night. Raid on Nombre-de-Dios 6i "that we might sleepe in more safety and security," this gate was closed by a great tree drawn athwart it. The whole plot was built in pentagonal form, ''to wit J of five equall sides and angles, of which angles two were towards the sea, and that side between them was left open for the easie launcing of our Pinnaces: the other four equel sides were cholely [closely] (ex- cepting the gate before mentioned) firmly closed up. Without, instead of a trench, the ground was rid [cleared] for fifty foot space, round about." The background was thick with trees. The very next day (July 13), after their arrival here the company had another surprise when a ship was seen sailing into the fastness. This, however, was a friendly craft. It was the English bark captained by James Rouse, and including in her crew others of Drake's former men. In tow were two other ships, one a Spanish caravel of Seville, "being a Carvell of Adviso" (a despatch-boat), bound for Nombre-de- Dios, which Captain Rouse had captured the day before, and a "shallop with oares," a Spanish boat equivalent to the English pinnace, which he had taken off Cape Blanco to the eastward. Upon learning Drake's purpose boldly to raid Nom- bre-de-Dios at a time when the treasure-houses were supposed to be well filled. Captain Rouse expressed an ardent desire to join hands with him, and Drake being willing, the two struck a bargain of partnership. Within a week's time the three pinnaces were full set up and launched, each with a name formally be- 62 The Boy's Drake stowed by Drake (the "Minion," the "Eion," the "Lyon"), and all was in readiness for the hostile move. Then early in the morning of July 20, the seventh day after Drake's arrival at the lair, the combined com- panies stole out and turned their ships' prows toward Nombre-de-Dios. Sailing north-westward along the Darien coast, in three days they had reached a cluster of fir-clad isles, lying westward of the mouth of the Gulf of Darien, and called from their covering of fir-trees the Islas de Pinos, or Pine Islands, and here another — a third — surprise awaited Drake. Lying at the island port were found two Spanish "Fregats" (frigates, ships devel- oped from the fregata, a Mediterranean type of "gal- ley," having at this time three masts and two decks). These belonged to Nombre-de-Dios, and were lading at the isles with plank and timber. They were manned by negro slaves, whom Drake promptly seized. The surprise was in a report which these men gave him as to the situation in Nombre-de-Dios. Says the narra- tor: "The negroes which were in those Fregates gave us som particular understanding of the present state of the Town: and besides told us that they had heard a report that certain Souldiers should come thither shortly, & were daily looked for, from the Governour of Panama, and the Countrey thereabouts, to defend the Town against the Simerons [Cimaroons] (a black Peo- ple, which about eighty years past [about 15 12] fled from the Spaniards their Masters, by reason of their cruelty, and are since groune to a Nation, under two Raid on Nombre-de-DIos 63 Kings of their own: the one inhabiteth to the West, th' other to the East of the Way from Nombre de Dios to Panama) who had neer surprised it [Nombre-de- Dios] about six weeks before." These Cimaroons — hill men — 01 "Maroons," as the English sailors came to call them, were really descend- ants of the original band of escaped negro slaves and the native Indian women whom they had married when they had established themselves in the hill and forest on either, side of the Panama road. They were become a bold and powerful race, and a terror to the Spanish settlements in their region. They were shrewd and clever warriors, as we shall see further along in the story of this voyage, for they became allies of Drake and made possible his feats that followed the Nombre- de-Dios affair. This news of troops on the march from Panama was a more disturbing surprise than the first one that met him, for he had calculated upon the weakness of Nombre-de-Dios and its garrison for success in his raid. But, as at Port Pheasant, what he heard only served to hasten his action. The thing now to be done was to press forward and get to his goal ahead of the Panama soldiers if possible; if not, to take the place unawares. And this he instantly resolved to do. First he must dispose of his negro informants. He must win their friendliness; and he must prevent them from getting to Nombre-de-Dios before him and warn- ing the place. "He was loath," as the narrator says facetiously, "to put the Towne to too much charge 64 The Boy's Drake (which he knew they would wilHngly bestow) in pro- viding beforehand for his entertainment." So he pro- posed to help these negroes to liberty. He would put them ashore on the main that they might join the Cimaroons if they would. If they would not thus gain freedom, but should return to Nombre-de-Dios, such was the length and "troublesomenesse" of the way by land they could not reach the town so soon as he could by water. This done, he hastened his own going "with as much speed and secrecy as possibly he could." The three ships and the prize caravel were to be left at the Pine Islands, and the assault was to be made with the three pinnaces and Rouse's captured shallop. Captain Rouse was to stay behind in charge of the ships. Seventy-three picked men were chosen by Drake to accompany him: fifty-three from his own company and twenty from Captain Rouse's. The arms taken on comprised "six Targets, six Firepikes, twelve Pikes, twenty-four Muskets and Callivers [calivers; small hand guns], sixteen Bowes [with arrows], and six Partizans [partisan; a sort of halberd]"; and there were two drums and two trumpets. With this little force and these arms the intrepid captain was con- sidered "competently furnished to achieve what he intended." The narrator was one of this party, and presumably in Drake's boat, so the story continues that of a participator in all that followed. They set sail on July 23, and in five days without incident they had made the "Island of Cativaas" (Catives), off the mouth of the Rio Francisco, a stream Raid on Nombre-de-Dios 65 entering the sea some twenty-five miles eastward of Nombre-de-Dios. Here they landed "all in the morn- ing betimes/' and Drake carefully drilled the force in military fashion, and prepared them for what was be- fore them with a frank little speech in which he "de- clared the greatnesse of the hope of good things that were there." Off again that afternoon, before sunset, they had come to the river's mouth. Thence Drake led "hard aboard the shore, that we might not be descried of the Watch house " on the point of the bay of Nombre-de- Dios. When within six miles of this point he caused all to "strike a hull" (haul in sails) and cast their "grappers" (grappling irons); so to ride till night. With the fall of darkness they weighed again, and now rowing, close against the shore, silently as possible, they reached the point. And here under protecting highlands they rested "all silent, purposing to attempt the towne in the dawning of the day." Nombre-de-Dios, one of the oldest Spanish settle- ments on the Spanish Main, had been established in 1519, a year after Panama. It was the second Spanish- American town of the name in this quarter, and suc- ceeded the first one, founded in 15 10, near Porto Bello on the isthmus, but early abandoned. The pious name came from the declaration of the founder, Diego di Niquezan, or Nicuesa, a Spanish commander, upon first setting foot on the shore. "Here," said he, "we will found a settlement in the name of God." At its best the second Nombre-de-Dios was a poor place, ill- 66 The Boy's Drake favoured in situation and unwholesome. Although estabhshed to be the northern "emporium" of the commerce of Peru across the isthmus, and of Mexico, then "New Spain," and the central port for the treas- ure and merchandise ships to and from Spain, the permanent inhabitants were always few in number and obscure. The merchants engaged in the trade of the port generally resided in Panama, and only once a year, when the treasure fleet were here to take on their rich cargoes for Spain, was the place busy and ani- mated. Then many came hither from Panama, Car- tagena, and other settlements on the main, merchants, traders, soldiers, adventurers, and a fair was held in the plaza or market-place. With the departure of the fleet the temporary dwellers hastened back to pleas- anter places, "forsaking it because it is so full of dis- ease," and it remained dull and forlorn till the next coming of the galleons. How large it was at this time of Drake's raid is not known. His sailors spoke of it as "bigg" as their home port of Plymouth. Fifteen years after the raid it was described as a "citie of thirtie householders or inhabitants," and only sixty houses, "builded of tim- ber." At Drake's coming the town must have been larger, with more than sixty wooden houses and more people. There was a church with a bell in its tower or roof which was to play a loud part during the raid; a governour's house; the king's treasure-house, this a stout building of lime and stone near the water-side; and perhaps other warehouses or public structures. Raid on Nombre-de-Dios 67 The houses came down within twenty yards of the shore. A street led up from the harbour, and there were cross streets, all coming together in the plaza. The town lay against wooded hills. Though not walled about the settlement had a gate at the south- east end across the road to Panama, some fifty-five miles distant. There was no pier or wharf on the harbour front and vessels had to unload by carriers. Says one describing the place fifteen years after, in 1587 (he was Baptista Antonio, surveyor for the king on the Spanish Main, and Hakluyt prints his reports): "Those laboring men which doe use the unlade [em- ployed to unload] those merchandize are all the whole day wading in the water up to their armepits to bring the packs of cloth and other merchandises aland; for there is no landing place where there can come any to land any goods close to the shore, so this wading and the parching of the Sun is the cause why so many do die of a burning fever." The harbour was a wretched one, a "sandy Bay hard by the sea," shallow, and open to the prevailing northerly and easterly gales. On either side before the town lay a ledge of rocks. Such was this "granary of the West Indies wherein the golden harvest" was "hoarded up till it could be conveyed to Spain," before which Drake's assaulting party of seventy-three Englishmen lay silently in their four boats under the highland at the harbour's entrance waiting for daylight to pounce upon it. As thus they lay through the dreary night Drake, with "some of his best men" (among whom we may 68 The Boy's Drake be sure was classed the narrator), observed that num- bers of the force were growing uneasy with talk about the "greatnesse of the town" and what its "strength might be, especially by the report of the Negroes," taken at the Pine Islands, as to its re-enforcement from Panama — ^with Spanish infantry then reported to be the finest in the world. Thereupon he determined to "put these conceits out of their heads'* by a ruse, a veritable stroke of genius. Taking "the opportunity of the rising of the Moone that night," he cleverly led them to believe that it was the day dawning, and or- dered the advance. Thus they were brought to action "a large hour" earher than purposed, or "by three of the clocke after midnight." As they were rapidly though very quietly rowing up to the town they came upon a Spanish wine-ship, of sixty tons, bringing Canary wines, which had evi- dently only lately arrived in the bay, for she had not yet "furld her sprit-sayle." In the light of the late- rising moon they were espied from her deck, and doubt- less excited suspicion — as four stout pinnaces, well manned, and "rowing with many Oares," coming in from the sea in the night-time, naturally would, since her "Gundeloe" (gondola, or ship's boat), was seen to hurry off townward, obviously to give alarm. But this move Drake cleverly checked. "Our Captaine perceiving it, cut betwixt her and the Towne, forcing her to go th' other side of the Bay: whereby we landed without impeachment." The surprise was complete. At the point of land- Raid on Nombre-de-Dios 69 ing, on the quayless shore, "not past twenty yards from the Houses," and directly under a battery, only one lonely gunner was encountered, and he was prob- ably asleep when they approached. Before he could be taken the gunner fled, and awoke and alarmed the town, as the assailants soon "perceived, not only by the noyse and cryes of the people, but by the Bell [on the church] ringing out, and Drums running up and down the Towne.'* The first thought of alarmer and alarmed was that the enemy were the expected dreaded Cimaroons, but they were soon to find out their mistake. Meanwhile Drake's force were dismantling the guns of the battery: "six great Pieces of brasse Ordnance mounted upon their Carriages, some Demy, some whole Culvering [culverins]." This done — now the story con- tinues in the narrator's words: "Our Captaine, according to the directions which he had given over night to such as he had made choyce of for the purpose, left twelve to keep the Pinnaces, that we might be sure of a safe retreit if the worst befell. And having made sure worke of the Platforme [bat- tery] before he would enter the Towne, he thought best first to view the Mount [hill] on the East side of the Towne, where, he was informed by sundry intelli- gencies [when here or hereabouts] the yeare before, they had an intent to plant Ordnance [guns], which might scower round about the Towne. Therefore leaving one halfe of his company to make a stand at the foot of the mount, he marched up presently unto yo The Boy's Drake the top of it, with all speed. . . . There we found no peece of Ordnance, but onely a very fit place prepared for such use, and therefore we left it without any of our men, and with all celerity returned down the Mount." Now the way was clear for business. "Then our Captaine appointed his brother [Captain John Drake], with John Oxnam [John Oxenham, a brave and de- voted right hand of Drake], and sixteene others to goe about behind the Kings treasure-house and enter neere the Easter [eastern] end of the market-place: himselfe with the rest would passe up the broad street into the market-place with sound of Drum and Trumpet. "The Firepikes, divided halfe to the one halfe to the other company, served no lesse for fright to the Enemy then [than] light of our Men, who by this meanes might discerne every place very well as if it were neere day, whereas the Inhabitants stood amazed at so strange a sight, marvelling what the matter might be; and imag- ining, by reason of our Drums and Trumpets sounding in so sundry places, that we had beene a farre greater number then [than] we were. "Yet by meanes of the Souldiers which were in the Towne [maybe of the force from Panama], and by reason of the time which we spent in marching up and downe the Mount, the Souldiers and the Inhabitants had put themselves in Armes, and brought their Com- panies in some order, at the South-east end of the Market-place neere the Govenours House, and not farre from the Gate of the Towne, which is onely one, leading towards Panama; having (as it seemes) gath- Raid on Nombre-de-Dios 71 ered themselves thither either that in the Govenours sight they might shew their Valour, if it might prevaile, or else that by the Gate they might best take their Vale and escape readiest. And to make a shew of farre greater numbers of shot, or else of a custome they had by the like device to terrifie the Symerons [Cima- roons], they had hung Lines with Matches [torches] lighted, overthwart the Wester-end [western end] of the Market-place, betweene the Church and the Crosse, as though there had beene in a readinesse some com- pany of shot, whereas indeed there was not past two or three that taught these Lines to dance, till they themselves ran away, as soone as they perceived they were discovered. "But the Souldiers and such as were joyned with them, presented us with a jolly hot volley of shot, beat- ing full upon the egresse of that Street in which we marched, and levelling very low so as the Bullets oft- times grazed on the Sand. We stood not to answer them in like tearmes; but having discharged our first volley of shot, and feathered them with our ar- rowes (which our Captaine had caused to be made of purpose in England, not great sheafe arrowes, but fine roving shafts, very carefully reserved for the ser- vice) we came to the push of Pike, so that our fire- pikes being well armed and made of purpose, did us very great service. For our men with their Pikes and short weapons in short time tooke such order among these Gallants, some using the but-end of their Peeces in stead of other weapons, that partly by reason of our 72 The Boy's Drake arrowes, which did us these notable service, partly by occasion of this strange and sudden closing with them, in this manner unlooked for, and the rather for that at the very instant our Captains brother with the other Company with their fire-pikes, entred the market-place by the Easter-street [eastern]: they casting downe their weapons, fled all out of the Towne by the gate afore- said, which had been built for a barre to keepe out of the Towne the Symerons [Cimaroons], who had often assailed it, but now served for a gap for the Spaniards to fly at/' The enemy thus routed and return having been made to the plaza: '*We made our stand neer the midst of the market place where a tree groweth hard by the crosse; whence our Captaine sent some of our men to stay [stop] the ringing of the alarme Bell, which had continued all this while: but the Church being very strongly built and fast shut, they could not without firing (which the Captaine forbad) get into the steeple where the Bell hung." The town now in their possession, the next move was for the treasure. "In the mean time our Captaine having taken [captured] two or three Spaniards in their flight, commanded them to shew them [the English] the Governours house, where he understood was the ordinary place of unlading the Moyles [mules] of all the treasure which came from Panamah by the Kings ap- pointment: Although the silver onely was kept there: the gold, pearle, and jewels (being there once entred by the Kings Officer) was carried from thence to the Raid on Nombre-de-Dios 73 Kings treasure house not farre off, being a house very strongly built of lime and stone, for the safe keeping thereof. "At our comming to the Governours house, we found the great doore (where the Moyles do usually unlade) even then opened; a Candle lighted upon the top of the stayers [stairs]; and a faire Gennet [genet, a small Spanish horse] ready sadled, either for the Governour himselfe or some other of his house-hold to carry it after him. By meanes of this light we saw a huge heape of Silver in that nether roome: being a pile of bars of silver, of as (neere as we could guesse) seventy foot in length, of ten foot in breadth, and twelve foot in height, piled up against the wall, each barre was between thirty five and forty pound in weight. At sight hereof our Captaine commanded straightly that none of us should touch a barre of silver, but stand upon our weapons, because the Towne was full of people, and there was in the Kings treasure house near the waters side, more gold and jewels then [than] all our four Pinnaces could carry, which we would presently set some in hand to break open, notwithstanding the Spaniards reports of the strength of it." At this moment, however, startling word was re- ceived from the water-side: *'We were no sooner returned to our strength [their stand in the middle of the market-place], but there was a report brought by some of our men that our Pinnaces were in danger to be taken, and that if we our selves got not aboord be- fore day we should be opprest with multitudes both of 74 The Boy's Drake Souldiers and townes people. This report had his [its] ground from one Diego 2i Negro, who in the time of the first conflict came and called to our Pinnaces to know whether they were Captain Drakes? and upon an- swer received, continued intreating to be taken aboard (though he had first three or foure shot made at him) untill at length they fetch him, and learned by him that not past eight days before our arrivall the King had sent thither some hundred and fifty Souldiers to guard the Town against the Symerons [Cimaroons], and the Towne at this time was full of people besides : which [was] all the rather believed because it agreed with the report of the Negroes which we tooke before at the Isle of Pinos : and therefore our Captaine sent his brother and John Oxnam [Oxenham] to under- stand the truth thereof. They found our men which we left in our Pinnaces much frighted by reason that they saw great Troopes and Companies running up and downe, with matches light [torches], some with other weapons, crying Que gente? que gente? [What people 1 or Who are you 1:\ which having not been at the first conflict but cumming from the utter ends of the Towne, being at least as bigge as Plimouth, came many times neere us, and understanding that we were English, dis- charged their Peeces and ran away." Close upon this disconcerting matter there came an- other: "Presently after this a mighty shower of raine, with a terrible storme of thunder and lightning, fell, which powred downe so vehemently (as it usually doth in those Countries) that before we could recover the Raid on Nombre-de-Dios 75 shelter of a certaine shade or pent-house [portico] at the Wester [western] end of the Kings treasure-house, which seemeth to have been built there of purpose to avoid Sunne or Raine, some of our bow-springs were wet, and some of our match and powder hurt." It was all most disheartening: and "divers" of the men in their sorry plight, drenched and miserable, began "harping on the reports lately brought us," and "muttering of the Forces of the Towne." This roused the captain to a blaze of indignation, and he told them spiritedly "that he had brought them to the mouth of the treasure of the World: if they would want it, they might henceforth blame no body but themselves." Then the moment that the storm "began to asswage of his [its] fury, which was a long halfe houre, willing to give his Men no longer leasure to demurre of those doubts, nor yet allow the Enemy farther respite to gather themselves together, he stept forward, command- ing his Brother, with John Oxham [Oxenham] and the Company appointed them, to breake the Kings Treasure-house: the rest to follow him, to keep the strength of the market place, till they had despatched the businesse for which they came." And then something alarming happened: "But as he stept forward his strength and sight and speech failed him, and he began to faint for want of blood, which, as then we perceived, had in great quantity issued upon the Sand, out of a wound received in his legg in the first incounter," when he was leading his detachment up the main street. He had kept the hurt to himself all 76 The Boy's Drake this time: "Whereby though he felt some paine, yet (for that he perceived divers of the Company, having aheady gotten many good things, to be very ready to take all occasion of winding themselves out of that con- ceited danger) would he not have it knowne to any, till this his fainting, against his will, bewrayed [betrayed] it, the blood having first filled the very prints which our foot-steps made, to the great dismay of all our Company, who thought it not credible that one man should be able to spare so much blood and live." After giving him "somewhat to drinke whereby he recovered himselfe," and having bound his scarf about the wounded leg to stop the flow of blood, all, "even they which were willingest to have adventured most for so faire a booty," united in entreaty to him "to be content to goe with them aboard" the pinnaces, "there to have his wound searched and drest." That done, if he thought good, they might return ashore again. To this, however, he could not be persuaded. He knew that if the game were left at this stage it was most unlikely that they could return again "to recover the state in which they now were"; and he declared that "it were more honourable for himselfe to jeopard his life for so great a benefit then [than] to leave off so high an enterprize unperformed." Persuasion failing, as a last resort, they "joyned altogether, and with force mingled with faire intreaty, they bare him aboard his Pinnace, and so abandoned a rich spoyle for the pres- ent onely to preserve their Captaines life." They rea- soned wisely that, "while they enjoyed his presence and Raid on Nombre-de-DIos 77 had him to command them, they might recover wealth sufficient; but if once they lost him they should hardly be able to recover home, no not v^ith that which they had gotten already." It was only daybreak when they embarked and put off from the town. Besides their captain they had many men wounded. Only one of the force had been killed: a trumpeter who fell as he was sounding his trumpet. As they passed out the harbour they seized the wine-ship lying there "without great resistance," to appropriate her cargo of canary, "for the more comfort" of their wounded. Before they were quite free of the haven, a shot was sent after them from one of the guns that the soldiers had managed to bring up to the dismantled battery, but it "hindered them not" from carrying off their prize. So ended the audacious raid of seventy-four men upon a fair-sized town. Nombre-de-Dios had been taken successfully: but the "mouth of the treasure of the World " still remained tight shut. IX ATTEMPTING CARTAGENA THE Spaniards could not believe that Drake's raid- ing company were so small as they actually were. The Spanish account of the Nombre-de-Dios affair doubled the number. This account was inaccu- rate in some other respects; it was, however, graphic, and of interest as well as of some value as picturing the assault from the town's point of view, although it gave the impression that Drake was repulsed. Thus it ran, short and crisp in the translation: "There was a certain English man named Francis Drake, who having intelligence how the towne of Nombre de Dios in Nueva Espanna, had but small store of people remaining there, came on a night, and entred the Port with foure Pinnesses, and landed about 150 men, & leaving 70 men with a Trumpet in a Fort which was there, with the other 80 he entred the towne, without doing any harme, till he came to the market place, and there discharged his calivers, & sounded a trumpet very loud, and the other which he had left in the Fort answred him after the same maner, with the discharging their calivers, and sounding their trumpets: 78 Attempting Cartagena 79 the people hereupon not thinking of any such matter, were put in great feare, and waking out of their sleepe fled all into the mountaines, inquiring one of another what the matter should be, remaming as men amazed, not knowing what that uprore was which happened so suddenly in the towne. But 14 or 15 of them joyning together with their harquebuzes, went to the market place to know what they were that were in the towne, and in a corner of the market place they did discover the Englishmen, and seeing them to be but fewe, dis- charged their calivers at those Englishmen: their fort- une was such that they killed the Trumpetter, and shot one of the principall men thorow [through] the legg, who seeing himselfe hurt, retyred to the Fort, where the rest of their company was left: they which were in the Fort sounded their Trumpet, and seeing that they in the towne did not answere them, and hearing the calivers, thought that all they in the towne had bene slaine, and thereupon fled to their Pinnesses: the English captaine comming to the Fort, and not finding his men which he left there, he and his were in so great feare, that leaving their furniture behind them, and putting off their hose, they swamme, and waded all to their Pin- nesses, and so went with their ships againe out of the Port." This account was written by a Portuguese, one Lo- pez Vaz, who, "with the discourse about him," which covered as inaccurately Drake's other exploits on this voyage, "was taken at the River of Plate by the ships sent forth by the Right Honourable the Earle of Cum- 8o The Boy's Drake berland in the yeere 1586," as Hakluyt informs us in his preface to the account which he first pubhshed in his Principal Navigations. Upon their withdrawal with their wounded captain, the raiders found refuge on a neighbouring island; the Isle of Bastimentos, or "Isle of Victuales," lying about a league to the westward of Nombre-de-Dios, where were farms from which the town was supplied. Here they tarried through the next two days, caring for their wounded; refreshing themselves **in the goodly Gar- dens" which were found "abounding with great store of all dainty Roots and Fruits, besides great plenty of Poultery and other Fowles not less strange then [than] deHcate"; and making free use of the wines in their prize-ship which they had brought along with them. And here shortly came to them a spy from Nombre- de-Dios. He was a very gentleman-like spy, quite an artful dissembler, lavish of compliment for Drake's daring performance, and full of pretension that his visit was most friendly — only politely to ask a few harmless questions. Drake as artfully rose to the occasion. Recognising at once this polished Spanish soldier's true colours, he received him none the less graciously. His elaborate courtesy was met with an elaborate suavity. In the colloquy that ensued as lofty a note was struck and maintained by the Englishman as by the Spaniard. The narrator's account ends like a passage from the immortal Don Quixote of Cervantes. "Shortly upon our first arrival in this Hand, the Governour and the rest of his assistants in the Towne Attempting Cartagena 8i (as we afterwards understood) sent unto our Captaine a proper Gentleman of meane [small] stature, good complexion, and faire spoken, a principall Souldier of the late sent Garrison, to view in what state we were. At his comming he protested he came to us of meere good will, for that we had attempted so great and incredible a matter with so few men : and that at first they feared that we had been French, at whose hands they knew they should find no mercy: but after they perceived by our Arrowes that we were English men their feares were the lesse, for that they knew that though we tooke the Treasure of the place, yet we would not use cruelty tow- ards their persons. But albeit this his affection gave him cause enough to come aboard such whose vertues he so honoured, yet the Governour also had [not] only consented to his comming, but directly sent him, upon occasion that divers of the Towne affirmed (said he) that they knew our Captaine, who the last two yeares had beene often on their Coast, and had always used their persons very well. And therefore desired to know, first, whether our Captaine were the same Cap- taine Drake or no .? and next, because many of their men were wounded with our Arrowes, whether they were poysoned or no ? And how their wounds might best be cured .? Lastly, what victuals we wanted or other necessaries .? Of which the Governour promised by him to supply and furnish us as largely as he durst. "Our Captaine although he thought the Souldier but a Spy: yet used him very courteously, and answered him to his Governours demands. That he was the 82 The Boy's Drake same Drake whom they meant: it was never his man" ner to poyson his Arrowes: they might cure their wounds by ordinary Chyrurgery [surgery]: as for wants he knew the Hand of Bastimentos had sufficient, and could furnish him if he hsted: but he wanted nothing but some of that special commodity [the treasure] which that Countrey yeelded, to content himselfe and his Company. And therefore he advised the Gover- nour to hold open his eyes, for before he departed, if God lent him life and leave, he meant to reape some of their Harvest which they get out of the Earth and send into Spaine to trouble all the Earth. "To this answer unlooked for, this Gentleman re- plyed : If he might without offence move such a ques- tion, what should then be the cause of our departing from that Towne at this time, where was above three hundred and fifty Tun of silver ready for the Fleet, and much more Gold in value, resting in Iron Chests in the King's Treasure-house ? But when our Captaine had shewed him the true cause of his unwilling retreat aboard [Drake's own wound probably]: he acknowl- edged that we had no less reason in departing then [than] courage in attempting: and no doubt did easily see that it was not for the Towne to seek revenge of us by manning forth such Frigates or other vessels as they had: but better to content themselves and provide for their own defence. "Thus with great favour and courteous entertain- ment, besides such gifts from our Captaine as most contented him: after dinner he was in such sort dis- Attempting Cartagena 83 missed, to make report of that he had seen, that he protested he was never so much honoured of any in his Hfe." After the gentleman-like spy's departure the negro, Diego, who had escaped to the English during the raid and had been taken into Drake's service, was examined more fully as to his knowledge of affairs on the main. He confirmed the spy's report of the quantity of gold and silver at Nombre-de-Dios. He told especially how the band might have gold and silver in plenty if they would engage with the Cimaroons. Though he had betrayed these people "divers times," not voluntarily but at the behest of his master, and they would kill him if they caught him, yet if Drake would protect him he would bring the captain to them. He ''durst advent- ure his life" in such an action because, as he said, "he knew our Captaines name was most precious and highly honoured of them"; a touch of flattery that was effective, for his report, says the narrative, "ministred occasion for further consultation." Before seeking the Cimaroons, however, Drake deter- mined to attempt another raid or two on the coast with his own force. The taking of Nombre-de-Dios had been so easy that he would try for bigger game without allies. While the "mouth of the treasure of the World" could not yet be pried open, rich plunder elsewhere lay ready to a bold hand. Cartagena, the chief city of the main, might be as easily taken, and with profit. A raid upon the treasure-carriers between Panama and Nombre-de-Dios might be timely. Both 84 The Boy's Drake these projects were included in the plan of campaign which our captain is now found perfecting with all the alertness of a well man. We hear no more of his wound. It either healed speedily, or he rose superior to the hurt. At the outset he disclosed to his associates, appar- ently, only a part of the new plan — the interception of the treasure-carriers. To this end he would have a closer reconnoissance than he had been able to make on his voyage the year before, of the water route by which the treasure was transported in part across the isthmus when the highway was unsafe by reason of heavy rains or raids of the Cimaroons. Accordingly, he detailed his brother, Captain John Drake, and Ellis Hixom, with two of the pinnaces and their com- plement of men, to go and "search about the river Chagro" [Chagres], and examine the situation about "the little town called Venta Cruz." In his previous voyage Drake had learned how this river, trending southward across the isthmus, was navigable from the sea to Venta Cruz, within eighteen miles of Panama, and how at Venta Cruz when the part-water way in- stead of the all-land way was to be followed, the treas- ure was shipped from the mule-trains, bringing it from Panama, to "frigates," or little vessels built for sails and oars, which conveyed it the rest of the way to Nombre-de-Dios. The river was seen to ebb and flow, "not farre into the land," and it had been found that three days' rowing was required to carry a pinnace from the river's mouth at the sea to Venta Cruz, while the Attempting Cartagena 85 return occupied only one day and a night. It is sup- posed that Drake particularly desired to learn whether the river was in condition at this season for such craft as his pinnaces. Captains John Drake and Hixom were to return with their report to the rendezvous at the Pine Islands. These arrangements completed, on the morning of the third day all departed from the friendly "Isle of Victuals," Captains John Drake and Hixon, with the two pinnaces assigned them, sailing westward, Drake and the rest of the company in the other two pinnaces taking a course direct for the Pine Islands. The latter's voyage was slow, and it was not till toward night of the second day out that the rendez- vous was reached. Captain Rouse was found with the ships as he had been left. He heard the report of the raid and its outcome with disfavour and uneasiness, ap- parently. He expressed doubts of their "safe continu- ance" upon the coast, they being now discovered, and declared his willingness to withdraw from the part- nership and go his own way. Drake was "no lesse wil- ling to dismisse him." Accordingly the partnership was dissolved, and five or six days later, upon the re- turn of the Chagres River expedition, on which pre- sumably were some of his men, Captain Rouse took his leave. And so he passes out of this story. The Chagres River reconnoissance was evidently satisfactory, for the narrative records that the two mas- ters brought "such advertisements [information] as they were sent for." Their report, however, was re- 86 The Boy's Drake served for future consideration, for now Drake gave the word for the assault upon Cartagena. In this affair the whole fleet were employed: the two ships and the three pinnaces. The passage across to the main and along the coast was slow, occupying some six days, because of repeated calms. But all this time every temptation to go for prizes, as Spanish craft were sighted, was sternly resisted, for discovery must be avoided. So Cartagena was stealthily approached, and on the evening of August 13 the two ships came quietly to anchor outside the harbour, "between the Islands of Charesha and Saint Barnards" [San Barnardo], while Drake himself led the three pinnaces about the latter island into the haven. Then as now Cartagena harbour was one of the best on this coast. The fair town lay on its island, a mile and a half back from the broader of the two harbour entrances, the "Great Mouth" "where all the ships do enter,'* and three miles eastward of the lesser entrance, or "Little Mouth." Baptista Antonio's description of it in 1587, in that report of his survey along the main from which we quoted in the description of Nombre- de-Dios, may have pictured it much as it appeared at the time of this raid. "It hath about 450 dwellers therein. There are very fair buildings therein; as con- cerning their houses, they are made of stone, and there are three Monasteries of which two of them are of Friars which are within the city, . . . and the other which standeth without the city about thirty paces off. Attempting Cartagena 87 . . . This city hath great trade out of Spain, and out of the new kingdom of Grenada, . . . from Peru and from all the coast of this firm land [the Main], and of the fishing of the pearls of Rio de la Hacha. . . . This city hath a very good harbour, and sufficient to receive great store of ships: this said harbour hath tw^o en- trances in, the one of them lyeth half a league from the city, where all the ships do enter into the said harbour; the mouth of entering in of the harbour is 1400 yards or paces in breadth, and very deep water. The other entering in, which is called La Boca Chica, or Little Mouth, lyeth a league beyond this place to the west- ward." The city was better fortified than Nombre- de-Dios and the lesser settlements at this time of Drake's coming. "At the very entry" of the haven with the pinnaces, Drake came upon a large Spanish "frigate" lying at anchor. Challenging her, only a single mariner was found in charge and he an "old Man." To Drake's demand of him where were the rest of the ship's com- pany, he said they had gone ashore in their "gunda- loe" [gondola]. Doubtless the ship would have been taken instanter had not the garrulous old fellow vol- unteered other information of a more exciting nature, which necessitated a change of programme. He told how, two hours before night, there had passed by the frigate "a Pinnace with Sayle and Oares, as fast as ever they could row"; how those aboard the pinnace had called to the frigate's men, "whether there had not beene any English or Frenchmen there lately"; how, 88 The Boy's Drake *'upon answer that there had been none, they bid them [the frigate's men] to looke to themselves"; how, within an hour after the pinnace was come to the "utter- side of Cartagene there were many great Peeces shot off"; and how one of the frigate's men "going to the top to descry what might be the cause. Espied over the land [a narrow neck shutting the harbour from the sea] divers Frigates and small shipping bringing themselves within the Castle." This tale Drake credited, for he had himself heard the report of guns when yet at sea. And thus he per- ceived that with all their care their approach had been discovered. Still the daring man was not to be thwarted with- out a strike. Further examination of the free-tongued mariner disclosed that there lay within the next point, "a great Ship of Sivell [Seville] which had here dis- charged her lading, and rid now with her yards acrosse, being bound the next morning for Saint Domingo.'^ This was enough for Drake. She must be tackled without a moment's delay. So, taking the old man into his own pinnace "to verifie that which he had in- formed," all three pinnaces were off after her. She was found as the ancient mariner had stated. As they neared her they were hailed from her deck and asked, "Whence our Shallops were." The reply was impu- dently correct: they were "from Nombre-de-Dios." The Spaniards shouted back in derision: "straight way they railed and reviled," are the narrator's words. Un- heeding these contemptuous cries, Drake brought his Attempting Cartagena 89 tiny fleet into battle array. One pinnace advanced "on the starboord bough [bow], the other on the star- boord quarter, and the Captaines in the midship on the starboord side." Forthwith the big ship was boarded. Some difficulty was met in this operation by reason of her height. But all were soon upon the decks. Then the action became lively. "We threw down the gates and spardecks to prevent the Spaniards from annoying us with their close fights"; and thus at the first on- slaught the ship was possessed. Her crew "stowed themselves all in the hold with their weapons, except two or three yonkers [younger sailors] who were found afore the beetes [bitts, upright pieces of timber to which cables were fastened]." Next her cables were cut, and the three pinnaces towed her out into the sound, "right afore the Towne without danger of their [the town's] great guns." In the meantime the town had been informed of these goings on by the watch, and had taken "th' alarme." The public bells were set a-ringing; "about thirty Peeces of great Ordnance" were shot off"; all of the available men were brought in readiness to resist an assault. And now "horse and foot came down to the very point of the Wood," on the neck, "and dis- charged their Calivers to impeach us if they might in going forth." But these efixjrts were ineffective. Drake's squadron, with the prizes, lay unmolested at their anchorage through that night. The next morning two more prizes were taken. These were two frigates in which were two passengers "who called 90 The Boy's Drake themselves the King's Scrlvanors [notaries], the one of Carthagene, th' other of Veragua with seven Mariners and two Negroes." The notaries had been in Nombre- de-Dios at the time of the raid and were now bound for Cartagena, with highly important " double [duplicate] Letters of Advice" to the Cartagenians. They were "to certifie them that Captaine Drake had heene at Nomhre de Dtos, had taken it, and had it not heene that He was hurt with some blessed shot, by all likelihood he had sackt it: he was yet still upon the Coast: they should therefore carefully prepare for him.^* With this information Drake concluded to postpone his attack upon the city to a more favourable time. He would, instead, dissemble. Although he was now discovered "upon two of the chiefest places of all the Coast," he had no thought of leaving it till he had com- pleted his voyage with the accomplishment of all he had set out for. But he would seemingly retire, and give the enemy the impression that his operations were ended, at least for the present. Accordingly, when he had "brought all his Fleet together," he chivalrously liberated the notaries, and, "content to doe them all favours," set them with "all their companies" ashore. Then the jfleet bore away to the San Barnardo Islands, some nine miles off the city, southward, Here they came again to anchor while Drake con- sidered his next move. X ROAMING OFF THE SPANISH MAIN AT the San Barnardo Islands "great store of fish" was found, and fishing was the principal occu- pation of Drake's men, while they awaited the word for the next adventure. But before that word was given Drake conceived and secretly directed an astonishing performance, which, had his hand in it been discovered, would have incited his men to mutiny. This was nothing less than the deliberate scuttling of one of the two ships, the " Swan," as if by an acci- dent. Drake realised that he must prepare for a long stay about this coast, probably through the winter, and it was necessary to reduce the squadron. The work that he was now planning was to be done with the pinnaces, and with the two ships to maintain It would be difficult to man sufficiently the smaller craft for cruises of any length. Relieved of the "Swan," the greater part of the company could be employed in the pinnaces. The "Pascha" was large enough to take on the stores of the "Swan," and she could be easily hidden and left with a small guard while the pinnaces were off on their enterprises. So the "Swan" 91 92 The Boy's Drake must be got out of the way. It must have caused Drake some heart-burnings to pronounce sentence upon this gallant ship which had done him such loyal service. It was like condemning to death a steadfast old friend. But it had to be done. And how artfully it was done and the sentence was executed the nar- rator tells in one of his most dramatic passages. "But knowing the affection of his Company, how loath they were to leave either of their Ships, being both so good Saylers, and so well furnished: he pur- posed in himselfe by some Policy, to make them most willing to effect that he intended. And therefore sent for one Thomas Moone (who was Carpenter in the Swanne) and taking him into his Cabin, chargeth him to conceale for a time a piece of service which he must in any case consent to doe aboord his owne Ship: that was, in the middle of the second Watch, to goe down secretly into the Well of the Ship, and with a great spike-gimlet to boare three hoales as neere the Keele as he could, and lay something against it that the force of the Water entring might make no great noyse, nor be discovered by boyling up. Thomas Moone at the hearing hereof being utterly dismayed, desired to know what cause there might be to move him to sincke so good a Barke of his own, new, and strong, and that by his means, who had beene in two so rich and gainfull Voyages in her with himselfe here- tofore: If his Brother, the Master, and the rest of the Company should know of such his fact [? act], he thought verily they would kill him. But when our Roaming Off the Spanish Main 93 Captaine had imparted to him his causes, and had perswaded him with promise that it should not be knowne, till all of them should be glad of it: he un- dertook it, and did it accordingly. "The next morning [August 15] our Captaine took his Pinnace very early, purposing to goe a fishing (for that there is very great store in all the Coast) and fall- ing a board the Swanne, calleth for his Brother to goe with him, who rising suddenly, answered that he would follow presently, or if it would please him to stay a very little, he would attend him. Our Captaine per- ceiving the feat wrought [Moone's job done], would not hasten him, but in rowing away demanded of them [the ship's crew] why their Barke was so deepe I as making no account of it: but by occasion of this demand his Brother sent one downe to the Steward to know whether there were any water in the ship .? or what other cause might be ? The Steward hastily stepping downe at his usuall skuttle, was wet up to the waste, and shifting with more haste to come up againe as if the water had followed him, cryed out that the Ship was full of water. "There was no need to hasten the Company, some to Pumpe, others to search for the Leake, which the Captaine of the Barke seeing they did on all hands very willingly, he followed his Brother and certified him of the strange chance befel them that night; that whereas they had not Pumpt twice in six weekes be- fore, now they had six foote water in hold: therefore he desireth leave from attending him in fishing, to in- 94 The Boy's Drake tend [direct] the search and remedy of the leake: and when our Captaine with his Company profered to go to help them, he answered they had men enough aboard, and prayed him to continue his fishing, that they might have some part of it for their dinner. Thus returning, he found his Company had taken great paines, but had freed the water very Httle; yet such was their love to the Barke (as our Captaine well knew) that they ceased not, but to the utmost of their strength laboured all that they might till three in the afternoone, by which time the Company, perceiving that, though they had beene relieved by our Captaine himselfe and many of his Company, yet they were not able to free above a foot and a halfe of water, and could have no likehhood of finding the Leake, had now a lesse Hking of her then [than] before, and greater content to hear of some meanes for remedy: whereupon our Captaine consulting with them what they thought best to be done: found that they had more desire to have all as he thought fit, then [than] judgement to conceive any meanes of remedy. "And therefore he propounded, that himselfe would go into the Pinnance till he could provide some hand- some Frigate [that is, capture some Spanish ship], and that his Brother should be Captaine in the Admirall [the Pascha], and the Master should also be there placed with him, instead of this [the sinking "Swan"]: which seeing they could not save, he would have fired [burned], that the Enemy might never recover her: but first all the Pinnaces should be brought aboard Roaming Off the Spanish Main 95 [alongside] her, that every one might take out of her whatsoever they lackt or Hked. This, though the com- pany at first marveiled at, yet presently it was put in execution and performed that night." And so, "our Captaine had his desire, and men enough for his Pinnaces/' After this performance it is supposed that Drake abandoned his prizes which had meanwhile also been relieved of their valuables. The word to move was given the very next morning. First, some fit place was to be sought in the "sound of Dorrienne" (Darien), where the "Pascha" could be safely left at anchor, "not discoverable by the Enemy,'* who thereby might imagine the marauders quite de- parted from the coast. Then the pinnaces should start out: Drake, with two of them to penetrate the Rio Grande, or Magdalena, River, opening from the sea north-eastward of Cartagena; his brother, Captain John, with the other one to seek out the Cimaroons. So presently all set sail, and within five days, having proceeded cautiously, the new lair was reached. Just where in the Gulf of Darien this place was cannot be definitely fixed. All that the narrator tells us is that it was "a fit and convenient road [haven] out of all trade." Here some fifteen happy days were spent in alternate work and play, the company, meanwhile, keeping themselves close, that "the bruit" (noise or news) of their still being upon the coast might cease. It must indeed have been a joyous fortnight, under the lead of the shrewd captain who evidently well knew, with the old adage, that "all work and no play 96 The Boy's Drake makes Jack a dull boy." For "besides such ordinary workes as our Captaine every Moneth did usually inure us to, about trimming and fitting of his Pinnaces for theirbetter sailing and rowing: he caused us to rid [clear] a large plot of ground both of Trees and Brakes, and to build us Houses sufficient for all our lodging, and one especially for all our publique meetings, wherein the Negro [Diego] which fled to us before, did us good service, as being well acquainted with the Countrey and their meanes of Building. Our Archers made themselves Butts [marks or targets] to shoot at, and wanted not a Fletcher [arrow-maker] to keepe our Bowes and Arrowes in order. The rest of the Com- pany, every one as he Hked best, made his disport at Bowles, Quoits, Keiles [kails or kayles], &c. For our Captaine allowed one halfe of their Company to passe their time thus, every other day interchangeably, the other halfe being enjoyned to the necessary workes about our Ship and Pinnaces, and the providing of fresh Victuals, Fish, Fowle, Hogs, Deere, Conies, &c., whereof there is great plenty. Here our Smiths set up their Forge, as they used, being furnished out of Eng- land [brought out] with Anvil, Iron, Coales, and all manner of necessaries, which stood us in great stead." At the end of the fifteen days Drake started off with the two pinnaces for his cruise into the Magdalena, leaving brother John in charge of the lair "to keepe all things in order," later to go with the other pinnace on his mission to the Cimaroons. The narrator was of Drake's party so that we have the account at first hand Roaming Off the Spanish Main 97 of this adventure, which was full of incident, and pros- perous. One of its objects, if not the principal one, was to get a further supply of provisions for the win- ter's stock. On the Magdalena lay the fruitful province of Nueva Reyna, from which at that time the victual- ling yards of Cartagena were supplied and outgoing ships provisioned. It had rich pasture lands where herds of wild cattle were raised for meat for the market. Also in this district there was at that time a considera- ble trade in sugar, precious metals, and pearls, which doubtless added to its attractiveness to Drake. His course was taken from the Gulf of Darien east- ward well out to sea, so that Cartagena was passed out of sight, and the mouths of the river were ap- proached unobserved by any of the "enemy." When within about two leagues, or six miles, west of the openings, a landing was made on the main at a point where there was "great store of cattle." At the shore some Indian cow-herds were met, who asked "in friendly sort," and in broken Spanish, what the party would have ? When they were made to understand that the only desire was fresh victuals in traffic, they good-naturedly provided all that was wanted. And when Drake, as the narrator notes, "according to his custome contented them for their paines with such things as they account greatly of," they promised that his men should have of them at any time what they wanted. The dexterity with which these cow-herds caught the wild creatures won the Englishman's admi- ration. "They tooke such Cattle for us as we needed gS The Boy's Drake with ease, and so readily as if they had a speciall com- mandment over them, whereas they [the steers] would not abide us to come neere them." The pinnaces were laden with the fresh meat, and then were off again. Then in mid-afternoon of the same day the party entered the river, going in by the "westermost" of the two mouths, called "Boca Chica." The current was so strong that, although they rowed "from three a clocke to darke night" they were able to make no more than two leagues, six miles, up the stream. They moored the pinnaces to a tree for that night, and disposed themselves for rest. But soon trouble came upon them, first with an awful thunder-storm, then with a visitation of strange insects — strange to them — with a spiteful "bite": "such an innumerable multitude of a kind of flies of that Country called Muskitos (like our Gnats) which bite so spitefully that we could not rest all that night, nor finde meanes to defend our selves from them, by reason of the heate of the Country: the best remedy we then found against them was the juyce of Lymons." At dawn they left this place and renewed the labo- rious voyage up-stream. Rowing in the eddy and, where the eddy failed, hauling the boats up by the trees, in five hours of hot rowing and hauling they had advanced only five leagues, fifteen miles. Thus far no other craft had been met or sighted. But now a canoe was espied in which were two Indians fishing in the river. Neither party, however, spoke. The Englishmen passed si- lently lest their nationality be discovered, the Indians Roaming Off the Spanish Main 99 uttered no word presumably taking the strangers to be Spaniards. Still pushing on, within another hour "certain houses" were dimly discovered on the opposite side of the river, which here was so broad "that a man could scarcely be discerned from side to side." It was evident that the pinnaces were seen from these houses, for smoke was observed to rise beside them as from a signal-fire. This Drake took for a signal to turn toward it, and did so. When his pinnaces were half-way across, a Spaniard was seen on the shore, waving a welcome "with his hat and his long, hanging sleeves," he evidently thinking the oncomers to be his countrymen. But as they drew nearer and he dis- covered that they were strangers "he tooke [to] his heels, & fled from his houses." Reaching the shore Drake and his men immediately landed and found the huts to be warehouses, filled with choice things. There were five in all, full stocked with "white Ruske, dryed Bacon, that Countreys Cheese (like Holland Cheese in fashion, but farre more delicate in taste of which they send into Spain as speciall Presents), many sorts of sweet meats and Conserves, with great store of sugar, being provided to serve the Fleet returning to Spain'* It was a great find. The pinnaces were hurriedly loaded with as much of the good stuffs as they could carry, and by the "shutting in of the day" they were ready to depart. It was determined to .hasten back with their gains, because of a report made by some Indian women who hovered about the warehouses 100 The Boy's Drake while the transfer of their goods was making to the pinnaces. This report was that the fleet of cargo frigates which usually came up here at regular inter- vals from Cartagena had not appeared since the first alarm of Drake's presence on the coast, but were now daily expected. There were, ordinarily, thirty or more ships of this fleet. They brought the merchandise sent out from Spain to Cartagena to these warehouses, whence it was transferred in great canoes up the river into Nueva Reyno, the canoes bringing back, in ex- change, the gold, silver, and other treasure, commodi- ties, and provisions which it yielded. But Drake's party did not get away without a bit of skirmish. "As we were going aboord our Pinnaces from these Store-houses, the Indians of a great Towne called Ville del Rey, some two miles distant [and in- land] from the waters side where we landed, were brought downe by the Spaniards into the bushes, and shot their arrowes." No harm, however, was done the Englishmen. They rowed quickly down the stream, with the current, since the wind was against them, and when only about three miles off from the warehouses, as night was falling, they anchored. Here they re- mained through that night undisturbed. Early the next morning off" again, still rowing instead of sailing, they were not long in comfortably reaching the river's mouth by which they had entered. Here landing on the main, and hauling the pinnaces ashore, a day was spent in thoroughly cleaning and trimming the craft. Then they re-embarked and took their course westward Roaming Off the Spanish Main loi for their lair. Their adventures, however, were not yet ended. " In the way between Carthagene and Tolou, we tooke five or six Frigates, which were laden from Tolou with live Hogs, Hens, and Maiz [maize], which we call Guyny [Guinea] Wheat: of these having gotten what intelligence they could give of their preparation for us, and divers opinions of us, we dismissed all the men, onely staying two Frigates with us, because they were so well stored with good Victuals." Within three days after they were safe arrived, with their plunder and prizes in their hidden port. To this lair the company pretty soon gave a name. They called it "Port Plenty," because of the marvellous quantity of "good victuals" which they accumulated here. They were continually taking "all manner store of good Victuals" from Spanish ships passing their way by sea for the "victualling of Carthagene and N ombre de Dios, as also the Fleets going and comming out of Spain." Indeed, had the company numbered "two thousand, yea, three thousand persons," the narrator assures us, they might, with their pinnaces, "easily have pro- vided them sufficient victual of Wine, Meale, Ruske, Cassavy (a kinde of Bread made of a Root called Yuccay whose juyce is poyson but the substance good and wholesome), dryed Beefe, dryed Fish, live Sheepe, live Hogs, aboundance of Hens, besides the infinite store of dainty fresh [ ? fish] very easily to be taken every day." With this accumulation, Drake decided to establish and stock four "magazines," or store- houses, at different points on islands and on the main. 102 The Boy's Drake from ten to twenty leagues apart. In this work the faithful Diego was most helpful, for he had a ''speciall skill in the speedy erection of such houses." Meanwhile the long-considered alliance with the Cimaroons was effected. Brother John had success- fully executed his commission during Drake's absence. The story of this expedition and of the negotiations that followed the narrator gives in quaint detail: *Tn our absence Captaine John Drake having one of our Pinnaces as was appointed, went in with the maine [main], and as he rowed a loose the shoare, where he was directed by Diego the Negroe aforesaid, which [who] willingly came unto us at Nombre de Dios, he espied certaine of the Symerons [Cimaroons] with whom he dealt so effectually, that in conclusion he left two of our men with their Leader, and brought aboard two of theirs [that is, hostages were exchanged]: agree- ing that they should meet him againe the next Day, at a River midway betweene the Cahezas [headlands] and our Ships, which they named Rio Diego [from the faith- ful negro]. These two [the Cimaroon hostages] being very sensible men, chosen out by their Commander, did with all reverence and respect, declare unto our Captaine that their Nation conceived great joy of his arrivall, because they knew him to be an enemy to the Spaniards, not onely by his late being in Nombre de Dios, but also by his former Voyages, and therefore were ready to assist and favour his enterprises against his and their Enemies to the uttermost: and to that end their Captaine and Company, did stay at this present Roaming Off the Spanish Main 103 neer the mouth of Rio Diego to attend what answer and order should be given them." Then followed the negotiations. ''Our Captaine considering the speech of these persons, and weigh- ing it with his former intelligences had not onely by Negroes but Spaniards also, whereof he was alwayes very carefull : as also conferring it with his Brothers in- formations of the great kindnesse that they shewed him, . . . resolved himselfe with his Brother and the two Symerons, in his two Pinnaces to goe toward the River; as he did the same evening, giving order that the Ship and the rest of the Fleet should the next morning fol- low him, because there was a place of as great safety and sufficiency which his Brother had found out neer the River. The safety of it consisted not onely in that ... it is a most goodly and plentifull Countrey and yet Inhabited not with one Spaniard or any for the Span- iards, but especially in that it lyeth among a great many of goodly Hands full of Trees, where, though there be Channels, yet there are such Rocks and shoales that no Man can enter by night without great danger, nor by day without discovery; whereas our Ship might lye hidden within the Trees. "The next day [September 14] we arrived at the River appointed, where we found the Symerons, ac- cording to promise; the rest of their number were a mile up in a Wood by the Rivers side. There, after we had given them entertainment and received good testimonies of their joy and good will towards us, we tooke two more of them into our Pinnaces, leaving our 104 The Boy's Drake two men with the rest of theirs to march by land to another River called Rio Guana, with intent there to meet with another Company of Symerons which were now in the Mountains. So we departed that day from Rio Diego with our Pinnaces towards our Ship, mar- velling that she followed not as was appointed." Back at the lair two days after, the "Pascha" was found still there, and in a woful condition. She had been unable to follow because she had been "much spoyled" by a tempest that had struck the place not long after the departure of the pinnaces. The next two days were spent in trimming her. Then the next day ship and all abandoned Port Plenty, and "with wary Pilotage" were directed safely by a pinnace that had gone ahead, through the best channel "amongst the shoals and sandy islands" to the Rio Diego an- chorage. This new secret haven of Rio Diego lay westward "neere about five leagues from the Cativaas [Catives] betwixt an Hand and the Maine": the island being off the main "not above foure Cables length"; small, comprising only about three acres of ground, flat, and "very full of Trees and Bushes." Here the ship was moored, and the company set diligently at work to make themselves "quiet in the new-found Road," They had been here scarcely three days when the two men whom Drake had sent with the Cimaroon nego- tiators to their fellows in the mountains, appeared with the negotiators and others in sight on the main. The others were a group of twelve from the Cimaroons of Roaming Off the Spanish Main 105 the mountains. The delegations were heartily wel- comed and brought across, "to their great comfort and our content: they, rejoicing that they should have some fit opportunity to wreake their wrongs on the Span- iards: we hoping that now our Voyage should be bet- tered." Then followed, perhaps on the deck of the "Pascha," and doubtless with all the ceremony of which Drake had shown himself on occasions of moment so fond, a conference wherein the Cimaroon spokesmen gave in- formation that necessitated further changes in the plan of campaign: "At our first meeting, when our Captaine had moved them to shew him the meanes which they had to furnish him with Gold and Silver, they answered plainly, that had they knowne Gold and been his desire, they could have satisfied him with store, which for the present they could not doe, because the Rivers, in which they had sunke great store which they had taken from the Spaniards, rather to despite them then [than] for love of Gold, were now so high that they could not get it out of such depths for him; and because the Spaniards in these rainy Moneth[s], doe not use [are not accustomed] to carry their Treasure by land. This answer, although it were somewhat unlooked for, yet nothing discon- tented us, but rather persuaded us farther of their honest and faithfull meaning towards us." With this prospect of five months of possible inaction with the new allies, Drake's problem was how to keep all occupied and contented during the long wait. First, the island should be fortified and a village built up io6 The Boy's Drake on such a scale that both his men and his allies would be kept busy quite a while. In the meantime he would with his pinnaces make excursions along the main, or at sea, to harass the enemy and pick up what prizes he might. So "Our Captaine to entertaine these five Moneths, commanded all our Ordnance and Artillery a shoare, with all our other Provisions: sending his Pinnaces to the Maine to bring over great Trees to make a Fort upon the same Hand, for the planting of all our Ord- nance therein, and for our safeguard, if the Enemy in all this time should chance to come." Into this work the Cimaroons threw themselves with heartiness, and with skilful hands. "Our Symerons cut down Palmito boughes and branches, and with wonderful speed raised up two large Houses for all our Company." The fort was made, "by reason of the place triangle-wise with maine [large] Timber and Earth, of which the Trench yeelded us good store, so that we made it thirteen foot in length." They named it Fort Diego, as they had named the port, in compliment to their ever-faithful negro, Diego. When this work was well under way, a fortnight after the occupation of the island, Drake set out with three pinnaces again to "goe for Carthagene." XI AGAIN BEFORE CARTAGENA BROTHER JOHN was put in charge of the island to govern those to be left behind with the Cimaroons during Drake's absence, and to su- perintend the building of the fort. When, on a bright, early October morning Drake set sail, Brother John, in the remaining pinnace, accompanied him out of the port, John being bound for the Catives, where he was to get a load of planks, to utilise in the platform for the guns of the fort, from the Magdalena prize, left at the Catives, which had been cast ashore in a storm and broken up. Outside the port the brothers parted, with affectionate calls of good luck to each other, the one sailing eastward, the other westward: and they were destined, as it happened, never to meet again in this world. As usual, the narrator accompanied Drake, so that we have the story of this adventure also at first hand. It is a story more exciting and more crowded with inci- dent than that of the first demonstration before Carta- gena. It tells of adroit manoeuvrings on both sides, Spanish and English; of more daring performances by 107 io8 The Boy's Drake Drake; more fighting; prize-taking, astonishing achieve- ments; of triumphs and of hardships. "That night [the first out] we came to an He which hee called Spurkite Hand because we found there great store of such a kinde of Bird in shape, but very deli- cate, of which we killed and rosted many, staying there till the next day mid-noone when we departed thence: and about foure a clocke recovered a big Hand in our way, where we staying [stayed] all night by reason that there was great store of Fish, and especially of a great kinde of Shel-fish of a foot long, we called them Whelkes. The next morning we were cleere of these Hands and Shoales, and haled off* into the Sea. About foure dayes after, neere the Hands of Saint Bernards [San Bar- nardo], we chased two Frigates a shore: and recover- ing one of the Hands, made our abode there some two dayes to wash our Pinnaces and rake off the Fish. Thence we went towards Tolou, and that day landed neer the Town in a Garden, where we found certaine Indians, who delivered us their Bowes and Arrowes [to show their friendliness] and gathered for us such Fruit as the Garden did yeeld being many sorts of dainty Fruits and Roots, still contenting [paying] them for that we received." Drake's principal intent in "taking" this place, and, indeed, in going again for Cartagena, was further to learn what he might of the state of the country and of the movements of the fleets. "Hence we departed presently and rowed towards Chares ha the Hand of Carthagene, and entred in at Bocha Chica [the Little Again Before Cartagena 109 Mouth]; and having the winde large, we sailed in towards the Citie, and let fall our Grappers [grappling- irons] betwixt the Hand and the Maine, right over against the goodly Garden Hand." The company were eager to land, but Drake re- strained them. He knew it might be dangerous, for the Spanish officials were wont to send soldiers to this point whenever they were aware of "men of warre" being upon the coast. And his caution was warranted, for: "within three houres after, [when] passing by the point of the Hand, we had a volley of an hundred shot from them; yet there was but one of our men hurt." Such was their warm reception. At eventide they prudently put to sea beyond the danger line. The next day they took their first prize: "The day following, being some two leagues off the Harbour, we tooke a Barke, and found that the Cap- taine and his wife with the better sort of the passengers had forsaken her and were gone a shoare in their Gun- delow [gondola or ship's boat]: by occasion whereof we boorded without resistance, though they were very well provided with Swords and Targets, and some small shot, besides Iron Bases [small guns]. She was about fifty tunne, having ten Marines, five or six Negroes, great store of Sope [soap] and Sweet-meats, bound for Saint Domingo and Carthagene. This Captaine left behind him a silk Ancient [flag] with his Armes, as might be thought in hasty departing. The next morn- ing we sent all the Company [of the captured bark] a shoare to seek their Masters, saving a young Negrito no The Boy's Drake [negro child] of three or foure years old which we brought away, but kept the Barke, and in her bore into the mouth of Carthagene Harbour, where we anchored." So at the outer harbour's entrance they rode placidly with their prize and awaited events. Nothing hap- pened till afternoon. Then ''certaine horse-men came down to the point of the Wood side, and with the Scrivano [king's notary] forementioned [one of the two captured at the first at- tempt upon Cartagena] came towards our Barke [the prize] with a Flag of Truce, desiring of our Captaine safe conduct for his comming and going. The which being granted, he came aboord us, giving our Captaine great thankes for his manifold favours, &c. [alluding to Drake's treatment of him and his associate on the previous occasion of their capture and release], promis- ing that night before day break, to bring as much victuall as they [Drake's party] would desire, what shift soever he made or what danger soever he incurred of Law and punishment. But this fell out to be nothing but a device of the Governour [of Cartagena] forced upon the Scrivano, to delay time, til they might pro- vide themselves of sufficient strength to entrap us; for which this fellow, by his smooth speech, was thought a fit meane [means]. So by Sunne rising, when we per- ceived his words but words, we put to Sea to the West- ward of the Hand some three leagues off, where we lay at Hull [lay-by] the rest of all that day and night." The next day, in the afternoon, apparently again ap- proaching the harbour's mouth, they sighted two small Again Before Cartagena iii "frigates" that had come out of Cartagena, and straightway gave them chase. Both were bound for Santo Domingo and carried only ballast. They were taken within less than three miles of the city and with the captors came to anchor ''within Saker [small cannon] shot," or about three-quarters of a mile "of the East Bulwarke." Their crews entreating to be set ashore, Drake gave them the larger frigate's ship's boat and dismissed them. Now Drake was before the city with three Spanish prizes. The next was a day of action. In the morning another party, or the same that had appeared before with the smooth-tongued notary, came down to "the Wester point," a headland at the mouth of the Boca Chica, with a flag of truce. Drake manned one of his pinnaces and rowed to meet them. But when the pin- nace was within a cable's length of the shore the party fled to the woods, apparently as if fearful of her guns. This, however, was a ruse, to draw the Englishmen ashore and perhaps into ambush. Drake recognized it as such and dared them. Ordering the grapnel cast out from the stern he veered the pinnace to shore, and so soon as she touched the sand he alone leapt out in the Spaniards' sight, "to declare that he durst set his foot a land." While "he had not sufficient forces to con- quer them," yet he would have them understand that "he had sufficient judgment to take heed of them." Then he returned to the pinnace, when she was hauled off the shore on her grapnel, and so rode to await the next move. 112 The Boy's Drake This was presently made. Reappearing at the water- side, the Spaniards despatched a youth with a message to the Enghshmen. The lad swam out to the pin- nace and was taken aboard. The message was a re- quest, as from the governor, *' to know what our intent was to stay thus upon the Coast.?" To this Drake made the audacious reply that "he meant to traffique with them, for he had Tin, Pewter, Cloth, and other Merchandise that they needed." The youth swam back with this answer, and soon returned with another message — "That the King had forbidden to traffique with any forraigne Nation for any Commodities ex- cept Powder and Shot, of which if we had any store they would be his [Drake's] Merchants." Back swam the lad with this retort: "He [Drake] was come from his Country to exchange his Commodities for Gold and Silver, and is not purposed to return without his errand. They [the Spaniards] were like (in his opinion) to have little rest if that by faire meanes they would not traffique with him." This time the young messenger was rewarded for his aquatic performances with a present from Drake, of a "faire Shirt"; and rolling the garment about his head Indian fashion, he "swamme" back for the last time, "very speedily" and gayly. Thus ended the parley. No further word came from the shore, although Drake remained at his post ready to receive any message through the rest of the day. Then toward dark the company returned aboard their captured frigates, and setting a watch for the night "reposed" themselves. Again Before Cartagena 113 Another day of action followed. "The next morn- ing the winde which had beene Westerly In the evening altered to the Eastward. About the dawning of the day we espied two Sayles turning toward us; where- upon our Captalne weighed with his Pinnaces, leaving the two Frigates unmaned. But when we were come somewhat nigh them the wInde calmed, and we were fame to row towards them, till that [upon one] ap- proaching very nigh we saw many heads peering over boord. For, as we perceived, these two Frigates were mand and set forth out of Cartagene to fight with us, and [or] at least to Impeach or busle us, whiles [whilst] by some meanes or other they might recover the Frig- ates from us. But our Captalne prevented both their drifts. For commanding John Oxnam [Oxenham] to stay with the one pinnace to entertain [engage] these two men of warre, himself in the other [pinnace] made such speed [back] that he gate to his Frigates which he had left at Anchor, and caused the Spaniards [appar- ently another party] who in the meane time had gotten aboord [them] in [from] a small Canow (thinking to have towed them within the danger [protection] of their shot) " to hasten off quicker than they had come, some swimming to land and leaving their weapons behind them. Then, considering that he could not man these frigates, Drake sunk one and burnt the other, so giving the Spaniards " to understand by this that we perceived their secret practices,'* In other words, their game. "This being done he [Drake] returned to John Oxnam, who all this while lay by the men of warre without proffering of fight." 114 The Boy's Drake Just as Drake's pinnace had joined Oxenham's the wind came in briskly from the sea, and the two pinnaces being between the shore and the "men of warre" they were forced to bear room into the harbour before the latter. This proceeding was, "to the great joy of the Spaniards who beheld it, in supposing that we would still have fled before them." But as soon as the pin- naces were well inside the harbour and felt smooth water, and were getting the wind, they suddenly opened fire upon the war-ships. Thus "we fought with them upon the advantage, so that after a few shot ex- changed, and a storme rising, they were contented to presse no neerer. Therefore as they let fall their Anchors we presently let drop our Grapners in the winde of them, which the Spanish Souldiers seeing, considering the disadvantage of the winde, the likely- hood of the storme to continue, and small hope of doing any good, they were glad to retire themselves to the Towne." The Englishmen, however, since the storm was in- creasing, remained at their temporary anchorage. And here they rode through the next four days, suffering not a Httle discomfort from "great cold by reason we had such sore raines with Westerly winde, and so little suc- cour in our Pinnaces." On the fifth day they had another skirmish, showing that the Spaniards ashore were ever watchful of them: "There came in a Frigate from the sea, which, seeing us make towards her runne her selfe a shoare, unhanging her Rudder and taking away her Sayles, that she might not easily be carried away. But when we were come up to her we per- Again Before Cartagena 115 ceived about a hundred Horse and Foot, with their Furniture [weapons], come downe to the point of the Maine: where we interchanged some shot with them. One of our great shot past so neere a brave Cavalier of theirs that thereby they were occasioned to advise them- selves, and to retreat into the Woods, where they might sufficiently defend and rescue the Frigate from us, and annoy us also if we stayed long about her." At this Drake concluded to go to sea again. Pass- ing out through the ''Little Mouth," he purposed to make for "the Rocks called Las Seranas" some "two leagues off at Sea," where, with the masts of the pin- naces down, he might ride, hidden under the Rocks, till fair weather returned as he or his men had "usu- ally done aforetime." But when they were reached the sea had "so mightily growne" that it was impossible to anchor beneath them, and he was forced to return to Cartagena harbour. And here his tiny squadron were obliged to remain through six more days of bad weather, "notwithstanding the Spaniards, grieved greatly at our aboard [abode] there so long, put an other device in practise to endanger us." This "device," set in operation on the sixth day, was the most elaborate that the Spaniards had attempted, and led to the finishing fight in which Drake skilfully displayed his naval knowledge. "They sent forth a great Shallop, a fine Gundeloe, and a great Canow, with certaine Spaniards with shot, and many Indians with poysoned Arrowes, as it seemed with intent to begin some fight, and then to flye. For as soone as we rowed Ii6 The Boy's Drake towards them and enterchanged shot, they presently retyred and went a shoare into the Woods, where an Ambush of some sixty shot were laid for us; besides two Pinnaces and a Frigate warping towards us, which were Mand as the rest. They attempted us very boldly, being assisted by those others which from out of the Wood had gotten aboard the Gundeloe and Canow, and seeing us bearing from them (which we did in respect of the Ambuscado) they incouraged them- selves and assured their fellowes of the day. ''But our Captaine weighing this their attempt, and being out of danger of their shot from the Land, com- manding his other Pinnace to be brought ahead of him, and to let fall their Grapners each ahead of the other, environed both the Pinnace with Bonnets, as for a close fight, and then wheaved [waved] them aboord them." That is, the two pinnaces were brought close together, with one ahead of the other, and their sides rigged with bonnets or "war girdles," made of the nar- row lengths of canvas that were laced to the sails to give them greater speed: thus ready, Drake waved a signal to the Spaniards to come on and attack if they would. But instead, "they kept themselves upon their Oares at Calliver shot distance, spending Powder apace, as we did, some two or three houres. We had one of our Men onely wounded in that Fight; what they had is unknowne to us, but we saw their Pinnace shot thorow [through] in divers places, and the Powder of one of them tooke on fire. Whereupon we waighed, and intend- ing to beare roome, to over-runne them: which they Again Before Cartagena 117 perceiving, and thinking that we would have boorded them, rowed away amaine to the defence which they had in the Wood; the rather, because they were dis- appointed of their helpe that they expected from the Frigate which was warping towards us, but by reason of the much Winde that blew, could not come to op- pose us or succour them." So this device failed. And with its failure Drake finally withdrew. Seeing that now he was "so notably made known" m these parts, and his victuals growing scarce, he de- cided to cruise in other directions. The wind "con- tinuing always Westerly," he could not for the present return to Fort Diego. But first he would replenish his boats with fresh provisions. Accordingly, so soon as the weather "waxed somewhat better" he set off again eastward along the coast for the Magdalena River, where before had been found such "great store of victuals." XII OFF SANTA MARTA ARRIVED at the Magdalena they found, to their dismay, where there had been abundance be- fore, ''bare nothing." There were even no people left. All, by order of the Spanish authorities, had driven their cattle away and had taken to the mountains, so that should Drake or his men again appear they might not be relieved. It was really a keen disappointment, for much of their diminishing stock of food had been spoiled by the foul weather at sea and the rains in Cartagena harbour. But while they were bemoaning this hard luck, a Spanish frigate was descried at sea. The sight revived them, for if she could be caught they might find provisions upon her sufficient for their immediate needs. "Therefore it may easily be guessed how much we laboured to re- cover her," says the narrator. But alas! "When we had boorded her and understood that she had neither Meat nor Money, but that she was bound for Rio Grande [Magdalena] to take in Provision, our great hope converred [was converted] into griefe." They got on with their short allowance as best they could for the next seven or eight days while they ii8 Off Santa Marta 119 cruised farther eastward, now "bearing roome for Santa Martha," hoping to find some shipping or "Lim- pets on the Rocks, or succour against the Storme in that good Harbour." But hard luck still pursued them. "Being arrived, and seeing no Shipping, we anchored under the Wester point where is high land, and, as we thought, free in safety from the Towne, which is in the bottome of the Bay: not intending to land there, because we knew that it was fortified and that they had intelligence of us. But the Spaniards knowing us to be Men of Warre, and misliking that we should shroud [take shelter, or harbour] under their Rockes without their leave, had conveyed some thirty or forty shot among the ClifFes, which annoyed us so spitefully, and so unrevengedly (for that they lay hid- den behinde the Rockes, but we lay open to them) that we were soone weary of our Harbour, and en- forced, for all the Storme without and want within, to put to Sea." As in passing out they came "open of the Town," the exultant Spaniards, for a farewell, sent them a "Calverin shot" from which they barely es- caped, for it fell between the pinnaces. At the moment that this parting shot dropped the pinnaces were close together, while the leaders were conferring as to the best course next to pursue. Their position was growing more and more hazardous, and one of the pinnaces had become leaky. All of the com- pany were discomforted. The majority were for land- ing somewhere on the main and taking their chances. But Drake would not agree to this. He thought it 120 The Boy's Drake better to bear up toward Rio de la Hacha or Curasao where they might have plenty without great resistance, and very likely come upon some victual-ships. The men in the other pinnace, the leaky one, answered loyally that they "would willingly follow him thorow [through] the World; but in this they could not see how either their Pinnace should live in that Sea without being eaten up in that storme, or they themselves [be] able to endure so long time with so slender Provision as they had, viz onely one Gammon of Bacon and thirty pound of Bisket for eighteen Men." Drake cheerfully replied that they were better provided than himself, for he had "but one Gammon of Bacon and forty pound of Bisket for his twenty-foure men." Since he was undaunted by his condition, he "doubted not but they would take such part as He did, and will- ingly depend upon Gods Almighty Providence, which never faileth them that trust in him." With this pious injunction he brought the con- ference to an abrupt end, and hoisting his foreisail he set his course for Curasao. This "the rest perceiving, with sorrowfull hearts in respect of the weake Pinnace, yet desirous to follow their Captain, consented to take the same course." And behold! "We had not sailed past three leagues but we had espied a sayle plying to the Westward with her two courses [sails hanging from the lower yards] to our great joy!" They "vowed to- gether" that they would have her at any cost. She proved to be a Spanish ship of above ninety tons. When within hailing distance they "wheaved a maine" Off Santa Marta 121 (waved amain) to her, the signal to surrender. She "despised'* their summons and "shot off her Ord- nance'* at them. The sea was running high so they could not then attempt to board her, but would follow her till fairer weather should quiet the waters. Ac- cordingly, making "fit small saile" (setting the small storm sails), they kept her company for some hours, when it "pleased God, after a great shower, to send us a reasonable calme." Now they might use their guns and "approach her with pleasure." The assault was made with a dash, and "in a short time we had taken her." She was found to be handsomely laden with " Victuall well powdred [salted] and dryed," which these devout buccaneers "accepted" with thanksgiving, "as sent us of Gods great mercy." Strange dispensation of Providence to robbers! Toward nightfall the wind blew up afresh and they were obliged, with their prize, to ply off and on in the again tempestuous sea through that night. Early next morning Drake sent oflf Ellis Hixom in charge of the larger pinnace (Drake himself probably being on the prize), to search along the coast for some reason- ably safe harbour into which they could temporarily put. Hixom found a little one some ten or twelve leagues to the east of Santa Marta, which answered their purpose, having good holding ground and suffi- cient water to float the prize; and upon his return with this report the squadron sailed thither. Arrived within the haven, Drake assembled his prisoners of the prize and addressed them very briefly and very prac- 122 The Boy's Drake tically. If, he told them, they would bring his com- pany to "Water and fresh Victuals," or if through their means what he required was obtained from the Indians inhabiting the neighbourhood, he would give them their liberty and all their "apparrel" (clothes and other personal belongings) that he had taken. His proposition was gladly accepted, and the rest of the day was spent industriously in watering, wooding, and further provisioning the squadron. The Indian in- habitants, who, it seemed, were "clothed and gov- erned by a Spaniard which dwelt in the next Towne not past a league off," practically the Spaniard's slaves, were "given content and satisfaction" for all that they cheerfully provided. Upon the completion of the work, toward night, Drake called all his men aboard the pinnaces and sailed off with the prize, leaving the prisoners, as he had promised, behind ashore, "to their great content": who, courteous, after the Spanish manner to the last, "acknowledged that our Captaine did them a farre greater favour in setting them freely at liberty then [than] he had done them displeasure in taking their Ship." Again at sea, and now taking their course directly as might be for Fort Diego, fresh troubles came upon the company. A sickness which had "begun to kindle amongst us two or three dayes before, did this day shew it selfe in Charles Glub, one of our Quarter-mas- ters, a very tall man, and a right good Mariner," and, to the great grief of all he speedily died of it. The strange malady was imputed to the cold which the men Off Santa Marta 123 had taken, lying without succour in the pinnaces, Many were touched with it, but "it pleased God" to restore to health all save the tall quartermaster. The disease is thought to have been pleurisy or pneumonia. Happily, the day after the death of the quarter- master and his burial in the sea opened bright with fair weather, and all were heartened again. The wind, however, continued contrary, and since, till it changed, the progress of the squadron must be slow, Drake ordered the "Minion," the smallest, of the pinnaces, to hasten for the fort ahead of the others to an- nounce their coming; and particularly to give his order to have things there put in readiness so that upon his arrival an immediate start might be made for the land expedition if any news of the plate fleet had come. Should the "Minion's" men need refreshment before reaching Fort Diego, he advised that they take "Saint Bernardo" (San Barnardo), on their way, and help themselves to "such portion as they thought good" of the wines that had been taken from prizes and were there hidden in the sands. "Within a seven night" after the "Minion's" departure, Drake and the rest had come to San Barnardo. Here they tarried some hours refreshing themselves, but not with much of the hidden wine. For it was found that the "enemy" had visited the place and had carried off the whole store save twelve "botijos" (Spanish pots). Four or five days later they were arrived safe at Fort Diego, not long behind the "Minion," and Drake was heartily welcomed back after an absence of two months. 124 The Boy's Drake Sad tidings, however, came with his welcome. His beloved brother John was dead. He had been slain in an attempt to board and capture a Spanish frigate at sea, only two days after Drake had parted with him at the mouth of the port when starting on the pres- ent venture. The affair had occurred on John's re- turn trip from the Catives. "The manner of it," as Drake was told, and the narrator relates, "was this: When they saw this Frigate at Sea as they were going [returning] towards their Fort with Plankes to make the Platformes, the Company [John's crew] were very importunate on him to give chase and set upon this Frigate which they deemed had beene a fit booty for them. But he told them that they wanted weapons to assaile: they knew not how the Frigate was pro- vided; they had their boat laden with plankes to finish that his Brother had commanded. But when this would not satisfie them, but that still they urged him with words and supposals [taunts]: * If you will needs,' said he, 'adventure, it shall never be said that I will be hindermost; neither shall you report to my Brother that you lost your Voyage [chance to take a prize] by any cowardice you found in me.' Thereupon every man shifted as they might for the time, and heaving their plankes over board, tooke them such poore weapons as they had: viz. a broken pointed Rapier, one old Visgee, and a rusty Caliver; John Drake tooke the Rapier, and made a Gantlet of his Pillow, Rich- ard Allen the Visgee, both standing in the head of the Pinnace, called the Eion^ Robert Cluich tooke the Off Santa Marta 125 Caliver: and so [they] boarded. But they found the Frigate armed round about with a close fight [old naval term signifying an armed grating or netting between the main-mast and fore-mast] of Hides, full of Pikes and Calivers, which were discharged in their faces, and deadly wounded those that were in the Fore-ship, John Drake in the belly, and Richard Allen in the head. But notwithstanding their wounds, they with Oares shifted off the Pinnace, got cleare of the Frigate, and with all haste recovered their Ship [at Fort Diego], where within an houre after this young man of great hope ended his dayes, greatly lamented of all the Com- pany.'* Young Allen also died of his wounds. It was he, so it was said, who had been foremost in daring John Drake to make the assault. It was all a rash, fool- hardy performance, but only one of many exhibitions of the reckless daring and exuberant spirit of these lusty young English seamen, ardent for adventure. No word of the plate fleet had yet been heard by the Cimaroon scouts. So Drake decided to keep secretly close in Fort Diego till the wind came. It was now early December, and since they might have to remain here inactive for an indefinite time, he proceeded to make things comfortable and pleasant for all. From the well-stocked warehouses an abundance of good food was supplied their tables, while the hunters daily enriched them with game from the woods, "wild Hogges, Pheasants, and Guanas." All continued in good trim and good health for about a month. Then 126 The Boy's Drake at the beginning of January half a score suddenly fell ill with a mysterious disease, and most of these died within two or three days after the attack. It ran through the company, and thirty were down with it at one time. They called it the calenture, or hot fever, but it is believed to have been what we know as yellow fever. It was attributed to a sudden change from cold to heat, or, what was more likely, to the drinking of brackish water, a quantity of which one of the pin- naces had taken at the mouth of the river "through the sloth of their men," who were too lazy to row farther in where the water was good. Among those who died was Drake's other brother, the young Joseph. The lad died in his arms. With his usual energy and resourcefulness, Drake deter- mined to probe the mysterious disease, to ascertain how it might be remedied, and to allay an incipient panic among the company. That there might be no protest — for dissection of the human body was in that day commonly regarded as a sort of sacrilege — he gave up his brother's body for this purpose, and himself directed the examination. This the narrator quaint- ly, and with a touch of pathos, remarks was "the first and last experiment that our Captaine made of Anatomy in this Voyage." The surgeon who per- formed the autopsy died four days after. Not from the fever, however. He had taken that and recovered a month before. It was an overdose of his own medi- cine, a purge of his concoction that carried him off. Or, as the narrator puts it: "An over-bold practice Off Santa Marta 127 which he would needs make upon himselfe, by receiv- ing an over-strong Purgation of his own device: after which taken he never spoke." And his boy, from tasting the stuff merely, lost his health and did not re- cover it "till he saw England" again. The total num- ber that died of the fever was twenty-eight, a pretty serious drain upon the little company. With these gone, and three having previously died in fights or of wounds, and one from exposure at sea, they now mus- tered, all told, only forty-two. Several of these re- mained some time on the sick-list. Because of the many deaths from this awful scourge the survivors gave their isle the grewsome name of "Slaughter Island." Meanwhile, as the company were contending with the fever, the Cimaroons had been ranging "the coun- try up and downe" between Fort Diego and Nombre- de-Dios, to "learn what they might for us"; and at length, on the last day but one of January, the scouts brought word that the plate fleet were certainly arrived at Nombre-de-Dios. To verify this report Drake im- mediately despatched the pinnace "Lyon" to the "sea- most Hand of the Cativaas": for, as he reasoned, if the plate fleet had actually come the provision-frigates would be hastening to Nombre-de-Dios to supply them. Within a few days the "Lyon" " descried that she had been sent for." Sighting a frigate, she chased, boarded, and took her: found her to be a provision-ship from Tolou for Nombre-de-Dios, laden with maize, hens, and pompions, and having a number of passengers — 128 The Boy's Drake "one woman and twelve men of whom one was the Scrivano [king's notary] of Tolou," who confirmed "the whole truth" of the fleet's arrival. Prize and prisoners were brought by the stout little "Lyon" triumphantly back with her, and all was now bustle about the Fort. The Cimaroons would have taken the prisoners and cut their throats out of hand, "to revenge their [the Cimaroons'] wrongs and injuries which the Spanish Nation had done them." The savages "sought daily by all meanes they could to get them of our Captaine." Of course, he would listen to no such bloodthirsty proposition. On the contrary, he would protect them to the utmost against the deadly hatred of their implacable enemies. Accordingly, in contrast with these hostile demonstrations, he took care to treat them "very courteously," and he pro- vided them with a constant guard. While, however, he thus successfully held the savages from their prey, it was all done diplomatically, without antagonising his alHes. The narrator tells us that he really "per- swaded them not to touch them [the prisoners], or give them ill countenance while they were in his charge." Still, however effective this persuasion may have been, he was careful to keep the guard about them unbroken, and fully to provide for their safety during his absence on the new expedition. For when the preparations were complete, Ellis Hixom, who was to be left in charge of the fort and of those remaining behind, found himself especially charged to guard the prisoners. They had by that time been put aboard the prize which had been Off Santa Marta 129 "haled a shoare to the Hand" to be used as a store house and as their prison. At length, on Shrove-Tuesday, the third day of Feb- ruary, the start was made for the long and venturesome march. Drake's last word to Hixom was, "straight charge in any case not to trust any Messenger that should come in his name with any Tokens, unlesse he brought his [Drake's] hand-writing: which he knew could not be counterfeited by the Symerons or Span- iards" So they departed, a band of forty-eight, only eighteen Englishmen, bound for the isthmus, with the avowed object of seizing a treasure train on the Panama road to Nombre-de-Dios. XIII ON THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA " "W "IT TE were in all forty-eight, of which eighteene ^ Y onely were English^ the rest were Symerons." So the narrator opens his story of this advent- ure, in which, as usual, he had part. The remaining twenty-four English, who were left at Fort Diego, with Ellis Hixom in command, included those convalescing from the fever, and a few "whole men,'* well ones, on the "Pascha" "to keepe the Ship and tend the Sicke, and guard the Prisoners" on the prize. The thirty Cimaroons of the expedition were the willing burden-bearers. Each of them carried, be- sides his arms, a heavy pack of provisions, thus supplying the Englishmen's "want of carriage in so long a March," and relieving them of everything but their "Furniture" — accoutrements and weapons. The quantity of provisions taken was limited, the Cima- roons having promised to obtain, "with their Arrowes," plenty of game for the party along the way, and this promise they nobly fulfilled. The Cimaroon arrows much interested the narrator, who fortunately interrupts his narrative to give a 130 On the Isthmus of Panama 131 minute description of them; and from it we get a pretty fair idea of the native weapons of that time. Each Cimaroon was provided with two sorts, "the one to defend himselfe and offend the Enemy, the other to kill his Victuals. These for fight are somewhat like the Scottish Arrow, onely somewhat longer, and headed with Iron, Wood, or Fishbones. But the Ar- rowe for Provision are of three sorts: the first serveth to kill any great Beast neere hand, as Oxe, Stag, or wild Boare; this hath a head of Iron of a pound and a halfe weight, shaped in forme like the head of a Javelin or Boare-spear, as sharpe as any Knife, making so large and deep a wound as can hardly be beleeved of him that hath not seene it. The second serveth for lesser Beasts, and hath a head of three quarters of a pound: this he most usually shooteth. The third serveth for all manner of Birds: it hath a head of an ounce weight. And these heads, though they be of Iron onely, yet are they so cunningly tempered that they will continue a very good edge for a long time; and though they be turned sometimes, yet they will never or seldome breake. The necessity in which they [the Cimaroons] stand hereof continually, causeth them to have [hold] Iron in farre greater account than Gold: and no man among them is of greater estimation then [than] he that can most perfectly give this temper unto it." The narrative is then resumed. "Every day we were marching by Sun-rising. We continued till ten in the fore-noone, then resting [and taking the early dinner]. 132 The Boy's Drake ever neere some River, till past twelve; [thereafter] we Marched till foure; and then, by some Rivers side, we reposed our selves in such Houses either we found pre- pared heretofore by them [the Cimaroons], when they travelled thorow these Woods, or they daily built for us in this manner: As soon as we came to a place where we intended to lodge, the Symerons presently, laying down their burthens, fell to cutting of Forkes or Posts and Poles or Rafters, and Palmito boughes, or Plantaine leaves, and with great speed set up to the number of six Houses. For every [one] of which they first fastened deepe into the ground three or foure great Posts with forkes; upon them they layd one Tran- some which was commonly about twenty foot, and made the sides in the manner of the roofes of our [English] Countrey Houses, thatching it close with those aforesaid Leaves, which keepe out water a long time; observing alwayes that in the lower ground where greater heat was, they left some three or foure foot open unthacht below, and made the Houses, or rather Roofes, so many foot the higher. But in the Hil[l]s, where the Ayre was more piercing and the nights colder, they made our Roomes always lower, and thatched them close to the ground, leaving only one Doore to enter at, and a lower-hole for a vent, in the middest of the roofe. In every [one] of these they made foure severall Lodgings, and three Fires, one in the middest and one at each end of every House, so that the Roome was most temperately warme, and nothing annoyed with Smoake, partly by reason of the nature On the Isthmus of Panama 133 of the Wood which they use to burne yielding httle Smoake, partly by reason of their artificiall making of it: as firing the Wood, cut in length like our Billets, at the ends, and joyning them together so close that though no flame or fire did appeare, yet the heat con- tinued without intermission." Within these leafy huts the Englishmen found much comfort and their repose was sweet and wholesome. Their course, in the first stages of the journey, lay through the forests along the spurs of the Cordilleras. Near the rivers where they halted for the early din- ner and for rest through the hottest hours, or lodged at night, they gathered luscious fruits. There were "Mammeas, Guyavas [guavas], Palmitos, Finos [pine- apples], Oranges, Limons" in abundance, of which they could partake "with great pleasure and safety," if the indulgence was temperate; and "divers others" which the Cimaroons dissuaded them from eating except sparingly, and only after they had been "dry ro[a]sted," as "Plantans, Potatos, and such like." The Cimaroons* taking of game along the way was ever interesting. "As oft as by chance they found any wilde Swine, of which these Hills and Valleyes have store, they would ordinarily, six at a time, deliver their burthens [packs] to the rest of their fellowes, and pur- sue, kill, and bring away after us as much as they could carry and time permitted." One day they brought down an otter and prepared it to be dressed, whereat Drake marvelled: when Pedro, the chief Cimaroon, spoke up, ''Are you a man of Warre, and in warit, and 134 The Boy's Drake yet doubt whether this he meat that hath blood P" Drake's reply is not recorded, but the narrator remarks, "Here- withall our Captaine rebuked him [Pself] secretly, that he had so slightly considered of it before." On the third day out the Cimaroons had brought the party to a "Towne of their owne," surprisingly fair and prosperous appearing. It lay some thirty- five leagues from Nombre-de-Dios, and forty-five leagues from Panama. It was "seated neer a faire River, on the side of a Hill, environed v^ith a dike of eight foot broad, and a thicke mud wall of ten foot high, sufficient to stop a sudden surprizer. It had one long and broad street lying East and West, and two other cross streets of lesse bredth and length. There was in it some five or six and fifty households, which were kept so cleane and sweet that not only the houses but the very streets were very pleasant to behold." So, too, the inhabitants were seen to live "very civilly and cleanely": for, "as soone as we came thither they [the Cimaroons of the party] washed themselves in the River, and changed their apparell." In compliment to their English guests they put on their best clothes, donned only on state occasions, which were "very fine and fitly made (as also their Women do weare) some- what after the Spanish fashion, though not so costly." Another than the narrator described the principal gar- ments as "long cotton gowns, either white or rusty black, shaped like our [the English] Carters' frocks." The town was "plentifully stored with many sorts of Beasts and Fowle, with plenty of Maiz and sundry On the Isthmus of Panama 135 fruits." At this time it was well guarded against "the mischiefs" which the Spaniards would make against it. A continual Watch was kept in "foure parts three miles off" the settlement, to give warning of an ap- proach of the enemy. When they lived less carefully the Spaniards had "prevailed over them," but since the establishment of this Watch and their forays upon the Spaniards, "whom they kill like Beasts as often as they take .them in Woods," the town had been more secure. A night and a day were spent here most agreeably. The Cimaroons in the long evening talks told of fights with the Spaniards, and of "divers strange accidents" between them. There was talk also upon religion, and Drake tried his hand at their conversion to the Chris- tian faith. As the narrator records: "They have no kinde of Priests, only they hold the Crosse in great reputation; but at our Captaines perswasion they were contented to leave their Crosse, and to learne the Lords prayer, and to be instructed in some measure concern- ing Gods true worship." Doubtless this religious in- struction was taken complacently, if it did not sink deep into their savage minds, for they were eager fully to win the Englishmen's friendship and were prepared to make any sacrifice, temporarily at least, if so they might attain it. On the afternoon of the second day all resumed the forward march "with great good will." It was now necessary to proceed with more caution through the almost trailless woods. This was the order of the march: "Foure of those Symerons that best knew the 136 The Boy's Drake wayes went about a mile distance before us, breaking boughes as they went to be a direction to those that followed; but with great silence, which they required us all to keepe. Then twelve of them were as it were our Vanguard, and other twelve our Reereward: we with their two Captaines in the midst/* As they thus tramped on the Englishmen were impressed with the marvellous wood-craft of their Cimaroon guides, while they were filled with admiration at the luxuriance of the tropical forest. A "speciall encouragement" was given them when they were told that there was "a Great Tree about the midway from which we might at once discerne the North Sea [the Atlantic] from whence we came, and the South Sea [the Pacific] whether [whither] we were going." The "height of the desired Hill" upon which this Great Tree stood was reached at ten o'clock on the forenoon of the fourth day out from the Cimaroon town. It was "a very high Hill, lying East and West like a ridge between the two Seas" — in fact, the highest ridge of the Cordilleras. Now Pedro, the Cimaroon chief, took Drake by the hand and "prayed him to follow him if he was desir- ous to see at once the two Seas which he had so long longed for." Thus he was led to a glade which the Cimaroons had cleared for one of their towns, wherein "that goodly and great high Tree" rose majestically. South and north of it the Cimaroons had cleared away other trees to open full the prospect from it. In its trunk they had cut "divers steps to ascend up neere On the Isthmus of Panama 137 unto the top" where among the high branches, they had made "a convenient Bower" within which "tenne or twelve men might easily sit: and from thence we might without any difficulty plainly see th' Atlanticke Ocean whence now we came, & the South Atlantick so much desired." Near by, and about it, were "di- verse strong houses" marking the Cimaroon town, "that had been built long before, as well by other Symerons as by these." Then came that historic scene, when from this look- out Drake, the first Englishman as far as we know to sight it, feasted his eyes upon the blue Pacific, and uttered that memorable prayer for "life and leave once to sail an English ship" on its fabled waters — the scene pictured in all the biographies from the original sketch of our narrator. "After our Captaine had ascended to this Bower, with the chief Symeron, and having, as it pleased God, at that time by reason of the brize [breese] a very faire day, had seene that Sea of which he had heard such golden reports, he besought Almighty God of his goodnesse, to give him life and leave to Saile once in an English Ship in that Sea; and then calling up al[l] the rest of our men, acquainted John Oxnam [Oxen- ham] especially with this his petition and purpose, if it would please God to grant him that happiness: who understanding it, presently protested that unlesse our Captaine did beat him from his Company, he would follow him by God's grace. Thus all throughly satis- fied with the sight of the Seas descended." 138 The Boy's Drake Sixty years before from this same ridge Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the discoverer and namer of the Pacific, had first looked down on the vast sea and had offered his prayer of thanksgiving to God for the sight. Doubt- less of that earlier scene here Drake had read or heard, and it may have inspired his own act and vow. But be that as it may, from this time forward, as Camden, the annalist, quaintly records, his mind "was pricked on continually, night and day, to perform that vow," till he was able to do so, and famously, as we shall later see. The early dinner followed the ceremony at the tree, and then the march was resumed. Two more days were spent on the tramp through the forest of vast trees, "without any great variety." At length the party emerged upon a champagne (flat open) coun- try: and were come on the west side of the Cheapo River to the famed savannahs, over which wild cattle roamed. Splendid sweeps of tall pampas grass spread out about them, wonderful to their English eyes. As the narrator noted, it grew "not onely in great length as the knot-grasse groweth in many places, but to such height that the Inhabitants are faine to burne it thrice in the year that it may be able to feed their Cattle, of which they have thousands." Its stalk was "as big as a great wheaten reed," with a blade "issu- ing from the top of it," and although the cattle fed freely upon it, "yet it groweth every day higher, untill the top is too high for an Oxe to reach." It was set afire when it had attained its full height and burned On the Isthmus of Panama 139 off, "for a space of five or six miles together": and within three days after it had sprung up afresh, "Hke greene Corne": such was the "great fruitful- nesse of the soyle by reason of the evennesse of the day and night and the rich Dewes which fall every morning." Three days were occupied in the march over this "Champion." As they advanced, from its httle hills or mounds they had frequent glimpses, "five or six times a day," of the city of Panama — the old Panama, some four miles to the eastward of the present city, which a century later was destroyed by Morgan's buc- caneers. The last day they saw the ships riding in the road; and Drake "did behold and view the most of all that famous City, discerning the large Street which lyyeth directly from the Sea into the Land." When within a day's journey of it they changed the order of their march. They must proceed the rest of the way to their goal with "great silence and secrecy." For they were now come upon the hunting-ground of the Panama poulterers. It was the custom of the "Dames of Panama," so the Cimaroons informed them, to send hither "Hunters and Fowlers for taking of sundry dainty Fowle which the land yeeldeth." If they "marched not very heedfully" some of these sportsmen might get sight of them to their undoing, for warning of their approach would surely be has- tened back by their discoverers to Panama. The goal they were aiming for was a grove, or piece of woods, that lay within a league of Panama, near the high- 140 The Boy's Drake way to Nombre-de-Dios. Here sheltered, they were to be in readiness for action. The grove was attained without discovery at three o'clock of an afternoon, the party having entered it indirectly by "passing, for the most secrecy, a certaine River which at that time was almost dryed up." When they had "disposed of" themselves in this shelter to their satisfaction, Drake sent off a Cimaroon as a spy to Panama, to learn "the certaine night, and time of the night, when the Carriers laded the Treasure from the King's Treasure-house to Nombre de Dios." For, as the narrator explains, they were wont to take the first stage of their journey, from Panama to Venta Cruz, "ever by night, because the Countrey is all Champion, and consequently by day very hot: but from Venta Cruz to Nombre de Dios as oft as they travell by Land with their Treasure they travell alwayes by day and not by night, because all that way is full of Woods, and therefore very fresh and coole: unlesse," he artfully remarks, "the Symerons happily encounter them and make them sweat and feare, as sometimes they have done: whereupon they are glad to guard their Recoes [mule teams] with Souldiers as they passe that way." The Cimaroon spy was well acquainted with Pan- ama, having "served a master" there some time before, and he was disguised in a costume such as the Panama negroes then wore. He was despatched an hour be- fore night so that "by the closing in of the evening he might be in the City," as he was. And unexpectedly On the Isthmus of Panama 141 soon he had returned with great news. He had ascer- tained all that he had been sent for and more. From old companions whom he met he had heard that a great man, no less than the Spanish treasurer of Lima, Peru, on his way to Spain, was to start out that very night with a train-load of gold and jewels, from Pan- ama for Nombre-de-Dios, there to take the first swift "adviso" (despatch-boat) sailing for Spain. He was to be accompanied by his "Daughter and Family." His train was to comprise "fourteene Moyles" (mules), of which eight would be laden with the gold and one with the jewels. The others probably were to carry the family baggage. The spy further learned that two other "Recoes" of "fifty Moyles" each were also to start that night, after the departure of the treas- urer's string. These two were to carry "Victuals for the most part," but would bear a small quantity of silver. "There are twenty-eight of these Recoes," the narrator here remarks; "the greatest of them is of seventy Moyles, the lesse of fifty, unlesse some par- ticular Man hyre for himselfe ten, twenty, or thirty, as he hath need." With this great news all was animation in camp. The march must be resumed forthwith, and away from Panama, for Drake would intercept the rich treasurer's team toward Venta Cruz. Hurriedly their belongings were gathered up and all stole from the sheltering grove as quietly as they had entered it, only a few hours before, though now under the cover of night. Cimaroon scouts went ahead, to prevent any 142 The Boy's Drake surprise. A march of four leagues (twelve miles) brought the band to a point six miles short of the little town on the Chagres, where they halted, here to make their ambuscade in the tall grass on either side of the highway. Shortly before this point was reached the foremost scouts scented the enemy. The pungent odour of a burning musket-match wafted to their sen- sitive nostrils. Cautiously following the scent they came upon a Spanish soldier sound asleep by the road-side, snoring lustily. He "being but one" and they two, they valiantly "fell upon" the unsuspecting sleeper, "stopt his mouth from crying," that is, gagged him, "put out his Match and bound him" so stoutly that he was wellnigh strangled, and ran him back to Drake. He was thoroughly scared, in mortal fear of the Cimaroons whose malevolence toward all Spaniards he well knew. But when he found that he was not in their hands alone, and had learned that the leader of the band was the famous Captain Drake whose prowess was heralded over the Spanish Main, his natural bra- very and coolness returned; and he was quick to pro- pose a trade for his life. Drake put him through a sharp examination, and his ready answers corroborated all that the spy sent into Panama had reported. He was one of a guard of soldiers hired by the Lima treas- urer to conduct his team on the second stage of his journey — from Venta Cruz to Nombre-de-Dios — and when pounced upon by the scouts he was taking a bit of a rest before his march was to begin. The shrewd fellow proposed his trade in the second of two "re- On the Isthmus of Panama 143 quests" that he "was bold to make" to the captain. The first was that Drake would command the Cima- roons, "which hated the Spanish, especially the Soul- diers, extreamly, to spare his life, which he doubted not but they would doe at his [Drake's] charge." The other was that, "seeing he was a Souldier, and assured him [Drake] that they [Drake's band] should have that night more Gold besides Jewels and Pearles of great price then [than] they could carry off, if not then he was to be dealt with how [as] they would " : it might please Drake to give him as much of the plunder as might suffice for him and his wife to live upon, "as he had heard our Captaine had done to divers others: for which he [the soldier] would make his name so fa- mous as any of them which had received like favour." Whether Drake entertained this proposal is not re- corded. Evidently the prisoner was not given over to the Cimaroons, but was retained with his captors for the time being. However, here he passes from view. At the halting-place Drake divided his band, Eng- lish and Cimaroons, into two equal parts, and took command himself of one half, assigning John Oxen- ham to the command of the other half. Then he marched his squad into the long grass on one side of the road, and about fifty paces off it, while Oxenham marched his into the grass on the other side at the same distance from it, but farther behind Drake's position. The two squads were so disposed that, "as occasion served, the former Company might take the foremost Moyles by the heads and the other the hind- 144 The Boy's Drake most, because the Moyles tyed together are alwayes driven one after another." And for the other reason that if the men had need to use their weapons that night they might be sure not to endanger each other. Thus, in their respective positions, the squads lay down quite concealed in the tall grass and awaited events. With Oxenham was Pedro, the Cimaroon chief. All the English, by order, put their shirts out- side their other clothes, the customary procedure for night attacks, that "we might be sure to know our owne men in the pell mell of the night." All had thus lain in ambush for a little above an hour, when the distant music of "deepe sounding Bel[l]s" fell upon their listening ears. They were the tinkling signals to be heard in a still night, as this was, "very far off," of trotting mule teams. The sound coming from either direction told that teams were ap- proaching from Venta Cruz bound for Panama, and from Panama for Venta Cruz, for trade was lively on the road when the fleets were in. Drake's orders were that everything from Venta Cruz should be let pass because only merchandise was carried that way. All the men were to lie low whatever passed or approached, till the signal for attack was given by Drake's whistle. But one of the band, presumably of Oxenham's squad, one Robert Pike, "having drunken too much Aqua vitcB without water, forgat himselfe, and enticing a Symeron forth with him was gone hard to the way [ahead of his place] with intent to shew his forward- nesse on the foremost Moyles," when the team to at- On the Isthmus of Panama 145 tack should arrive. Pretty soon there was heard the sound of the beating hoofs of a trotting horse on the hard road, approaching from Venta Cruz. It was the handsome steed of a cavaher with his fleet-footed page running at the stirrup. As the cavaher came abreast the inner hne of the ambuscade honest drunken Robert rose up "to see what he was." The soberer Cimaroon, "of better discretion," quickly pulled him down and sat, or lay, upon him "that he might not dis- cover them any more." But too late. It was appar- ent that the cavalier had seen the ghost-hke figure, and had taken alarm, for the gentle trot of the horse had suddenly changed into a mad gallop. Drake, from his position, had heard and observed, "by reason of the hardnesse of the ground and stillnesse of the nigh[t], the change of this Gentleman's trot to a gal- lop," and suspected that he was discovered. But there was no time for investigation, and he hoped that the horseman had pricked his steed only to hasten past what was known to ordinary travellers as a dangerous point on the road. Not long after the sound of bells coming toward Venta Cruz grew louder and louder as a recua neared the ambuscade. This must be the treasurer's train. As the head of the string of mules appeared, trotting abreast his squad, Drake sounded the signal. Both squads sprang to their feet. The foremost and hind- most of the string were seized simultaneously, and the train was theirs. Another recua immediately follow- ing was similarly taken. The raiders rushed for the 146 The Boy's Drake spoil. Packs and bags were torn open, but mostly pro- visions were found: no gold, no jewels, and only "some two-horse loads of silver." Consternation marked every face as the raiders realised that these were but the vict- ualling trains that their scout had reported were to fol- low the treasurer's, and that they had been defeated of their "Golden Recoe" by some mysterious turn of fate. Then one of the chief carriers, " a very sensible fel- low," explained to Drake how it had happened. The cavalier whom Robert Pike had risen up to see, and so exposed his white-shirted upper body, had met the treasurer's team coming along the road, within a mile and a half of their ambush, and had warned him of the danger ahead. Reporting the apparition that he had seen, a figure "all in white" rising out of the grass near the roadside, he told the treasurer "what he had heard of Captain Drake this long time, and what he conjectured to be most likely: viz. that the said Cap- tain Drake, or some for him, disappointed of his ex- pectation of getting any great Treasure both at Nombre de Dios and other places, was by some meanes or other come by land in covert thorow [through] the Woods unto this place to speed for his purpose." Therefore the cavalier persuaded the treasurer to turn his recua aside, and let the others following pass on ahead of him. If the worse befel, the cavalier reasoned, the loss of these, being laden mostly with "victuals," would be far less, while they would serve as well to discover Drake, should his guess prove correct. The disappointment of the raiders at this surprising On the Isthmus of Panama 147 slip from their grasp of "a most rich booty" was keen; but with their readiness to shift the responsibiUty for their successes and failures alike upon the Lord, they consoled themselves with the artless reflection that this particular spoil "God would not should be taken for that by all likelihood it was well gotten by that Treasurer" ! And Drake himself took the defeat most philosophically. While he regretted it as keenly as any, and especially grieved that he should have been discovered through the heedlessness of one of his own men, he accepted the truism that it were "bootlesse to grieve over things past." Then with no more ado he turned to the considera- tion of the next move. XIV TAKING OF VENTA CRUZ AND what the next move should be was a per- plexing problem that must quickly be solved, for their situation now was critical. That "sen- sible fellow," the chief carrier, had warned them that they must "shift" for themselves "betimes," unless they were " able to encounter the whole force of the City and Country which before day would be about" them. There were only two ways to be taken. The one was to travel back again the same secret route they had come, twelve miles march back, into the woods; the other forward by the highway to Venta Cruz, six miles only, and thence through the town to the woods. Pedro strongly advised the latter, although it was known that Venta Cruz was nightly guarded by soldiers, for fear of the Cimaroons, He would have Drake " make a way with his Sword thorow the Enemies," And this way the captain jfinally determined upon, choosing it be- cause it was the shortest and readiest, and so would tell least upon the men much fatigued by the long march of that night and the day before. He would rather "encounter his Enemies while he had strength remain- Taking of Venta Cruz 149 ing then [than] to be Encountered or chased when we should be worne out with wearinesse." Then, too, they had now the mules, and the more tired members of the band might be eased by riding some part of this march. His decision once reached Drake could not forego making with its announcement one of those dramatic strokes of which we have seen he was so fond: "Com- manding all to refresh themselves moderately with such store of Victuall as we had there in aboundance [seized from the recua], he signified his resolution and reason to them all. [Then] asking Pedro by name whether he would give his hand not to forsake him — because he knew the rest of the Symerons would also then stand fast and firme, so faithful are they to their Captaine: He [Pedro], being very glad of his [Drake's] resolution, gave our Captaine his hand, and vowed that he would rather dye at his foot then [than] leave him to his Ene- mies, if he held this course." The stroke was effective, as doubtless it was aimed to be, in heartening the whole band; and the start was made in fine feather. All went without incident till the footmen and riders had come within a mile of the town. At this point the mules were returned to the muleteers, and the latter were released and dismissed with the charge that they should not follow the band "upon paine of their lives." Now the little forest had been re-entered, and the road cut through its luxuriant growth nar- rowed to about ten or twelve feet, sufficient only to let two recuas pass each other closely. Along the road's 150 The Boy's Drake sides the growth was as thick as ''our thickest hedges in England that are oftenest cut." Within the thick- ets commanding the road the Spanish picket was ac- customed to hide. Now here concealed were a com- pany of soldiers with a number of fighting priests, lying in wait for the oncoming band. These were scented out by the Cimaroon scouts marching "with great heedfulness and silence" some "halfe a flight- shot" ahead the main body, by the smell of their musket-matches, as the sleeping soldier had been dis- covered before the raid. They comprised the troops regularly stationed in the town to guard it against the Cimaroons, together with a "convent of Fryers," in- mates of a monastery in Venta Cruz, under their own leader. Expecting the raiders, this force had come out to stop them on their way, or else to entice them to the town entrance and there engage them. Upon the scouts' report, all were instantly made ready for battle. Drake gave strict charge that none should "make any shot" till the Spaniards had first spent their volley, which he expected they would do at the outset. Thus the band advanced ready for action. Pretty soon they were within hearing distance of the enemy. Then they were challenged. Coming out apparently into the road the Spanish commander cried, "Hoo!" Drake "answered likewise." The Spanish captain called, "Que genteP" [What race ?] Drake responded, "Englishmen." Taking of Venta Cruz 151 The Spaniard, "in the name of the King o( Spaine his Master," demanded their surrender, with the assur- ance, "in the word and faith of a Gentleman Souldier, " that if they so yielded they would be used "with all courtesie." Drake, "drawing somewhat neere him," retorted, "For the honour of the Queene of England his Mis- tresse, he must have passage that way: and there- withall discharged his Pistol towards him." This was the last word. Presently the Spaniards shot off their whole volley. Drake and several of his men were wounded slightly, and one fatally — John Harris by name, who was "powdered with Haile-shot." When he saw that the enemy's next shots came slack- ing, "as the latter drops of a great shewer of raine," Drake gave his usual signal, "to answer them with our shot and arrowes" and rush forward "to come handy-strokes" with them. Attaining their position they were found to have "retired as to a place of some better strength." To prevent their gaining it if he might, Drake increased the pace of his men. Then the Cimaroons, who had stood aside after the enemy's first volley, joined in the chase, with their war-dance and battle-cry. Their entrance must have been spec- tacular, and nerve-racking, too, to the waiting force at stand to receive the onslaught. They came for- ward "one after another, traversing the way, with their Arrowes ready in their Bowes, and their manner of Country Dance or Leaps, very lustily, singing 'Y6 pebo! Y6 pebo!'" And so getting before the EngHsh- 152 The Boy's Drake men, they "continued their Leaps and Song after the manner of their own Countrey Warres." At length some of the Spanish force were overtaken in the woods near the town where they evidently had determined to make a last stand. But the Cimaroons broke in through the thickets on both sides of them, and they were forced to fly, "Fryers and all." Several more of the English were wounded, and one Cimaroon was run through by a pike. This lusty savage "revenged his own death ere he dyed by killing him that had given him that deadly wound." Now the town was entered with a rush, and Drake took full possession of it without further open protest. The Venta Cruz of that time, occupying the west bank of the Chagres and backed by the tropical forest, was composed, as the narrator describes, of about forty or fifty houses, some of these "faire," with "many Storehouses large and strong for the Wares which were brought thither from Nombre de Dios by the River of Chagro [Chagres], so to be transported by Moyles to Panama." There was the monastery, "where we found above a thousand Bul[l]s and Pardons newly sent thither from Rome." Attached to the monastery was a hospital, or sanitarium, for Spanish matrons of Nom- bre-de-Dios and their babes, since infants of Spanish or other white mothers could not be reared in that un- healthy place. Another description presents the "fair" or finer houses as stone structures decorated with carven work. The town had a governor and other ofl&cers. It was not fortified with walls or other defences. There Taking of Venta Cruz 1 53 were but two land entrances. The main one was from the highway by which Drake entered. The other was at the opposite end, where was a bridge, leading toward the woods beyond the river. Guards were set at the main entrance and on the bridge, so that the raiders were not disturbed during their stay. This was only for "some houre and halfe," but it gave ample oppor- tunity for their refreshment, and for the acquisition of some "good Pillage" by both the English and Cima- roons. All were allowed by Drake to take what they would, "so that it were not too cumbersome or heavy in respect of our travell or defence of our selves." But he was scrupulously careful that no injury or insult be suffered by the passive townsfolk. He had especially given "straight charge" to the Cimaroons that while they were in his company they "should not hurt a Woman, nor Man that had not weapon in his hand to doe them hurt." This they had "earnestly promised and no lesse faithfully performed." Still there was constant fear of them, particularly among the gentle- women in the sanitarium. To "comfort" these Drake provided them with a special guard. But this did not put them at ease, and they "never ceased most ear- nestly intreating," till he "would vouchsafe to come to them himselfe for their more safety." And only when the gallant captain appeared and "in their presence" reported his charge to the Cimaroons, and repeated the assurance of his own men that they should not be molested, were they fully "comforted." A little before the raiders were ready to depart, a 154 The Boy's Drake company of ten or twelve horsemen appeared before the main entrance to "enter the town confidently." They were come from Panama, and supposed that Drake had left "for that all was so still and quiet" as they approached. But the guards evidently received them warmly, for "finding their entertainment such as it was they that could rode faster back againe for fear then [than] they had ridden forward for hope." It was as the new day was "beginning to spring" that the town was left, the raiders marching out and over the bridge in their customary order. They now felt as safe as if they had been "environed with Wall and Trench," for that "no Spaniard without his ex- treame danger could follow" them, especially since their Cimaroons were "growne very valiant." Still Drake hastened them as if on a forced march. Since nothing more could be accomplished on this raid he was anxious to get back to his ship, and see how it fared with the sick men left there with Ellis Hixom. He had now been gone nigh a fortnight on this expe- dition, and there was still a long distance to cover. He declined the earnest invitation of his Cimaroons to stop for a visit to "the other Symeron Towne," and pressed on with relentless vigour. But he urged the band along "with such example and speech," and so cheerfully, that "the way seemed much shorter." He buoyed them up with his confident assurance that he "doubted not but ere he left that Coast we should be bountifully paid and recompensed for all those paines taken." As their journey lengthened "those paines" increased. Taking of Venta Cruz 155 "We marched many dayes with hungry stomackes, much against the will of our Symerons, who, if we would have stayed any day from this continuall journey- ing, would have killed for us Victuall sufficient." Near- ing the journey's end, all complained of the "tender- nesse" of their bruised and wellnigh shoeless feet. In these complaints the clever captain joined, "sometimes without cause but sometimes with cause indeed," which sympathetic diplomacy "made the rest to beare the burthen the more easily." Along the hard way, too, the Cimaroons were ever encouraging and helpful. They cheerily served as guides to the easiest paths, as hunters for game for them, as builders of their lodgings at night; with able and strong bodies, carrying all their necessaries and even the men themselves when fainting with illness or great fatigue. At length Drake halted the weary band at a point within nine miles of Fort Diego. For here in a shel- tered spot during their absence the Cimaroons left with Hixom had built a little town of leafy huts especially for their accommodation and refreshment should they arrive tired from their long march. Drake consented to tarry here long enough to enable the Cimaroons to provide the band with shoes for their lacerated feet. Immediately, however, upon reaching the place, which was on a Saturday eve (February 22), he despatched a Cimaroon with a message and a "token," as had been agreed, to Ellis Hixom. How this messenger was received by the careful Hix- om the narrator thus dramatically relates : "Assoone as 156 The Boy's Drake this messenger was come to the shoare, calHng to our Ship as bringing some newes, he was quickly set aboord by those which longed to heere of our Captaines speed- ing. But when he shewed the Tooth-pike [pick] of Gold which he said our Captain had sent for a token to Ellis Hixom, with charge to meet him at such a River: though the Master knew well the Captaines Tooth-pike, yet by reason of his admonition and caveat given him at parting, he, — though he bewrayed [betrayed] no signe of distrusting the Symeron, — yet stood as amazed, least [lest] something had befallen our Captaine otherwise then [than] well. The Symeron perceiving this, told him that it was night when he was sent away, so that our Captaine could not send any letter, but yet with the point of his knife he wrote something upon the Tooth- pike which, he said, should be sufficient to gaine credit to the Messenger. Thereupon the Master lookt upon it, and saw written, '"By me Francis Drake* wherefore he beleeved." In accordance with this message Hixom at once pro- visioned a pinnace and "repaired to the mouth of the River Tortugos, as the Symerons that went with him then named it," — the "such a river" indicated in the message, which lay a few miles westward of Fort Diego. On the same day Drake marched his band, all but a few who were left in the "Indian new Towne" further to recuperate, to the appointed place, which they reached in the afternoon. After not more than a half-hour's Taking of Venta Cruz 157 anxious wait their longing eyes caught sight of Hixom's pinnace bounding toward them, a piece of good luck for "double rejoycing: first that we saw them, and next so soone." Then under the captain's lead all knelt on the sands in a service of tl^anksgiving, with praise to "God most heartily for that we saw our Pinnace and fellowes againe." Joyous greetings were given them by the pinnace's crew. To Hixom's men — they "who had lived at rest and plenty all this while " at Fort Diego — the worn and tattered band appeared "as men strangely changed" in "countenance and plight." And "indeed," the narra- tor remarks, "our long fasting and sore travill might somewhat sore pine and waste us: but the greefe we drew inwardly for that we returned without that Gold and Treasure we hoped for, did no doubt shew her print and footsteps in our faces." Not so, however, with the buoyant and resolute Drake. On his ever cheerful countenance were permitted to appear no such "print and footsteps." The next day the pinnace was towed to "another River in the bottome of the Bay,'* where those who had remained behind in the town were picked up. Then all were back again at Fort Diego and the company reunited. The sick men were found recovered or recovering. They and the others left to care for them and in charge of the fort, listened with rapt interest to the tales that the returned adventurers told; and were "throughly re- vived" with the report they brought of the surety of great profit from a successful raid on the Panama recuas. 158 The Boy's Drake And when they were assured of the captain's pur- pose, "that he meant not to leave off thus, but would once againe attempt the same journey, whereof they also might be partakers," all were eager for the renewed venture. XV SECOND RAID ON THE PANAMA ROAD ANOTHER adventure could not be made imme- diately. It must be postponed till later in the season when the rich recuas were in movement again. In the meantime, however, Drake would not suffer the "edge and forwardnesse" of his men to be "dulled or rebated" by their "lying still idely unim- ployed," for he knew "right well by continual experi- ences," our narrator sagely observes, "that no sick- nesse was more noysome to impeach any enterprise then [than] delay and idlenesse." So he assembled the whole company for discussion of projects that might be undertaken with profit during the wait. He himself was "considering deepely the in- telligences of other places thereabouts" which he had gotten during his reconnoitring expeditions in former years, "and particularly of Veragua, a rich Towne lying to the Westward, betweene Nomhre de Dios and Nicaragua,'^ where was a mine of fine gold. But he was ready first to hear and consider suggestions from any of his company. The conference was long and earnest with various schemes well argued by their several advocates. Some IS9 i6o The Boy's Drake thought it most necessary further to seek suppHes of good victuals to keep the men close and in health through the period of waiting. This was to be done, of course, by overhauling Spanish victualling ships at sea. Others put forth the bolder proposition that their time should be disposed in intercepting the treasure frigates. Now that the fleets were in these waters, they thought it an opportunity that ought not be neglected. The views of the Cimaroons, who were in the council closely fol- lowing the debate, were asked. With them the idea of a raid upon Veragua was most enticing. They told of the marvellous wealth of a great rich man there, owner of gold mines, to whose possessions they could and gladly would lead the Englishmen. The picture they gave of this Spanish don and his wealth was cleverly drawn to tempt the cupidity of the treasure hunters. He was one "Sinior Pezoro," some time their master, from whom they had fled. He " dwelt not in the Towne for feare of some surprises," but yet not far from it. His house was a very strong one, built of stone. Here he had lived for nineteen years, never travelling from home except once a year to Cartagena, or Nombre-de-Dios, when the fleets were at those ports. He kept a hundred slaves at least in his mines, and had heaped a "mighty Masse of Treasure together." This gold was kept in great chests each "two foote deepe, three broad, and foure long." The Cimaroons would lead their English friends to this treasure through the woods by the same way that they as slaves had fled from the place. Thus the raiders would avoid entering the haven of Veragua Second Raid on the Panama Road i6i with danger, and would come upon Pezoro's house at the back, "akogether unlooked for." Akhough this house was of stone and could not be burned, these bold Cimaroons, ready to go any length, would agree to "un- dermine and overthrow, or otherwise breake it open." When these various proposals had been fully dis- cussed Drake decided for himself, as was his wont. He would adopt the first two projects. The company, with the exception of a number sufficient to guard the "Pascha" and the prisoners, should be divided into two bands. John Oxenham, with one band, should go in the "Bear" eastward toward Tolou, to cruise for victual-ships: while Drake, with the other, would take the "Minion," sail westward, and "lye off and on the Cahezas where was the greatest trade and most ordinary passage of those which transported Treasure from Vera- gua and Nicaragua to the Fleet." Thus no time could be lost or opportunity let slip "either for Victuall or Treasure." The attempt upon Veragua, or Senor Pe- zoro's house, by land, with a long march through the woods, was not to Drake's liking, because it would over- weary his men by continual labour. He would the rather study to "refresh and strengthen" them that they might be in condition for the greater service to come on the Panama road. Still he was most gracious in his declination of this plan. It might be reserved for a later attempt. The two expeditions started out merrily, the "Bear" to the east, the "Minion " to the west. The " Minion's " adventures are first told by the narrator. 1 62 The Boy's Drake Almost immediately, when about the Cabezas, she came across a Spanish frigate of Nicaragua, and took her. Some gold was on her, and a *'Genoway [Geno- ese] Pilot," both of which were promptly appropriated. The Genoese pilot was of value for his knowledge of these parts. Drake treated him so handsomely that his confidence was soon won. He proposed an enter- prise in which the two should join. He had been at Veragua only eight days before, he said, and when he left a great frigate with more than a million of gold aboard her was in the harbour ready shortly to sail. He offered to conduct Drake to her, if Drake, "would doe him right," that is, give him a share of the plunder. He knew the channel so well that he could enter by night without danger from its sands and shallows, and "utterly undescryed." If by "any casualty" they should be discovered from the harbour's point, they might despatch their "business" and depart before the town could have word of their presence, for that lay five leagues within the harbour. The Genoese further told how the town had heard of Drake's being on the coast and was thereat "put in great feare"; and how the wealthy Pezoro was proposing to remove to the South Sea (the Pacific) for greater safety. When he left nothing had been done to prevent Drake's coming if he would, for the fear of him was so great that, as he expressed it, "it excluded Counsell and bred Despair." With this information Drake was minded after all to attempt a raid upon Pezoro's treasure, but by the water instead of the land route, as the Cimaroons had pro- Second Raid on the Panama Road 163 posed. He must, however, first return for some of these alhes, who had been the don's slaves. The Geno- ese opposed this, urging that there should be no delay if the frigate were to be gained. Thereupon Drake decided to seek her at once, and after her capture go for Pezoro. So all "laboured with Sayle and Oares" to attain the harbour and enter by night as planned. When the mouth was reached and they were about to steal in, the report of "two chambers" (short pieces of ordnance) came over the water from the shore. A moment after, from farther off, within the bay, came two other reports, as if answering the first ones. The pilot conjectured that they were discovered. As he supposed, since his departure the town authorities had taken some precautions, nerved perhaps by renewed warn- ings of Drake sent out by the governor of Panama. At least they had evidently set up a watch "for their security," probably, he surmised, at the cost of the "rich Gruife Pezoro." While the Genoese was thus explaining, the wind, which until now had been easterly, suddenly veered to the westward, inviting Drake's band to return again to their own haven. In their simple faith, taking this shift of the wind as a sign from heaven that "it was not God's will that we should enter at this time," they now abandoned the enterprise, and parting with the Genoese, returned accordingly with only the little gold taken from his ship. Oxenham, with the "Bear," had better luck. He brought in a fine prize. She was a frigate laden with "great store o^ Maiz [maize], twenty eight fat Hogs, and 164 The Boy's Drake two hundred Henns." She had been taken with a crew often men, all of whom Oxenham had set ashore. She was so stanch a craft — "new, strong and of good mould," — that Drake decided to transform her into a man-of-war and add her to his fleet. Therefore, after her cargo was discharged, she was tallowed, equipped with guns from the "Pascha," and otherwise fully pro- vided. No formal name was given her, she was sim- ply called "Our Frigate." The work upon her was hastened, since it had been heard from the "Spaniards last taken," probably Oxenham's captures, that two little galleys were building in Nombre-de-Dios, but not yet both launched, to waft, or tow, the " Chagro [Chagres River] Fleete to and fro," and accordingly Drake "purposed now to adventure for that Fleete." All was in readiness for this venture by Easter Day [March 20], and to hearten the company for it Drake that day "feasted" them all "with great cheere and cheerefulnesse." The next morning he was off with a picked crew in the new "Our Frigate" and the "Bear," sails set for the Catives. Here two days after a landing was made. They had been ashore but a little while when a sail was sighted to the westward, making, as it seemed, for the island. Drake immediately set sail with the "Our Frigate" and plied toward the stranger. As he neared her she bore with his ship. It was seen that she was no Spaniard. As she came up she "shot off her Lee Ordnance" in "token of amity." Drake responded with a similar salute. Second Raid on the Panama Road 165 The stranger was found to be a Huguenot privateer. "We understood/' says the narrator, "that he was Tetu, a French Captaine of New-haven [Havre], a Manne of Warre as we were." He is supposed to have been Le Testu, a Huguenot captain of distinction: possibly identical, some of the historians say, with Guillaume Le Testu, of Fran^oise de Grace, a famous pilot who in 1555 made an atlas which he dedicated to Coligny, admiral of France and the Huguenot leader. He was in distress and at their meeting pleaded relief from Drake. Casting "abroad his hands" he "prayed our Captaine to helpe him to some water, for that he had nothing but Wine and Cider aboord him which had brought his Men into great sicknesse." He had sought Drake, he said, ever since he had heard of his being on this coast, which was some five weeks back. And when he discerned the frigate coming toward him he felt satisfied that it was Drake's and a friend. Drake gave him temporary relief and invited him to follow to port where he should have all he needed of both water and victuals. When at the island the two ships had come to anchor more civilities passed between the two captains, with exchange of gifts. The French- man, in token of his gratitude for the help so generously extended, presented the Englishman with a case of pistols and a " fairre guilt cymeter." Drake " requited " the Frenchman with a "Chaine of Gold and a Tablet which he wore." Both gifts were rare. The scimitar was an historic weapon. It "had been the late Kings of France, whom Monsieur Mongomery hurt in the eye, 1 66 The Boy's Drake and was given him by Monsieur Strosse," the narrator informs us. The "late King" was Henry II of France. The " Mongomery " was Gabriel Montgomery, captain of Henry's Scottish guards who accidentally gave the king his mortal wound in a tournament on a June day of 1559. The "Monsieur Strosse," Leon Strozzi, a famous mercenary general of banditti. Captain Testu, or Tetu, as the English called him, is said to have received the sword as a gift from the admiral Coligny who had it from Strozzi. The gold chain supporting a tablet was one of Drake's prized ornaments. The tablet was of enamel. Now the men of the two companies, English and French, fraternised, while the principals listened to and discussed the European news which Captain Tetu brought. He had been in France at the time of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and he told of that awful tragedy. He told, too, of "the King of Navarres mar- riage on St. Bartholomew's day last; of the Admirall of France [Coligny] slaine in his Chamber: and divers other Murthers." All of which led this Huguenot sadly to consider "those Frenchmen the happiest that were farthest from France." His budget of news ex- hausted, the French captain turned to matters of pres- ent concern. Remarking, flatteringly, with true French cleverness, "what famous and often [frequent] reports he had heard of our great riches," he would ask of Drake how he might likewise "compasse" his own voy- age. Could they not unite forces in some adventure ? Thereupon Drake and his chief men consulted Second Raid on the Panama Road 167 among themselves. With all the Frenchman's cour- tesy and generous action, they yet held him in ''some jealousie and distrust." They "considered more the strength he had then [than] the good will he might beare" them. He was a corsair in the same business as themselves, you see, and they must ever be on their guard. He had a company of seventy men, while theirs now numbered but thirty-one. His ship was above seventy tons, while their frigate was "not past twenty," and their pinnace "nothing neer ten tun." Still they might risk a limited partnership with him, and this, too, in the new venture on the Panama road. They would take him, with twenty of his men, into this enterprise for "halves" — an equal division of the plunder, notwithstanding his preponderance in men and tonnage. This Drake regarded "proportionable in consideration that not number of Men, but quality of their judgments and knowledge were to be the prin- cipall actors herein." With the small force of French- men taken along they need have no fear of being over- powered. A further and a strong argument for the partnership was this: that with their reduced num- bers in available men the raid would really be difficult to achieve, while such help as the partnership would bring would seem to assure its success. The French- man's mihtant Protestantism may also have inclined Drake to union with him. So the bargain was struck. The Cimaroons were sent for, and two of them brought aboard the ships to give Captain Tetu assurance of their agreement with Drake. i68 The Boy's Drake It so happened that with the effecting of this part- nership the time had become ripe for the raid. At the inception of the project Drake had fixed as the ren- dezvous for the land journey the Rio Francisco, the Httle river that drops into the sea some four leagues to the w^est of Nombre-de-Dios. The bold captain had determined this time to make his dash close up to Nombre-de-Dios, w^here he would be least expected. Accordingly the word was given to make ready for the departure to this point. First, however, the French- men must be refreshed. So they were sailed eastward to Drake's nearest "magazines," still well stocked, and here were "comforted in such sort as they protested they were beholden to us for all their lives." Five or six days were occupied in this business, and in the prep- arations of Drake's men for the journey. Then the French ship was taken with the "Bear" to Fort Diego, and the start was made. The force that Drake assembled for this enterprise comprised sixteen men of his company and his Ci- maroons, and Captain Tetu, with his twenty picked men. These embarked in the frigate and two pinnaces. The other pinnace of the original three, the "Lion," by the way, had been sunk by Drake's orders shortly after the return from the first land raid, because he had not men sufficient to man her. The "Francisco" being too shallow for the frigate, she was left at the Cabezas manned with a mixed crew of English and French un- der Robert Double of the English company. Double was charged by Drake to stay fast there, attempting no Second Raid on the Panama Road 169 chase for prizes, till the return of the pinnaces. Arrived in the "Francisco," the landing was made a few miles up-stream. Drake's last charge to the masters of the pinnaces, which were now to go in hiding at the Cabezas, was to be back here to receive the band upon their return "the fourth day next following without any faile." The march before the raiders was no such fatiguing tramp as the previous one. It was through the track- less forest, as then, but not much above twenty-one miles to the point where the ambush on the road-side was this time to be made. It was again a stealthy march, under the same guidance of the ever alert Ci- maroons. "Knowing," says the narrator, "that the Carriages [mule teams] went now daily from Panama to Nomhre de Dios, we proceeded in covert through the Woods towards the High-way that leadeth betweene them. . . . We marched as in our former journey to Panama both for order and silence, to the great won- der of the French Captaine and Company." When they were come within an English mile of the road, a little south of Nombre-de-Dios, they bivouacked for the night on a piece of rising ground. Here they re- freshed themselves "in great stillnesse." From Nom- bre-de-Dios below them they could hear the sound of many carpenters, working upon the treasure-ships in the harbour, "as they usually doe by reason of the great heat of the day." All the night through they listened to catch the first notes of the bells of the recuas coming from Panama, which could be heard a long distance off on the still air. 1 70 The Boy's Drake The welcome sounds came not till dawn. First the distant tinkling was heard far down the Panama road. Then the clang of many bells: loud — louder. Over the ringing music the Cimaroons were especially joy- ful. "Now they assured us we should have more Gold and Silver then [than] all of us could beare away." As the raiders gazed down from their cover, soon were seen winding along the road and up the slope three royal recuas. One was of fifty mules, the other two of seventy each. "Every [one] of which," as was afterward learned, "caryed three hundred pound waight of Sil- ver, which in all amounted to neer thirty Tun." The three were guarded by "forty five Souldiers or there- abouts, fifteene to each Reco." Creeping silently tow- ard the road-side the raiders formed in ambush for action. As the recuas approached, the watchers took note of "what Mettall [metal]" they were made. Now, their deep-toned bells jingling merrily, they were trot- ting abreast the ambush. Instantly Drake's signal was given. The tactics of the previous raid were repeated. The foremost and the hindmost mules of the leading string were seized by their heads simultaneously. With their abrupt halt "all the rest stayed and lay down as their manner is." The guards were taken completely by surprise. They quickly rallied, however, and showed fight. A brisk "exchange of Bullets and Arrowes" followed. By the Spaniards' first fire. Captain Tetu was "sore wounded," and a Cimaroon killed. The skirmish was brief, with the guards routed. "In the end these Soul- Second Raid on the Panama Road 171 diers thought it the best way to leave their Moyles with us and to seeke for more helpe abroad." They hastened for this aid, probably to Nombre-de-Dios. The raiders pounced upon the spoil. As the Cima- roons had predicted, there was far more plunder than they could carry off. They first "eased" the mules that were heaviest loaded. "Being weary" they were "content with a few bars and quoits of Gold" that they "could well carry." The silver they buried to recover later. Thus were hidden "partly in the Boroughs which the great Land-crabs had made in the earth, and partly under old trees which are fallen thereabouts, and partly in the Sand and Gravell of a River not very deepe of water," some fifteen tons of the white metal. Their "business" occupied some two hours. Then they left, for a forced march back the way they had come. The gold that they carried must have been considerably more than "a few bars and quoits." At any rate, each man was so heavily burdened that the march was laborious. They had barely got away when they heard "both Horse and Foot coming, as it seemed, to the Moyles." But these soldiers did not follow them after they had once entered the woods. Their freedom from pur- suit, no doubt, was due to the Spanish soldiery's reluc- tance to encounter the Cimaroons in the thickets. Very soon the wounded French captain dropped out of the fine. He had been shot in the stomach, and was too weak to keep the pace. He would not delay the march, but would remain in the woods awhile with 172 The Boy's Drake two of his men, "in hope that some rest would recover his better strength." He was left most reluctantly, and with the earnest hope that he would shortly be able to follow the trail, which, presumably, would be marked for him. Six miles farther along the Frenchmen of the band suddenly reported one of their number miss- ing. Inquiry disclosed that the mercurial fellow had "drunke much wine," and overloaded himself with pillage, and, impatient to be off, had gone ahead of the band. He had evidently lost his way in the woods. Rio Francisco was reached without further mishap in the afternoon of the next day. But the expected pin- naces were not here! Instead, looking out to sea, the band were startled by the sight of a flotilla of seven Spanish shallops, making for the coast and from the di- rection of the Cabezas. At this they ''mightily sus- pected" that these Spaniards had taken or spoiled their pinnaces. Possibly, however, the boats might have been delayed by bad weather. The previous night there had been a heavy rain-storm, with much westerly wind. Had they followed Drake's order and set forth overnight while the wind served they would have arrived. But at the rendezvous they may have been taken. For somehow Drake learned that this very day at noon the Spanish shallops, "mand out of purpose from Nomhre de Dios," had been at this place, "imagining" where his band would strike the sea after they had intercepted the treasure. In the event of their capture here the pinnaces' crews might have been compelled by torture by their captors to confess where Second Raid on the Panama Road 173 the frigate and other ships were. If this were so, the position of the raiders was indeed alarming. Mur- murings arose and lamentations, mixed, perhaps, on the part of some, with complaints of their leader. If all means of return were cut off, their loads of treasure "served them to small purpose." But the quick-witted captain rose gallantly to this emergency. With brave words and shrewd reason- ing he "comforted and incouraged" the murmurers. All was by no means lost. It was "no time now to feare but rather to haste to prevent that which was feared." If the enemy had prevailed against their pin- naces, "which God forbid!" yet the captors must have "time to search them, time to examine the Mariners, time to execute their resolution after it is determined": and "before all these times be taken" they, the band, might get to their ships if they would. Then point- ing to the swollen river and floating trees cast down by the previous night's storm, he spiritedly proposed, "Let us make a raft with the trees that are here in readinesse, as offring themselves being brought downe the River, happily, this last storme, and put ourselves to Sea. I will be one, who will be the other .?" Straightway up spoke one John Smith of the English- men. He would be the other. Next two of the French- men, saying that they could swim very well, volunteered. So, too, a Cimaroon. He had been one of a number of his fellows who had earnestly urged Drake to march by land though it were sixteen days' journey to a point whence the ships might be reached, and in case the 174 The Boy's Drake ships really had been surprised to abide with the Cima- roons always. And Pedro, the chief, offered. But he could not be taken because he could not row. Now the log raft was speedily "fitted and bound"; a biscuit sack was utiHsed for a sail; the stem of a tree for a mast; and an oar was shaped from a young tree to serve instead of a rudder in directing the course of the rude craft against the wind. So soon as it was finished Drake and his volunteers — Smith and the two Frenchmen — embarked! And as they pushed off Drake comforted the forlorn band left behind with his solemn promise: that "// it pleased God he should put his foot in safety ahoord his Frigate, he would, God will- ing, by one meanes or other, get them all ahoord, in despite of all the Spaniards in the Indies." " In this manner putting off to the Sea," the narrator continues the story, "he sayled some three leagues, sitting up to the waste [waist] continually in water, and at every surge of the waves to his armepits, for the space of six houres, upon this Raft. What with the parching of the Sunne, and what with the beating of the Salt water, they had all of them their skins much fretted away. "At length God gave them the sight of two Pinnaces turning towards them with much wind, but with farre greater joy to him [Drake] that could easily conjecture, and did cheerfully declare to those three with him, that they were our Pinnaces, and that all was safe, so that there was [now] no cause of feare. But, see! The Pin- naces not seeing this Raft, nor suspecting any such Second Raid on the Panama Road 175 matter, by reason of the wind and night growing on were forced to run into a cover behind the point [head- land] to take succour [shelter] for that night. Which our Captaine seeing, and gathering, because they came not forth againe, that they would Anchor there, put his Raft a shoare [windward of them, on the other side], and ran by land about the point, where he found them: who upon sight of him made as much haste as they could to take him and his Company aboord." It was Drake's intention to scare them: or "to try what haste they could and would make in extremity." So he had appeared running around the point, with the other three at his heels, "as if they had been chased by the Enemy." And this was precisely what the startled men in the pinnaces thought when he broke upon them "because they saw so few with him" and these in a mis- erable plight. Drake, too, was evidently angry with them for their failure to keep the appointment as he had charged. When he and his companions were taken aboard and asked "how all his Company did.? he answered coldly, well." The inquirers doubted that "all went scarce well." But nothing further was got from him probably till after their explanation of their delay. This explanation the narrator doesn't give, but it must have been satisfactory, for, "willing to rid all doubt and fill them with joy," he finally "took out of his bosome a Quoit of Gold, thanking God our Voyage was made." To the Frenchmen who were among the crews he told the fate of their captain, left behind "sore wounded" with his two men. But this he assured them 176 The Boy's Drake "should be no hindrance to them," referring to the agreed upon division of the plunder. After nightfall, despite the entreaties of his men to rest awhile longer after the hardships of the raft voyage, he W2LS off rowing to Rio Francisco to relieve the wait- ing band there with the least possible delay. Arriving safely, "he tooke the rest in, and the Treasure which we had brought with us: making such expedition that by dawning of the day we set sayle back again to Our Frigate, and from thence directly to our Ships," As so soon as these were attained, Drake assembled both companies and "divided by weight the Gold and Silver into two even portions betweene the French and the English." Thus settlement was made as had been agreed and this partnership dissolved. The French captain, however, was not abandoned without further search. After taking out of the "Pascha" all such necessaries as were needed for "Our Frigate," and giving the "Pascha" a present to the Spanish prisoners who had been detained all this time. Fort Diego was left, and together with the French ship Drake's little squadron rode some days among the Cabezas. In the meantime Drake has made a "secret composition" with the Cimaroons for another "voyage" or expedition, to "get intelligence in what case the coun- trey stood, and, if might be, recover Monsieur Tetu, the French Captaine: at leastwise to bring away" the buried silver. For this expedition twelve of the English and sixteen Cimaroons were to be drawn. John Oxen- ham and Thomas Sherwell were assigned to lead this Second Raid on the Panama Road 177 band, the company not wilHng to suffer Drake to advent- ure again in that direction at this time. Drake, however, insisted upon rowing with the party to set them ashore at Rio Francisco. And he was repaid for so doing. For at Rio Francisco appeared one of the two men who had been left with the wounded French captain. Com- ing toward the pinnace and seeing Drake the poor fellow "fell down on his knees, blessing God for the time that ever our Captaine was borne, who now be- yond all his hope, was become his deliverer." His story was soon told. Within an hour after the band had left them in the woods some Spaniards had "over gotten" them and taken Captain Tetu and his other man. He himself only escaped by flight, having cast away all his precious load, among the rest a box of jewels, that he might "flye the swifter from the Pur- suers." The other fellow might have escaped likewise, had he relieved himself of his pillage and "laid aside his covetous mind": but instead, he took up what the other had thrown down and thus extra "burdened him- selfe so sore that he could make no speed." The escaped Frenchman also gave depressing information about the hidden silver. He believed it all gone: for he "thought there had been neere two thousand Span- iards and Negroes there to dig and search for it." Notwithstanding this report the expedition went for- ward as planned. The locality of the hidden treasure was reached without encountering the enemy. A glance showed the correctness of the Frenchman's surmise. "The Earth every way a mile distant had beene digged lyS The Boy's Drake and turned up in every place of any likelihood to have anything hidden in it." The hiding-places had been in a general way discovered to the Spaniards by that other Frenchman — the fellow intoxicated with wine and over- loaded with loot who had lost himself in the woods on the return march. He had soon after been caught by the Spanish soldiers, and, under torture, had disclosed the secret. Yet with all their '* narrow search" the Spaniards did not get all of the buried metal. Out of the lot the Englishmen with their Cimaroons recovered "thirteen bars of Silver and some few Quoits of Gold." With this they got back to Rio Francisco, the third day after their departure, " safe and cheerfull." And " pres- ently" they were "embarqued without empeachment [hinderance], repairing with no lesse speed then [than] joy to our Frigate." At last the voyage had been "made." Its object had been in the main attained. Therefore "now was it high time to thinke of homewards." For a comfortable passage back to England with their various plunder the company should have another ship. So before com- pleting their preparations for departure Drake concluded to seek another suitable prize. He would visit the Magdalena once again for this purpose. The French company had left with their ship as soon as they had received their share of the loot from the Panama raid, anxious to return to France. Drake was as glad to "dismisse them as they were to be dismissed," for they embarassed him. He foresaw that they could not avoid the danger of capture by the Spaniards if a man-of-war SPANISH GALLEON. Second Raid on the Panama Road 179 made for them while they Hngered on the coast. But they were met again on Drake's way to the Magdalena, and were "very loath to leave" his company. Accord- ingly they accompanied him "very kindly as far as Saint Barnards." Farther, however, they "durst not venture so great danger." For word had been re- ceived that the treasure fleet were ready to set sail for Spain, and were now "riding at the entry of Cartagena." This was enough to send the Frenchmen off for good: and they are heard of no more in our narrator's story. Drake proceeded on his way, and defied the Spanish fleet and the Cartagenans with a bravado that must have amazed them. He passed "hard by" the city "in the sight of all the Fleet, with a Flag of Saint George in the maintop of Our Frigate [the frigate, re- member, that had been taken from the Spanish], with silke Streamers and Ancients downe to the water, sayl- ing forward with a large wind." When he had come to within two leagues of the river night had fallen, and to avoid overshooting it in the darkness, he "lay off and on bearing small sayle," to await the dawn. At about midnight the wind veered to the eastward, and by two o'clock in the morning a Spanish frigate from the river passed hard by him, bearing also but small sail. He "saluted" her with shot and arrows. She rephed with "Bases." He re- sponded by boarding her. Her crew were speedily "content against their wils to depart a shoar" leaving the ship in his hands. She was a frigate of twenty-five tons, and was laden with maize, hens, hogs, and some i8o The Boy's Drake honey. Drake decided that she would answer his pur- pose, and he need not look further. So after dayHght he hastened off with her to the Cabezas. Here, as soon as she was at anchor she was unladen and then careened. At the same time the other frigate was also new tallowed. A busy fortnight followed in trim- ming and rigging the two frigates; boarding and stow- ing provisions; breaking up and burning the pinnaces that the Cimaroons might have their iron work. Then came the rewarding of the faithful and devoted Cima- roons. A day or two before all was in readiness for the de- parture, Drake "willed" Pedro and three of the chief- est Cimaroons to go through the two frigates and see what they would like, promising to give "it them what- soever it were, so it were not so necessary that he could not returne into England without it." He himself would select from his stock some silks or linen that might gratify their wives, as presents for them. While he was overhauling his trunks for the gayest pieces, the handsome scimitar, which the lost French captain had presented him, chanced to be brought out in Pedro's sight, and Pedro straightway coveted it. He preferred it "before all that could be given him." But sure that Drake must highly esteem it, he dared not "himself open his mouth to crave or commend it." Instead, he bargained with a go-between. This was one Francis Tucker. Him he promised a fine quoit of gold if he "would but move" the captain for it: and besides he would give the captain in exchange four other quoits Second Raid on the Panama Road i8i of gold which he had hidden. Tucker duly "moved" the captain and told of Pedro's offer. Drake was most reluctant to part with the weapon in view of the circumstances under which he had received it, and the tragic loss of the giver. Yet he was desirous to content Pedro, who had "deserved so well." And finally he handed the precious thing over to him "with many good words." As for Pedro, his joy was unbounded. Even "if he should give his Wife and Children, which he loved dearly, in liev [lieu] of it," he affirmed, "he could not sofficiently recompence it. For he would present his King with it, who he knew would make him a great Man even for this very Gifts sake." He pressed his four pieces of gold upon the captain, not as adequate payment, but as a "token of his thankful- nesse to him and a pawne of his faithfulnesse during life." Drake so accepted it "in most kinde sort." He would not, however, retain the gold for himself. It should be "cast into the whole Adventure": that is, added to the proceeds to be shared by his partners or investors In the enterprise. Thus was exhibited his disposition, which marked all his actions, scrupulously to deal fair with his associates in his undertakings. With the remark that "with good love and liking we tooke our leave of that People," the narrator dis- misses the Cimaroons from the story. They were not to be met again. The homeward run was rapidly made when the voy- agers were once on the broad Atlantic. Before the Indies were fairly left, one more Spanish prize was 1 82 The Boy's Drake taken. They had passed "Cape Saint Anthony" (Cape St. Antonio), "with a large winde," when "pres- ently being to stand for th' Havana,'' they were " faine to ply to the windward for some three or foure dayes." And in this plying they came upon and captured a small bark. The prize was laden with two or three hundred hides, and "one most necessary thing" which stood them "in great stead." This was a pump, and they set it in their principal frigate. The bark being found not fit for their service, she was given back to her crew. At Cape St. Antonio, to which they returned, they refreshed themselves a bit, meanwhile taking "great store" of turtles' eggs by day and quantities of the turtles by night. Some of the turtles they "pow- dred [salted] and dryed" for a relish on the farther voyage. From Cape St. Antonio the "directest and speediest" course was taken for home. It was Drake's intention to touch at Newfoundland for fresh water. But this was not necessary. For "God Almighty so provided for us by giving us good store of Raine water, that we were sufficiently furnished." So fast did they sail that within twenty-three days they had passed "from the Cape of Florida to the lies of Silley [Scilly]." At the same speed they winged on to Plymouth, and there finally arrived on a midsummer Sunday, August 9 (1573), at about "Sermon-time," to the astonishment of the town. "At what time," the narrator records, "the newes of our Captaines return brought unto his [blank] [per- Second Raid on the Panama Road 183 haps relatives or friends in Plymouth], did so speed- ily passe over all the Church, and surpasse their minds with desire and delight to see him, that very few or none remained with the Preacher, all hastning to see the evidence of Gods love and blessing towards our Gracious Queene and Country, by the fruit of our Captaines labour and successe. Soil Deo Gloria." How great was the value of the plunder which Drake brought home was never known. The amount is vari- ously stated by his contemporaries and the biographers. The antiquary Camden says it was "a pretty store of money." Others put the total at from forty to fifty thousand pounds. It comprised gold, silver, uncut jewels, and some merchandise. A considerable amount must have been taken from the many prizes captured. While these were, for the most part, provision-ships plying along the Spanish Main, not a few of them car- ried precious metals and rich merchandise. Of these prizes the narrator remarks: ''There were at this time belonging to Carthagene, Nomhre de Dtos, Rio grand ^ Santa Martha^ Rio de Hack a, Vent a Cruz, Feragua, Nicaragua, the Henduras [Honduras], Jamaica, &c., above two hundred Frigates, some of one hundred twenty Tunnes, other but of ten or twelve Tun, but the most of thirty or forty Tun, which all had entercourse between Carthagene and N ombre de Dios, the most of which during our aboard in those parts we tooke and some of them twice or thrice each." Among them 184 The Boy's Drake were a number newly built at Havana under the direc- tion of Pedro Menendez de Aviles, stanch ships and fast sailers. The two in which Drake and his com- pany came home were of this class. Piratical as this amazing voyage was, it was not all bad, as we view it with our enlightened twentieth-cen- tury eyes. Drake's treatment of his prizes and his pris- oners was chivalrous. Of all the prizes taken, the nar- rator tells us, none was burnt or sunk "unlesse they were made out Men of Warre against us, or laid as stals to entrap us." While "of all the men taken in these sev- eral Vessels we never ofFred any kind of violence to any after they were once come under our power, but either presently dismissed them in safety, or keeping them with us some longer time (as some of them we did), we alwayes provided for their sustenance as for our selves, & secured them from the rage of the Sy- merons against them, till at last the danger of their discovering where our Ships lay being overpast (for which onely cause we kept them prisoners), we set them also free." Immediately after his return to Plymouth Drake disappears from public view. He is next heard of in Ireland. XVI IN IRELAND DRAKE'S return was at an inopportune mo- ment for Queen Elizabeth's government. In- stead of open war with Spain which seemed so imminent when he sailed some fourteen months before, the governments were now in the midst of nego- tiations for peace. These negotiations, moreover, had reached, or were reaching, a critical stage, Drake's reappearance upon the scene, with fresh spoil from Spanish-America, therefore, could only embarrass the English negotiators. Philip of Spain had been stirred by the reports that had come oversea of Drake's au- dacious exploits on this amazing voyage. His plun- derings must be added to Spain's account against Eng- land. His arrest and punishment as a pirate might be demanded, while his booty, if found, would have to be disgorged. His action would be called piracy on the ground that he had no commission to seek reprisal on his own account. Under the easy law of nations at that time, as the naval historian Corbett shows, a sub- ject of one country wronged by subjects of another was entitled to reprisal: but before he could himself i8S 1 86 The Boy's Drake put his remedy of special reprisal into force, he must obtain a commission from his own prince or govern- ment, and this would be granted only after he had ap- plied to his government for redress and redress had not been forthcoming. Drake had made these several moves, but it was doubtful whether he really possessed the necessary commission. If it had been given him it would be impolitic at this time for the government to acknowledge it. At all events, both his arrest and the surrender of his plunder would be awkward to several persons high in authority who were among his open or secret partners. Yet to refuse a demand for his punishment would bring the peace negotiations to a deadlock. So Drake, at a hint probably from his friends about the court, at once disappeared, while his plunder was put out of sight. His hiding-place was in Ireland. It is believed to have been in the secluded recesses of the harbour of Queenstown, then the Cove of Cork, a noted haunt of pirates and rovers in Tudor times. A little land-locked creek in the town of Crosshaven, Munster, on the Carrigaline River, which makes into the river Lee and so reaches this harbour, is identified by Cor- bett as the spot. It still bears the name of "Drake's Pool," which name has come down from Elizabeth's day, derived from its occupation at some time by Francis Drake. Historians or legends differ, it is true, as to the time and also as to the occasion of Drake's being here. The historian of Munster fixes the date, according to a legend, in 1589, more than a decade In Ireland 187 later than the time of this hiding. The legend tells of a hot pursuit of Drake by Spanish ships into the Cove of Cork and his escape into these recesses, then dropping from sight so suddenly that the astonished Spaniards attributed it to "nothing less than magic." But Corbett brings forward another tradition, perhaps a forerunner of the local historian's, which appears well to sustain his identification of the "Pool" as the earlier hiding-place. This tradition has it that here Drake used to He hid and thence pounce upon Spanish ships passing off the harbour. Among other evidence that the term "used" has reference to the time of this hiding, is a record in Spanish state papers which Cor- bett finds. This record is that Drake after his return from the 1572-73 voyage "kept the seas till he had obtained his pardon." In other words, and more cor- rectly, till his friends had smoothed things over in his behalf so that he might safely reappear from hiding. While his lair, then, was in "Drake's Pool" our captain was ever busy. He had no patience with idle- ness or inaction. He is supposed to have taken a hand with other sea-rovers in guarding the Irish coast against a threatened Spanish attempt to open negotia- tions with the Irish malcontents and secure ports in Ireland. That was in 1574. To head off the EngHsh, Norman, and Low Country rovers issuing from the English Channel, and to protect the Spanish Flanders trade, Spain that year was purposing to seize Scilly and establish a naval base there. A fleet of little swift sail- ing sea-boats on that station were in the spring season 1 88 The Boy's Drake to cruise about the mouth of the channel. Thus in conjunction with a fleet of pinnaces the corsairs were to be prevented from getting into the Atlantic. Through a union with the Irish "rebels" possession might also be taken of various Irish ports. Of this business Pedro Menendez was the master-spirit. He had returned to Spain that year with the West India fleet, bringing home the report of the "increasing activity of the Eng- lish rovers" in Spanish-America, "with Drake's ex- ploits at their head." Menendez's first step, according to Corbett, was to send an officer to the Irish coast to reconnoitre and open communication with the "rebels." This ofl&cer apparently performed only the first part of his mission, for his report was that he encountered a number of English "pirates" who had been ordered thither by the queen. Early in September an epidemic broke out in Menendez's fleet, and before it was pos- sible for him to sail he himself was attacked with the scourge and died. He was Spain's greatest captain, and with his death this scheme failed. Subsequently, Drake joined Walter Devereaux, Earl of Essex, in the latter's campaign in Ireland. Essex had been given a concession, or patent as it was termed, by Queen Elizabeth for the pacification of the district of Clandeboye in the rebellious province of Ulster. His forces comprised volunteer adventurers raised by himself, knights, gentlemen, soldiers, who were to be rewarded by grants of land. Drake is said to have made his acquaintance before sailing on the 1572-73 voyage; and from the fact that Essex's departure for In Ireland 189 Ireland was only a few days after Drake's return to Plymouth it has been assumed by the earlier biog- raphies that Drake joined him at that time. This is the statement of the generally accurate antiquary Stow. "Immediately after his return from the Indies," Stow says, "he furnished at his own expense three frigates with men and munitions and served voluntarily in Ire- land under Walter, Earl of Essex, where he did excel- lent service both by land and sea at the winning of divers strong forts." Corbett, however, on evidence not accessible to Stow, shows that this service did not begin till the spring of 1575, when the accounts between England and Spain had been adjusted without bringing in Drake's plunderings as a set-off by Spain against the English claims, and Drake could safely come out again in the open. It is Drake's own statement that his employment by Essex was due to a letter of recom- mendation from Hawkins. Drake did contribute to Essex's force three "frig- ates" equipped and manned, as Stow said. They included probably the Spanish prizes in which he had returned. He may also have invested some of his newly gained wealth in the venture. He appears as captain of one of the frigates — ^the "Falcon." The part he took, Corbett tells us, was in supporting the flying columns that raided the wretched Irish, and in actions with Scottish filibusters who infested the coast. His three frigates were engaged in the assault upon the isle of Rathlin off the coast of Antrim, in the summer of 1575, when several hundred refugees, with their 1 90 The Boy's Drake guard, were slaughtered every one. This was the awful, culminating act of Essex's campaign of bloody deeds. On this little island the Scottish filibusters and the Irish chiefs acting with them had placed their women and children for safety, under the guard of a small garrison of Scots quartered in a castle. The assault was made by cruel John Norreys (whom we shall meet again with Drake fifteen years later), leading the land force, and Drake in command of the ships. The first attempt upon the castle was valorously re- pulsed. But at the second, when the attacking party had got two guns ashore and in position, the guard surrendered. Then followed the awful massacre. As the inmates of the castle marched out two hundred of "all sorts," men, women, little children, were ruth- lessly slain. Others had taken refuge in caves and in the cliffs by the sea. These were hunted down and as found were slaughtered, some three or four hundred of them, till not a soul was left alive. Meanwhile on the water eleven Scottish galleys were burned. Drake apparently had no part in the wicked butchery ashore. While it was going on he was busied with his frigates in capturing and burning the galleys. Yet his mere association with such a dastardly affair, the destruction of harmless refugees, would condemn him alike with Essex who planned it and Norreys who executed it, in our enlightened days. But here again we must con- sider the era and its standards. Essex, the fastidious knight-errant, reported the shameful performance in an exultant despatch to his queen, and Elizabeth returned In Ireland 191 her unqualified thanks. Essex's campaign closed, un- successful throughout, at the end of this year, 1575. Then he returned to England, and probably Drake went back with him. Now Drake was full of the scheme for the most daring venture he had yet conceived. This was the project to sail the Pacific, the first of all mariners in an English ship, that so constantly had "pricked his mind" from the moment he had sight of the shining waters of that sea from the Great Tree top on the Isthmus of Panama. He had developed the plan while in Ireland. And there, while in Essex's service, he had taken into his confidence a new-found friend who seemed able to help his scheme at court. This new friend was a gen- tleman soldier of Essex's company, who apparently had somewhat intimate relations with men and affairs about the court. This had been shown by his employment by Essex in at least one confidential mission to court. Essex had been thwarted in his Irish campaign by some enemy in England and this mission was to discover who that enemy was. The secret commissioner had reported that the enemy was no other than Essex's supposed close friend the Earl of Leicester, and to bolster his assertion had recounted Leicester's alleged sayings and doings. The result was an open rupture between the two noblemen. Later Essex found that his commis- sioner had misled him with misrepresentations. So Essex wrote in a letter of apology to his old friend, and the quarrel was made up. Thereafter this gentle- 192 The Boy's Drake man soldier was actually in disgrace with Essex, but this Drake did not then know. The man was one Thomas Doughty: a gentleman of engaging personal- ity, somewhat of a courtier, cultivated in mind and manners, but a wily intriguer as after events proved. He was to be associated with Drake as his most trusted friend, his only confidant in all the secret preparations for the great voyage: he was to abuse Drake's confi- dence, intrigue against him, and ultimately, during the voyage, was to be the central figure in what has been truly called one of the most dramatic tragedies in his- tory; and for the part that Drake took the great cap- tain has been harshly criticised by some of the his- torians and condemned by his enemies. All of this matter will appear in succeeding chapters. Drake's plan, as he outHned it to Doughty in Ireland, was cleverly drawn to entice the support of the party about the court still hot for war with Spain despite the peace negotiations. It would involve a raid into the Pacific by way of the Straits of Magellan and an attack by sea upon Panama. The two friends went back to England together, and were at once industriously and secretly at work perfect- ing the scheme. Drake carried from Ireland, or was afterward given, a flattering letter of introduction from Essex to Sir Francis Walsingham, the new Secretary of State and a leading spirit in the war party. Doughty, on his part, was to open Drake's way to Sir Christopher Hatton, then Captain of the Guard and Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, to whom Doughty later became In Ireland 193 private secretary. The enterprise at length received official sanction mainly through the good offices of Walsingham, while Hatton's influence v^as eff'ective. This was probably accomplished in the summer of 1577, after bewildering changes in Elizabeth's policy with alternate peaceful and warlike moves. It is supposed to have followed Drake's presentation of Essex's letter, and to have resulted from a succession of interviews with Walsingham and the queen. Of these interviews we have Drake's own account, afterward given, or rather a report of his account by one of the narrators of the voyage in part. Turned into modern English and spelling, this report, with an odd mixture of the first and third person here and there, runs thus: "'My Lord of Essex wrote in my commendation unto Secretary Walsingham more than I was worthy, but belike I had deserved somewhat at his hands, and he thought me in his letters to be a fit man to serve against the Spaniards for my practice and experience that I had in that trade.' Whereupon, indeed, Sec- retary Walsingham did come to confer with him for that her Majesty had received divers injuries of the King of Spain, for the which she desired to have some revenge. 'And withal he shewed me a plot [map], will- ing me to set my hand and to note down where I thought he [the Spanish King] might most be annoyed. But I told him some part of my mind, but refused to set my hand to anything, affirming that her Majesty was mortal, and that if it should please God to take her Majesty away it might be that some prince might reign that might 194 The Boy's Drake be In league with the King of Spain, and then will mine own hand be a witness against myself. Then was I very shortly after, and in an evening, sent for unto her Majesty by Secretary Walsingham, but came not to her Majesty that night for that it was late; but the next day coming to her presence, these, or the like words she said, "Drake, So it is that I would gladly be revenged on the King of Spain for divers injuries that I have received'"; and said farther that he [Drake] was the only man that might do this exploit, and withal craved his advice therein. Who told her Majesty of the small good that was to be done in Spain, but the only way was to annoy him in the Indies." Then it is presumed Drake unfolded the whole bold scheme, and the queen endorsed it with ardour. But it was a dangerous game and must be kept a close secret. "He said also," the reporter records, "that her Majesty did swear by her crown that if any within her realm did give the King of Spain hereof to understand (as she expected too [blank, ? well]), they should lose their heads therefor." And she particularly "gave me," Drake is elsewhere quoted by this same reporter, 'spe- cial commandment that of all men my Lord Treas- urer should not know it." This was William Cecil, Lord Burghley, who was most strenuous for peace and spoke of the war advocates as "comforters of pirates." The queen promised to subscribe a thousand crowns to the venture. And that this she did the reporter gives evidence: "Then with many more words he [Drake] shewed forth a bill of her Majesty's adventure of looo In Ireland 195 crowns which he said that sometime before her Majesty did give him towards his charge." So well was the secret kept that when the preparations were all completed, and the expedition was about to de- part, the alert Spanish agent in England, De Guaras, reported to his home government that "Drake the pi- rate was to go to Scotland with some little vessels for the purpose of kidnapping the Prince of Scotland." The real destination, too, was withheld from the men enlisted for the voyage. Only the few in Drake's con- fidence knew that the aim was the dreaded Straits of Magellan and the Pacific. Thus this momentous expedition set sail, on the fif- teenth day of November, 1577: and again, like Drake's previous venture for Nombre-de-Dios, in the height of a war fever. XVII CIRCUMNAVIGATING THE GLOBE IT was a gallant fleet and a gallant crew that Drake assembled for this daring voyage into an untried sea. The squadron comprised five small ships equipped and officered as follows: I. The "PeHcan," afterward the "Golden Hind": admiral, or flag-ship. One hundred tons burden. Car- rying eighteen guns. Captain-general, Francis Drake. Master, Thomas Cuttill. 2. The "Elizabeth": vice- admiral. Eighty tons. Sixteen guns. Captain, John Wynter. Master, WiUiam Markham. 3. The "Mar- igold": a bark. Thirty tons. Sixteen guns. Captain, John Thomas. Master, Nicholas Anthony. 4. The "Swan": a fly-boat. Fifty tons. Five small guns. Cap- tain, John Chester. Master, John Sarriold. 5. The "Benedict" (afterward exchanged for a Portuguese fisherman which was renamed the "Christopher"): a pinnace. Fifteen tons. One gun. Captain, Thomas Moone. These were all fitted like regular ships of war. Along with their guns they were provided with an abundance of chain-shot, "wild-fire" or "fireworks," 196 Circumnavigating the Globe 197 harquebuses, pistols, bows and arrows, and corselets for soldiers. Four pinnaces were carried in parts, as on the previous voyage, to be set up in smooth water as occasion served. The furnishings were also most com- plete, even elaborate. The flag-ship especially was pro- vided with "rich furniture" and "divers shews of all sorts of curious workmanship." The vessels for the captain-general's table were all of pure silver, maybe articles that Drake had previously taken with his Spanish prizes. So, too, of silver were many of the utensils in the cook-room. "Expert musicians" were enlisted to play at formal dinners or on occasions of state. This display, the authorised narrative of the voyage would have us understand, Drake provided particularly that "the civility and magnificence of his native Country might amongst all the Nations whither- soever he should come, be the most admired." Some merchandise, trinkets, and baubles were taken on, for barter with or gifts to savage peoples who might be met on the voyage. The company in their way were as notable as the ships. They were in all one hundred and sixty-four "able and sufficient men." The strength of the crews is set down at about one hundred and fifty. The oth- ers were gentlemen volunteers — gentlemen-at-arms — skilled artisans of various kinds, and two cartographers. Among the mariners and gentlemen were a number who had sailed with Drake before. First among the gentle- men, as Drake's nearest friend, was Thomas Doughty. Others were Doughty's younger brother, John Doughty; igS The Boy's Drake Francis Pretty, who wrote the narrative of the voyage which is given in Hakluyt's Principal Navigations; George Fortesque, writer of another sketch of the voyage; Leonard Vicary, a "crafty lawyer," as Drake later termed him, a close friend of Thomas Doughty; William Hawkins, a nephew of John Hawkins. Two Drakes were here besides the captain-general. These were Thomas Drake, Francis's youngest brother, and John Drake, a bright lad, the captain-general's page, and apparently not related to him. Of the ships' cap- tains, John Wynter, of the "Elizabeth," is supposed to have been a relation of Sir William Wynter of the Ad- miralty and nominated by him for this captaincy. John Thomas, of the "Marigold," was presumably nominated to his position by Sir Christopher Hatton. John Chester, of the "Swan," is conjectured to have been a connection of Sir William Chester a former lord- mayor of London and in his day a foremost "merchant prince," but now retired. Thomas Moone, of the little "Benedict," and afterward of the "Christopher," was the faithful carpenter and devoted follower of Drake, the same who sailed with our captain on his previous American voyages, and who scuttled the earlier " Swan," at the captain's bidding, and loyally kept the secret between them. That other true friend of the captain, and his right hand on the previous voyage, John Oxen- ham, who had vowed, "by God's grace," to be with Drake in sailing the first English ship on that wondrous sea, was missing from this company. Alas! he was dead, hanged by the Spaniards at Lima, Peru, as a pi- Circumnavigating the Globe 199 rate. Having waited in England above two years for Drake to make his start, Oxenham had organised a slen- der expedition with a single ship and seventy men, and attempted a dash on his own account. He had sailed to Porto Bello; had marched his men across the isthmus together with a number of Cimaroons; had entered the Pacific in a pinnace that he had built on a river's bank; had dropped over to the Pearl Islands in the bay of Panama; had taken some prizes with treasure from Peru; had finally himself been captured with his band, after hot fighting; and failing to produce a commission from his queen had been sentenced to death with the others as "pirates and common enemies of mankind," and executed at Lima with two of his chief men, while the others were hanged at Panama. Of his fate, and probably of his enterprise, Drake at this time was unaware. The expedition was well provisioned for a long voy- age, although Drake expected to obtain fresh provisions along his way from prizes that he was sure to take and at points where he would make landings. The true story of this marvellous exploit, as it proved to be, can be gleaned only by a study of all the con- temporary accounts extant. No one of them is com- plete or trustworthy in every particular. On some points they are contradictory. The most elaborate and what is termed the authorised narrative, because it was prepared and published by the representatives of the Drake family, is marred by too close "editing" in parts, especially in the matter of the tragedy at Port Julian 200 The Boy's Drake (described in Chapter XIX). Francis Pretty's narra- tive, which Hakluyt gives, appears to be straightfor- v^ard and impartial, but it is inaccurate on several points of navigation in the Pacific. That knov^n as "Cooke's Narrative," a manuscript signed "John Cooke," suppHes valuable details that are in no other. But it carries the story only to the entrance of the Straits of Magellan. Other sketches also cover points that are dulled or not covered in the fuller narrative; while Spanish reports of features of the voyage illu- minate various passages. Therefore, rather than fol- low only either the authorized narrative or Francis Pretty's, both of which assume to be complete, we will take these for our basis and dovetail them with parts from the other narratives, sketches, and reports. Thus we shall have the story as nearly accurate as the con- flicting materials will permit. The authorised narrative is the account which Drake's heir and nephew, Sir Francis Drake, Bart., published in continuation of his Sir Francis Drake Revived, where we found the narrative of the previous voyage of 1572-73. It Is presented under this expan- sive title: THE WORLD encompassed by Sir Francis Drake Being his next Voyage to that to Nombre de Dios formerly Imprinted. Carefully collected out of the Notes of Master Francis Fletcher, Preacher in this imployment, and divers others his followers in the same; ir r rancis uraKe Calling vpon this Dull or EfTemiiiacc Agc^, to foiowe his Noble Steps for Golcle Sc Silucr, By this Memorable Relation , of the Rare Occurrances (nciier yet declared to the World ) in a Third Voyage ^ made by hiai into the Wdi-IndicSjinchcYeares yz.Uf^. Vfhtn Newi're de'Dios washy hiinmd 52. others only in his Company, furprifcd, Faitlifiilly taken ov.tof iheKc^orte of-M- - Chrf/iaftr Geelj, UBi Ilixerjg apd others, who were in thefatae Voyage with him. Reviewed alfo By S*^- FrafsmPrahhimfelk before Ws Death, & Muchholpen and enlarged, by diuers NotsSj with hisewnc hand here aad there lafcitcd. •Set forth by$>^- Frmdi^uke-BAmm^ (his Nephew) now Kulng. LONDO Printed by B. J. for ^ishotas Bmme dwelling it the -g..^t^c.> f>i,-. ff^^irv^,i^„ffe, ifir/e,. . FAC-SIMILE OF TITLE-PAGE OF " SIR FRANCIS DRAKE REVIVED." Circumnavigating the Globe 201 Offered now at last to the publique view both for the honour of the actor, but especially for the stirring up of heroick spirits, to benefit their countrie, and eternize their names by like noble attempts. London. Printed for Nicholas Bourne and are to be sold at his shop at the Roy all Exchange, 1628. It is composed from Fletcher's notes which carry the voyage into the Pacific; from Pretty's account from the point where the chaplain's notes end; and from sketches of others with the fleet. Parts of the Fletcher material that was not used are his notes pre- served in a separate print. The preface of The World Encompassed well sets forth the bravery of the undertaking. "... Forasmuch as the maine Ocean by right is the Lord's alone, and by nature left free for all men to deale withall, as very sufficient for all mens vse and large enough for all mens industry. And therefore that vahant enterprise, accompanied with happy suc- cesse, which that right rare and thrice worthy Cap- taine, Francis Drake atcheived [achieved] in first turn- ing a furrow about the whole world, doth not onely ouermatch the ancient Argonautes, but also outreach- eth, in many respects, that noble Mariner Magellanus, and by farre surpasseth his crowned victory. But hereof let Posterity judge. It shall for the present be deemed a sufficient discharge of duty to register the true and whole history of that his Voyage with as great indifferency of affection as a history doth require, and 202 The Boy's Drake with the plaine euidence of truth, as it was left re- corded by some of the chiefe, and diuers other Actors in that Action. The said Captaine Francis Drake hauing in a former Voyage, in the years [i5]72 and [I5J73 (the description whereof is aheady imparted to the view of the world) had a sight, and onely a sight, of the South Atlantik, and thereupon either conceiu- ing a new, or renewing a former desire, of sailing on the same, in an English bottom: he so cherished thenceforward this his noble desire and resolution in himselfe, that notwithstanding he was hindred for some yeares, partly by secret enuie [envy] at home, and partly by publique seruice for his Prince and Coun- trie abroad (whereof Ireland under Walter Earl of Essex giues honourable testimonie) yet, against the yeare 1577 by gratious commission from his souer- aigne and with the helpe of diuers friends aduenturers, he had fitted himselfe with fiue Ships." The fleet dropped out of Plymouth Sound at the close of the fifteenth November, 1577, toward dusk, so quietly as almost to be unnoticed. But this start was a false one. By morning, reaching the Lizard, they met a contrary wind which forced them to put into Falmouth Haven. And as they lay in this haven, the next day toward evening there fell upon them a tem- pest "so terrible as few men have seen the like." All that night and through the following day it raged, and so fiercely that the wreck of the whole fleet was threat- ened. "But it pleased God," it is Pretty's remark, "to preserve us from that extremitie, and to afilict us Circumnavigating the Globe 203 onely in two particulars: the mast of our Admiral which was the Pellican was cut overboard for the safe- guard of the ship, and the Marigold was driven ashore and somewhat bruised." This was bad enough yet not the whole damage, for others of the ships were more or less hurt. Accordingly it was necessary to return to Plymouth for repairs. This was done as soon as the weather permitted. They arrived back on the twenty-eighth, thirteen days after their starting out. The repairs occupied a fortnight longer. Then with *' happier sails" they "once more put to sea" and were off for good. This was the thirteenth of December. When they were fairly out of sight of land Drake gave the company the first intimation as to whither they were bound, by the directing of his course and by his naming the island Mogador as the first place of rendezvous should any of the fleet become separated from the flag-ship. So sailing with favourable winds, the first land they sighted was Cape Cantin on the Morocco coast. This was on Christmas morning. Coasting southward, Mogador was reached by the flag-ship that day. On the twenty-seventh the whole fleet came to anchor in a road between the island and the main. Here happened the first adventure. Four days were spent on the island in setting up one of the pinnaces brought in parts. The fleet riding at anchor attracted the natives on the main, and at length a group appeared at the water's brink with a flag of truce making signs to them. Drake sent a 204 The Boy's Drake ship's boat to shore to "know what they would." They indicated that they would Hke to visit the ships. Accordingly two who appeared to be chief men were taken aboard, one of the boat's crew being left ashore as a pledge for their safe return. Drake received the two Moors on the flag-ship with his customary impres- siveness. They were ''right courteously entertained with a dainty banquet," and contented with gifts, while they were made by signs to understand that the fleet had come "in peace and friendship." Drake offering to traffic with their people for such commodi- ties as their country yielded, the visitors promised to return the next day with "sheep, capons, hennes," and other things. True to their word they reappeared on the shore at the appointed time, and with them others leading camels bearing wares for traffic. Again a ship's boat was sent them. As it touched the shore one of the crew, John Frye by name, who was to serve as the pledge in accordance with the procedure of the previous day, leaped out and ran toward the group intending "friendly to embrace" them. But to the astonishment of himself and his comrades, he was in- stantly seized, clapped upon a horse, and galloped off' into the country. At the same time another lot of Moors suddenly emerged from a hiding-place behind a rock and not only prevented the rescue of Frye but compelled his comrades to hasten back to the fleet. Thereupon Drake despatched the new pinnace with a full complement of men to recover or redeem the lost sailor. This party marched some distance into circumnavigating the Globe 205 the country without finding him, or coming to the natives to deal with them for him: all having fled or standing off out of hailing distance. So discomfited they returned to the ships, and the fleet resumed the voyage. This performance as afterward learned was not so hostile or treacherous as it appeared. It was simply a device of the native king to learn for sure whether or not the fleet were "any forerunner of the Kings of Portugall," his enemy, and to get what other news he could at first hand. So when Frye, brought into the king's presence, had satisfied the monarch that the ships were indeed English, were under a great English captain, and most friendly, he was hastened back to the shore with an escort, carrying a present to Drake, and the dusky king's offer of "great courtesie and friendship" if Drake would use his country. When Frye, back to the shore, found the ships gone he was greatly grieved. But the king treated him well, and not long after sent him home to England in an Eng- lish merchant-ship which had come into the harbour. His only misfortune, therefore, though no slight one, was his being bereft of the joy of continuing with his beloved captain on the marvellous voyage. From Mogador, which was left on the thirty-first of December, the course was toward Cape Blanco, Drake's evident intention being to coast along shore and intercept Spanish or Portuguese fishing-boats from the Canaries, and further supply the fleet with pro- visions from these craft. Mogador had barely been 2o6 The Boy's Drake left when contrary winds and foul weather were en- countered. These conditions continued till the fourth of January. Yet the course was held, and before the weather cleared three canteras — Spanish fishing-smacks — had been captured by the new pinnace. Farther along the pinnace took a Portuguese caravel. Then the "Marigold" took another. Cape Blanco was finally reached on the sixteenth of January. Sheltered within the cape was a Spanish ship riding an anchor from which all her crew, save "two simple mariners" had fled upon the fleet's approach. She also was seized and added to the spoil. With these prizes Drake anchored in an inlet behind Cape Blanco. Here a stay of four days was made. The time was occupied in cleaning and trimming the ships, in tak- ing on fresh provisions, and in military drill. Drake mustered the company and trained them "in warlike manner to make them fit for all occasions." Thomas Doughty acted as drill-master. While here an inci- dent occurred which reflected credit upon Drake in that he would be no trafficker in human beings. "Cer- tain of the people of the country" brought to him a Moorish woman with a babe at her breast, to be sold "as a horse, or a cow and calf by her side." But he would have none of such trade, for, says the narrator (Fletcher), "in which sort of merchandise our generall would not deale." His kindly nature, also, was here exhibited. This people had great need of fresh water, and they brought leathern bags to be filled, offering to buy the luxury from the Englishmen, "they cared not Circumnavigating the Globe 207 at what price." But, ''the circumstances whereof con- sidered, our generall would receive nothing of them for water, but freely gave it them that came to him." And his own supply was in need of replenishing. He also fed them with the fleet's victuals. Their manner of devouring the food shocked the English chaplain. It was not only "uncivill and unsightly to us, but even inhumane and loathsome in itself." Before the com- pany re-embarked, the prizes, having been discharged of such of their cargoes as was desired for the fleet, were all released except two: one of the caravels and a cantera of forty tons. The former when taken was bound for "St. Jago" (Sao Thiogo or Santiago) of the Cape Verde Islands for a cargo of salt, and she was retained to be discharged upon the fleet's arrival there. The cantera was added permanently to the squadron, and her owner was given in exchange the "Benedict" pinnace. Captain Moone was transferred to her charge, and she was christened the "Christopher." Leaving Cape Blanco, the fleet next made for the Cape Verde Islands, whence the course was to be di- rected south and south-west through the boundless sea to the far-distant coast of the Brazils. It was Drake's purpose first to touch at Maio in the hope of there taking on a sufficient quantity of fresh water to last till the Brazils were reached. Maio was attained on the twenty-eighth of January, and the fleet again came to anchor "under the wester part towards St. Jago." Landing was made "in hope of traflfique with the in- habitants" for the desired supplies. A Portuguese set- 2o8 The Boy's Drake dement was found not far from the shore, comprising "a great number of desolate and ruinous houses" with "a poor naked Chappel or Oratory." The few peo- ple met refused to traffic because "forbidden by the King's edict." The next morning a party of sixty- two men under Captain Wynter, of the "Elizabeth," and Thomas Doughty, were marched some three miles to the chief place of habitation for a further quest. When they arrived the inhabitants had fled. After feasting joyously upon "very ripe and sweete grapes," and other luscious fruits found in abundance, and co- coa nuts, new to their taste, they returned to the ships empty-handed. Disappointed here, sails were hoisted and the fleet moved farther on. Sao Thiago was passed the next day, and far enough ofi^ for the fleet to escape the shot of two "great pieces" which the Por- tuguese inhabitants fired at them. This salute was accepted as in honour of the fleet and the captain- general, or "rather to signifie that" the givers of it were "provided for an assault." Whichever its intent the gallant flag-ship returned an answering one from her guns. While thus coasting, they espied two large Portu- guese ships sailing out from port. Suddenly these ves- sels put about and appeared to be hastening back to get under the shore batteries. Hot chase was given them and one was overhauled before reaching cover. She was boarded without resistance and found to be bound for the Brazils rich laden. Her cargo was in large part wines. She also carried "much good cloth, circumnavigating the Globe 209 both Hnnen and woollen besides other necessaries." On board her were "many Gentlemen and Marchants," as passengers, and her navigating officer was a skilled pilot experienced in South American waters. This was a great capture, and this ship was to play an impor- tant part, as it happened, in the South Atlantic voyage. Drake put Thomas Doughty, "as his good and espe- cial friend," in charge of her, with a prize crew of which brother Thomas Drake was one. Doughty was particularly charged to see that the cargo was kept unbroken till Brava was reached. Brava, the most southerly of the Cape Verdes, was to be the ren- dezvous whence the long pull to the Brazils was to be made. The fleet sailed on, and that night came up with Fogo, the weird "burning island," with its belching volcano. Fogo filled the company with awe. The fire from the volcano broke out four times an hour and with such "violence and force" that it gave "light Hke the Moone a great way off," and seemed as if it "would not stay till it" touched "the heavens themselves." Little Brava was reached the next morning. The con- trast that this placid isle presented with grim Fogo was most cheering. "Pleasant and sweet" was it to their eyes, covered with trees "alwaies green and fair to look upon," and with "silver streams running from the banks into the sea." It was found to be a "store- house of many fruits and commodities." And, strange to say, there appeared to be only one habitation and a single inhabitant of this little paradise — a Robinson 2IO The Boy's Drake Crusoe without his Friday. This hermit, probably a Portuguese, was "so deHghted in his soHtary Hving" that he "would by no meanes abide" their "coming, but fled, leaving behind him the relicks of his false worship [the Protestant chaplain is here the narrator]; to wit, a cross, with a crusifix, an altar with his super- altar, and certain other Idols of wood of rude work- manship." Upon arriving at this rendezvous, word was brought to Drake by his trumpeter of trouble on the Portu- guese prize with charges against Doughty. Two or three of the prize crew accused Doughty of purloining things from the cargo which he was there to protect intact. They protested that he was not to be trusted any longer, "least he might robb the voyage and de- prive the company of their hope and her Majesty and the other adventurers of their benefitt to inrich him- self, make himself the greater to the overthrow of all others." This statement is Cooke's. It was the un- written law in prize-taking that the plunder should be formally and equally divided, none to help himself to the smallest or least valuable article. Drake immediately went aboard the prize to inquire into the matter. Doughty met him with accusations against Thomas Drake of the pilfering with which he had been charged. Cooke gives the details of the charge, evidently reporting what Doughty had told him. But nothing is said about finding anything on Thomas Drake, while Doughty was found in posses- sion of several articles. The latter fact Cooke does Circumnavigating the Globe 211 not mention: it appears in Fletcher's notes. These articles Fletcher says were "certain pares [pairs] of Portugall gloves, some few peeces of mon[e]y of a strange coine, and a small ring." They were, how- ever, not purloined but, he declares, were openly given Doughty by one of the Portuguese passengers out of the latter's own chest ''in hope of favour"; and the whole lot "not worth the speaking of." But Drake thought differently. The passengers' belongings were as definitely of the cargo as was the merchandise in the hold. Doughty of all men, the captain of the prize, bound scrupulously to abide by his orders, should take not a thing from its contents, not even a present from crew or passenger, his temporary prisoners. So Drake turned upon his hitherto trusted friend in a rage. He wondered what Master Doughty "should meane to touche [accuse] his brother." There must be some deeper motive than appeared. It looked as If it were at Francis Drake he was aiming behind the brother. That he meant to "shoot at," or sap Drake's own credit with the company. This Drake "would not nor could not, by Gods lyfe as he sware, suffer it." Then he ordered Doughty back to the "Pelican," and as- signed brother Thomas to his place, himself remaining with the prize. Now Drake released the prisoners on board — the captain and crew, and the "many gentlemen and marchants" — all save one, the skilled pilot, not only without ransom, beyond the ship and its contents, but with the gift of a ship from his own fleet well provl- 212 The Boy's Drake sioned, by which they might all comfortably return to their port, or go whither they would. This act sur- prised not only the rich Portuguese passengers, but also some of the new men of his company who were not acquainted with his courtly customs as a "sea King." The former rejoiced that they had escaped with their lives, and thought the great captain most generous. The ship given in exchange was the new pinnace; and its stock of provisions included a butt of wine (prob- ably from the prize's own cargo), some bread, and fish. All the released prisoners were allowed their wearing apparel. The pilot was retained because of his knowl- edge of South American seas. He was a Portuguese mariner, Nuno da Silva by name. It is said that Drake told him of his project to enter the Pacific by way of the straits and offered to take him into service for the voyage, and that the offer was gladly accepted. Be this as it may, Da Silva proved a trusty and effi- cient guide till his discharge by Drake on the Pacific coast: and he afterward prepared a report of his ex- periences in this service which contributes some illu- minating details to the story of the voyage, as we shall see later on. The released prisoners departed with the well- stocked pinnace on the first day of February, and the Portuguese prize was added to the fleet, further stocked as an extra victualler. Then, the next day, February second, all sails were set for the long cruise south and south-westward below the equinoctial line. Hence was to be followed the course of Ferdinand Magellan, the Circumnavigating the Globe 213 discoverer of the straits that were given his name a half-century before. The next rendezvous was to be the river Plata. Not till this announcement did the company, except the men closest to Drake, learn that they were now bound for the coast of the Brazils and for the straits leading to the Pacific. XVIII IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC At the departure from the Cape Verde Islands ^^~j^ Drake was still on the Portuguese prize, now called the "Mary." Doughty, on the " Pelican," was acting as Drake's representative and as such assum- ing the command above the flag-ship's master. Before the start Drake had forgiven him through the inter- cession of Leonard Vicary, the "crafty lawyer"; and it may have been upon this restoration to favour that Doughty presumed so to act. He had assumed com- mand, it seems, soon after coming aboard from the prize. Causing the boatswain to call the ship's com- pany together, he had made them an "oration" as craftily drawn as the "crafty lawyer" could have framed it. There had been "great travails, fallings out, and quarrels" among them, he began, and every one had been "uncertain whom to obey because there were many who took upon them to be masters": therefore the general "by his wisdom or discretion" had "set down order that all things might be the bet- ter done with peace and quietness." Since he could not himself be in two places at once and "must needs 214 In the South Atlantic 215 look to the prize which must do" them "all good," he had sent him, Doughty, "as his friend whom he trusted to take charge in his place," with special commandment to declare "that all matters by-past are forgiven or forgotten upon this condition: that we have no more of your evil doings hereafter." He was to tell them that in the general's absence they must obey the master of the ship in "their business, as touching navigation," but for all other matters him- self. Moreover, he asserted that, "as the General had his authority from the queen and the council ... to punish at his discretion with death or other ways of- fenders," the general had committed the same author- ity to him, in his absence "to execute upon those who are malefactors." And with this extraordinary state- ment he declared "whosoever offendeth" should "feel the smart." Then adjuring them to " be honest men," and expressing his hope that they would so conduct themselves that he would not have cause to lay upon them "which I have power to do," he dismissed them. It was indeed a bold speech. It was an attempt, as the naval historian Corbett clearly sees, to circumscribe the master's authority and to usurp the control of the flag-ship, by playing upon the long-time jealousies be- tween the mariners and the soldiers of ships of war. The soldier, as Corbett says, at that time was still the only recognised fighting man, the sailor but the instru- ment to carry him to the scene of action. Corbett admits it to be possible that Doughty as the principal soldier on board considered himself entitled to com- 21 6 The Boy's Drake mand over the head of the master, but it is incredible, he holds, that Drake, had he really the power of life and death, would have delegated this power to any one, and least of all, under the circumstances, to this one. That Doughty was thought to have been too "premp- torye" and to have "exceeded his autority, taking upon him too great a command," was the statement of even the chaplain Fletcher, his would-be apologist. All went well for a while. But in mid-ocean com- plaints of Doughty's conduct on the flag-ship came to Drake. These were brought by the trumpeter, John Brewer. The trumpeter had been sent to the flag-ship on some errand, and returned with reports of Doughty's abuse of his authority. There were graver reports of an attempt by somebody to tamper with the flag-ship's crew to incite them to mutiny. It was even definitely charged that Doughty, after winning the confidence of the flag-ship's master, had tempted him to desert the fleet and take to piracy. Whether these charges were included among the complaints does not appear. But whatever was the trumpeter's story it was sufficient to rouse Drake to severe measures against his forgiven friend. The ship's boat was forthwith sent back to the "Pelican" with orders to bring Doughty into Drake's presence. When she returned with the culprit Drake was in the midst of divine service. Hearing the boat at the ship's side Drake (the account is Cooke's) "stode [stood] up: and Mastar Dowghty offering to take holde of the shipe to have entered, quoth the Generall: In the South Atlantic 217 'Staye there, Thomas Dowghty, for I must send you to an other place': and with that comaunded the mary- nars [mariners] to rowe hym [Doughty] aborde the Fleeboate [the fly-boat " Swan "], sayenge [saying] vnto hym it was a place more fit for hym then [than] that from whence he came." Doughty craving to speak with the captain was denied. And so, Fletcher adds, the general "removed the said Douhty prisoner into the flye boat with utter disgrace." For more than two months after leaving the Cape Verde Islands the fleet were out of sight of land. At about "the line" (equator) they were becalmed for three weeks, "yet subject to divers great storms, ter- rible lightnings, and with thunder." Strange sights were seen on this strange journey — strange to most of them — on the "vast gulph. As our eyes did behold the wonderful works of God in his creatures which he had made innumerable both small and great beasts in the great and wide Seas: so did our mouths taste, and our natures feed, on the good- ness thereof in such fulness at all time and in every place, as if he had commanded and enjoyned the most profitable and most glorious works of his hands to wait upon us . . . with a particular test of his fatherly care over us all the while." So wrote the good chap- lain. The "particular test" of the divine care the chaplain found in the provision of drinking water vouchsafed them. They had failed of the full supply that they had hoped to get at the Cape Verde Islands for this long voyage, but their store as it ran low was re- 21 8 The Boy's Drake peatedly replenished by heavy rains, which the Heav- enly Father, he was sure, sent for their benefit. While they often encountered adverse winds and unwelcome storms, and felt " the effects of sultry heat, not without the affrights of flashing lightnings and terrifyings of often claps of thunder," yet with all was an " admixture of many comforts." Among the strange things of the sea of which they took heedful notice were the flying-fish, with "finnes of the length of his whole body from bulk to the top of the taile, bearing the forme and supply- ing the like use to him that wings do to other creat- ures." These fish they did not come upon in such vast numbers as did Magellan to whom they seemed to "form an island in the seas." But at one time a "multitude" of them in their flight fell into the ships amongst the men. The landfall was, at length, made on the fifth of April. It was the coast of Rio Grande do Sul, the southern tip of the Brazils. When they were yet some distance off "great and huge" fires were seen arising from various points along the shore. They drew in under bright skies to make a harbour in what seemed a fair bay, and on the low shore natives were observed deporting themselves as if inciting them to land. Then something very strange and startling happened. As they were about to enter the fair bay suddenly the sight of land was taken from them, and the ships lost sight of each other. They were enveloped in "such a haziness as if it had been a most deadly fogg," with "the palpabel darkeness of Egipt." In the "neck" In the South Atlantic 219 of the fog burst a storm of unprecedented fury, "as if heaven and earth had gon[e] together." Had not the Portuguese pilot, Da Silva, familiar with this coast, "been appointed by God to do" them "good," all must have perished and been heard of no more. In the awful darkness and tempest his voice was heard crying a return seaward as best they could, each ship for herself. In scurrying out one of the ships "touched with the shoals." But "by God's providence" she "came cleere away." When at sea the dispersed fleet came together again all save one — the "Christopher," of which nothing was to be seen. This amazing change from serene to tempestuous weather, with the threatened wreck of the whole squad- ron, was charged by many of the company to sorcery. All were sure of this when afterward they heard a tale which the Portuguese pilot told of the natives of this particular point of the coast and their customs. It was given as no common sailors' yarn, nor as a legend. It was related as a sober statement of fact, and as such it was accepted undoubtingly. For, we must remem- ber, that was an age of superstition, of unquestioned faith in witchcraft, and in conjurations. It was a common belief among sailors that sorcery could and did produce foul weather. This was the pilot's story. The "great and huge" fires that had been seen springing up ashore as the fleet were approaching had been kindled by the sav- ages upon descrying them, "for a sacrifice to devils." These people had been in miserable bondage to Portu- 220 The Boy's Drake guese coming to their country. Rather than endure this tyranny they had fled from their "natural soil and inheritance" to these remote parts of the land. But still they had been pursued with relentless persecution; their enemies were determined to "root them out" from "the face of the earth." Wherefore they had been driven to yield themselves unto the "hands of divells" and to take them for their "patrons and pro- tectors." Whenever ships were sighted approaching their coast the aid of these "ministering spirits" was invoked to wreck them. In this invocation were in- termixed "many and divers ceremonies of conjura- tions." The sand of the shores was first gathered up and thrown into the air, whereupon there would sud- denly arise "such a hazinesse as a most gross and thick fogg," with "a palpable darknesse that the land can- not be seen, no nor the heavens." Then they would hurl more sand toward the heavens, in increasing quan- tities, and as these multipHed "shoals increast in the way of the shipps in the seas to ground them: and withall such horrible, fearful, and intollerable winds, raines, and stormes, that there is no certainty of life one moment of tyme." By these practices of the black art, the narrator assured his listeners, did they overthrow the Portuguese whenever these came "with their armies of men and their armathos [armadas], that is, their huge shipps of warr, against them." Many such had been cast away, and "non[e] that ever came in the dance did ever escape." From its uncanny reputation Portuguese seamen had come to hold this In the South Atlantic 221 part of the coast to be enchanted, and had given it the name of "Terra Demonum" (Demonland). Because these natives supposed that only their enemies trav- elled the seas in ships, they had taken the English for Portuguese, and so, the narrator concluded, practised their conjurations as usual upon them. That their "devilish intent" was frustrated the chaplain rever- ently credited to the intervention of the hand of God. After a week of further sailing, sometimes to the seaward, sometimes toward the shore, but always southward as near as they could, and ever on the out- look for the missing ''Christopher," the fleet at length arrived at the rendezvous — the river Plata. Entering the river they sailed up it some six or seven leagues, and then came to anchor under a headland. The next day, to their great relief, the "Christopher'* joined them here. In thanksgiving for her reappear- ance Drake named the headland "Cape Joy." The point is conjectured to be near Montevideo, Uruguay. Here sweet and wholesome water was taken in and the country round about enjoyed. It was "very faire and pleasant to behold," and was "stored with plentie of large and mightie deere." But it was not a suitable place for the work of cleaning the ships, now much clogged and foul, which Drake was anxious to have done. Therefore on the day of the "Christopher's" coming, the squadron sailed some twelve leagues farther in the river. Here another and more sheltered harbour was found in an "Hand of Rocks" not "farre from the main." But this proved no more satisfac- 222 The Boy's Drake tory than the first anchoring-place. Still they re- mained here through four days doing some work and having some play. Among other pastimes the sailors hunted seals, which then resorted to these rocks in great abundance. Next a harbour was attempted the farther in, but with no better success. From these experiences Drake was satisfied that no suitable place for his purpose was to be found in the river. So he ordered the squadron seaward again, to seek a haven somewhere on the main. A fortnight had been spent in the river and it was left with some regrets, for the company's sojourn here had been most refreshing. Drake was now leading again in the "Pelican." As the fleet all together were bearing out to sea, at night, the fly-boat "Swan," on which Doughty was still re- tained in disgrace, unaccountably disappeared. Soon after contrary winds were met: then a succession of storms. With these happenings the belief was seem- ingly possessing Drake that Doughty was responsible for the foul weather: that he was really a "conjurer and witch" and was producing the tempests by sor- ceries. Some time before young John Doughty had boasted among the sailors that both he and his brother could "conjure." They could "raise the devil and make him to meet any man in the likeness of a bear, a lion," he had declared. Drake may have heard of these boasts. At all events, at every coming of threat- ening obstacles to his progress he would inveigh against Doughty as the occasioner of them. The contrary In the South Atlantic 223 wind or the fierce storm had come out of "Tom Doughty's cap-case," he would say. All this intensi- fied his feeling that Doughty was indeed the arch- enemy of the expedition, and must sooner or later be dealt with severely else the voyage would be over- thrown. For several days they kept the sea on a southerly course, or coasted the shore, seeing nothing of the "Swan" and finding no suitable haven. On the eighth of May, in a storm, the "Christopher" again disappeared. Four days later they were obliged, by stress of weather, to come to anchor under a cape "in 47 deg." This is supposed to have been Cape Tres Puntas on the Patagonian coast. By this headland was discov- ered a bay which seemed to promise the good and com- modious harbour they had been so long seeking. So Drake called the headland "Cape Hope." Many rocks lay off the bay, and they dared not venture the ships into it till it had been examined. This survey Drake would intrust to no one, however skilful: he must make It himself. Accordingly the morning after their arrival a boat was lowered from the "Elizabeth," and he with a trusty crew rowed off for an inspection. As they neared the shore a native suddenly appeared on the strand, singing and dancing to the accompani- ment of a rattle which he shook In his hand, and ap- parently Inviting them to land. But as suddenly as he had shown himself a thick fog fell and a tempest broke out — just as had happened when the fleet first approached the Brazils. The little boat enveloped in 224 The Boy's Drake the mist was now three leagues from the ships. She endeavoured to return, but would surely have been lost had not Captain Thomas of the "Marigold," "upon the abundance of his love and service to his generall," as Chaplain Fletcher approvingly notes, bravely dashed with his ship, regardless of perils, into the bay and rescued the boat. Then with Drake and his boat's crew safe on board her, she anchored under the lee of the headland, while the other ships were forced by the storm to run off to sea again. Mean- while the "Christopher" had been recovered and had gone to sea with the others. The next morning opening fair with a moderate wind, Drake again took the ship's boat and this time made the shore. His particular errand was to set up fires as a beacon to the dispersed ships to reassemble in this road. In good time all were come once more together, except the "Mary," the Portuguese prize, of which brother John Drake was now in charge, and the "Swan." The "Mary" had separated from the others during the night at sea. They remained in this harbour one day longer, a number of the men go- ing to the shore from which the natives had fled. Here were seen flocks of ostriches roaming about, and the sailors marvelled at the size of these creatures, with "thighs in bigness equal to reasonable legs of mut- ton," and at the rapidity with which they got over the ground on their long legs. They found that the na- tives caught them with decoys made of great plumes of feathers to resemble an ostrich's head and body, and In the South Atlantic 225 set up on poles. The hunter carrying the pole, his body hidden by the plumes, would drive them to some point close to the seaside, where long nets were spread, and here, with the help of dogs, they were overthrown and made a common quarry. Hence sailing some leagues south and by west, two days later another bay was come upon, fair and safe in appearance. Accordingly they sailed into it, and the next morning drew farther in and came to anchor, for a stay sufficiently long to complete the work of over- hauling the ships. This was Point Desire, Patagonia. Before the close of their first day here, as soon as things had been set in order, Drake had renewed the search for the two still missing ships. He sent Cap- tain Wynter with the "Elizabeth" to sea southward, while he himself in the "Pelican" sailed northward. " By the good providence of God " he very soon came across the "Swan" and brought her safe into port. Wynter had no such luck, returning empty-handed. Now according to a plan which Drake had early de- cided upon, but had kept to himself — to reduce the squadron to three ships for the straits and Pacific voy- age, that the fewer number might the better keep com- pany, and be more compactly provisioned and manned — the "Swan's" freight and furnishings, crew and pris- oner (Doughty) were transferred to the "Pelican," and she was broken up: her iron-work, however, being care- fully saved and her wood-work kept for firewood or to be worked into "other implements" that might be wanted. Later the "Christopher" was to be similarly destroyed. 226 The Boy's Drake Doughty, on the "Pelican," was imprisoned in greater disgrace than before, Drake having heard com- plaints of his conduct while on the fly-boat. There had been bickerings between him and Sarriold, the ship's master; and the charge was made that he had attempted to induce Chester, the captain, to assert his authority over the master and seize the vessel. While held on the "Pelican" he suffered the demeaning pun- ishment of being "bound to the mast." This, we are told, was for some "unkind speeches" he had made to Drake. What these "unkind speeches" were, the chronicler (of this incident Cooke only) does not state. But from a subsequent relation accredited to Drake, it is assumed that they had reference to the Pacific voyage. They were repeated urgings upon Drake, in the face of the frequent foul weather, to abandon this main object of the adventure, with warnings that in persisting in it he would be wantonly risking the lives of his company. If as has appeared, Drake was really convinced in his superstitious mind that Doughty was the wizard who could and did produce contrary winds and tempests at will, it is small wonder that such speeches should be followed by the close confinement of the mischief-maker. Subsequently the culprit was removed to the "Christopher" with his young brother John Doughty. Port Desire was the company's "abode" for fifteen days, from May into June. While here some inter- course was had with the natives, and their manners were observed with interest. One day when several In the South Atlantic 227 of the company were on an island so near the main that at low water they could walk across to it, a band of natives appeared on the main shore leaping, dan- cing, holding up their hands, and making outcries as if inviting the strangers over. But it was now high water and the footway covered. Therefore Drake sent a boat out from the "Pelican" with gifts of trinkets for them. When the boat touched the shore they had withdrawn back to a hill. Hence they sent down two of their number seemingly as ambassadors to treat with the strangers. These came running one behind the other, with "a great grace trauersing their ground as it seemed after the manner of their warres." But as they neared the shore, and were yet some distance from the English group, they stopped stock-still. Thereupon the Englishmen tied a lot of the trinkets to the top of a long rod, and, advancing a little way tow- ard them, stuck the rod in the strand, with gestures to indicate that the gay things were gifts for them: then drew back to their first position. The "ambassa- dors" stepped cautiously to the pole and grasped the trinkets. Then taking some feathers from their heads, which they wore as ornaments, they laid them down on the ground together with a bone "made in the manner of a toothpick carved round about the top, and in length about six inches, and very smoothly bur- nished," as in recompense; and hurried back with the gifts to their fellows on the hill. Now Drake himself, with several of his "gentlemen," walked across, it be- ing by this time low water. The natives remained 228 The Boy's Drake still on the hill, and as this august procession ap- proached formed in rank when a singular ceremony was begun. One of their number as by appointment issued from the ranks and ran before them from one end to the other and back again, repeatedly, east and west. As he ran he lifted his hands high over his head, bent his body toward "the rising and setting of the Sunne," and at every second or third turn sprang "vaultingwise from the ground towards the Moone, being then over our heads." This performance the beholders took to signify that they called the sun and moon, whom they worshipped as gods, to witness their peaceful intent toward the visitors. When the proces- sion started to march up the hill, the natives exhib- ited signs of fear or of uneasiness. Thereupon Drake withdrew the company and resorted to his customary tactics to win them. These were successful, for soon all came down to him on the run. A lively trajHic fol- lowed. The wares which the natives gave in exchange for the English things comprised arrows made of reeds, ostrich feathers, and more carved bones. The authorised narrative describes these natives minutely. They were naked save a girdle round the loins and a skin of fur which they cast over their shoulders when sitting or lying in the cold. Their hair was worn long, knit up with rolls of ostrich feath- ers. These rolls were used as quivers for their ar- rows and also as receptacles for most of the things they carried about with them. Some of them wore a large feather stuck in the rolls on either side of their In the South Atlantic 229 heads, for a "sign of honor in their persons.^ Seen a distance off these feathers looked Hke horns, "so that," the chaplain, Fletcher, remarked, "such a head upon a naked body, — if divils do appeare with homes, — might very nigh resemble divils." Their chief bra- very v^as in their painted bodies. Some washed their faces with "sulphure or some like substance." Some were painted all over black, except their necks, which were all in white. Some painted one shoulder black, the other white, and the sides of the legs interchange- ably with the same colors. The black part was set off with white moons and the white part with black suns. This painting was supposed to be a protection against cold weather as well as an ornament. Their bodies were clean, comely, and strong, and they were swift of foot. They were large in stature but not quite the giants of whom Magellan's men had told. Their weapons were a short bow of about an ell in length and arrows of reeds headed with a flint stone cun- ningly cut and fastened. When once they had be- come acquainted, their friendship with the English ripened at an astonishing pace. The bay in which the fleet were now riding the Enghsh named Seal Bay because of the abundance of seal frequenting its islands. The authorised narra- tive avers that two hundred were killed in an hour. On these islands were also great flocks of birds and fowl. Of the latter many were killed with shot, but not a few w^re brought down with staves, while some were even taken with the hands, plucked from the 230 The Boy's Drake heads and shoulders of comrades upon which they ht. The work laid out to be done here being finished, on the third of June the fleet set sail now bound for a port near the straits. Coasting along, on the twelfth they fell in with an inviting little bay, where they an- chored for a couple of days: long enough to discharge the "Christopher" and break her up as the "Swan" had been disposed of. Doughty and his brother were transferred to the "Elizabeth," in charge of Captain Wynter. Before delivering them to the "Elizabeth" Drake prepared her crew for their coming with a speech in denunciation of them. As Cooke relates with painfully ingenious spelling (the authorised narra- tive is silent on this point), he went aboard her and "callynge all the company togethar tolde them that he was to send thethar a very bad cople [couple] of menn the whiche he dyd not know how to cary alonge with hym this voyadge and goe throwgh ther withe all [therewithall], as namely, quoth he, Thomas Dowghtie who is, quoth he, a coiurer [conjurer] a sedytyous [se- ditious] and a vary badd . . fellow and one that I have made that reckoninge [reckoning] of as of my leste [least] hand, and his brother the yonge Dowghty a wiche [witch] a poysonar [poisoner] and suche a one as the worlde can judge of: I cane not [cannot] tell from whence he came, but from the dyvell I thinke. And so warninge the company that none shoulde speake to them nor vse eny [any] conference with them, if they dyd he would holde them as his enemys, eay [aye] and In the South Atlantic 231 enymyes to the Voyadge, . . he willed that greate care sholde be taken that they shulde neythar write nor read. . . . With dyvars other lyke invectyves agaynst hym [? Doughty] he departed. And shortly aftar he sent the sayd Thomas Dowghty and his brothar aboarde the Elizabethe, commandynge them as they would aunswere it with theyr lyves not to set penne to papar, ne [nor] yet to rede but what every man myght vnderstand and se [see]." Master Doughty's situa- tion had indeed become grave. But a graver one was soon to follow. Now reduced to a squadron of three, the original war-ships, they again weighed. The southward course was kept on for three days longer. Then, on the sev- enteenth of June, they cast anchor in a bay "in 50 deg. 20 min. lacking but little more than one degree of the mouth of the Straights through which lay our most desired passage into the South Sea." This bay is sup- posed to have been Port Santa Cruz, where Magellan had lain two months. The next most imperative duty was to make one more and a thorough search for the missing "Mary" and her crew. For should the squadron enter the straits without them "it must needs go hard with them," while their absence and the uncertainty of their fate would continue to give their comrades of the fleet "no small discomfort." Drake determined in this quest to survey the whole course back northward toward Cape Tres Puntas off which she disappeared, if she were not earlier found or her fate learned. So 232 The Boy's Drake the next morning, June eighteenth, all put to sea once more, and "with heartie and often prayers" they "joyned watchful! industry to serue Gods good provi- dence," in the search. Thus sailing through that day and the next, as dark was falling on the second day, the lookouts discerned the missing ship, and straight- way all devoutly "gave God thankes with most ioy- full [joyful] minds" for the welcome sight. They were now within a few leagues of Port St. Julien, and the "Mary" being leaky and in bad con- dition generally from the extremity of weather which she had endured in her long beating about at sea, and St. Juhen being a convenient place to "cherish" her men who had "tasted such bitternesse of discomfort," Drake thought better to bear with the fleet hither. And the next day, the twentieth of June, they entered this sombre bay: the harbour which Magellan had dis- covered and occupied in 1520 and had named St. Julien. Here on the main was found a "gibbet, fallen downe, made of a spruce mast, with men's bones vn- derneath it." This the company believed to be the remnant of the gallows upon which Magellan had ex- ecuted one of his captains who had mutinied. It was an ominous sight, and foretokened another tragedy impending. XIX THE TRAGEDY OF PORT ST. JULIEN " T) EING now come to anchor and all things fitted r^ and made safe aboard, our Generall with cer- taine of his companie (viz., Thomas Drake, his brother, John Thomas, Robert Winter, Oliuer the mas- ter gunner, John Brewer, and Thomas Hood), rowed further in with a boate to find out some conuenient place which might yeeld vs fresh water during the time of our abode there and furnish vs with supply for prouision to take to sea with vs and our departure." So continues the authorised narrative. At this time probably the gibbet supposed to have been Magellan's was observed. But other matters almost immediately engaged the party's attention. Upon their landing there presently appeared before them "two of the inhabitants of the place whom Ma- gellane named Patagous, or rather Pantagours, from their huge stature and strength proportionable." Hence the names of Patagonia and Patagonian. These rep- resentatives of the race, and others afterward joining them, did not strike the Englishmen as very giant-like. They were tall and big, to be sure, and powerful in 233 234 The Boy's Drake appearance: but there were plenty of the Englishmen's own nationality as tall as they. The visitors therefore dismissed the accounts they had read or heard as "tales for the marines," as the modern phrase is, set forth the more confidently because the Spanish or Portuguese tellers had no thought that any English- men would dare venture in these inhospitable regions. The couple first appearing received the party with great show of friendship. They accepted Drake's ten- der of gifts with delight, and became at once most familiar. Especially were they interested in the Eng- glishmen's bows and arrows. By signs they proposed a friendly rivalry to test the powers of their own with the Englishmen's. Oliver, the master-gunner, ac- cepted the challenge, and shot, to their great astonish- ment, his English arrow to a point far beyond that at- tained by theirs. While they were "thus familiarly and pleasantly spending their time" suddenly ap- peared two other "giants," of a "sowerer sorte," "old and grim weather beaten villans." The chief of these two appeared very angry at the familiarity of their fel- lows with the strangers and strove to withdraw them. The same civilities as before were offered the new- comers, but were surlily received. To win them a repetition of the entertainment with the bows and arrows was proposed. This time Robert Winter — or Wintherhey as the name is generally given by the other narrators — stepped forward to make the "shot of pleasure" for the Enghsh side. But in letting go or loosing the arrow his bow-string broke. Meanwhile The Tragedy of Port St. Jullen 235 the others of the party were turning to retake their boat. Wintherhey followed while making ready a new string. Perceiving the turn about with the disablement of Wintherhey's weapon, the ''giants," "supposing there was no other engine of warre in the world but bow and arrowes," were now emboldened to attack the par- ty. The Englishmen proceeded leisurely toward their boat, unaware that the natives were creeping stealthily behind them. Suddenly an arrow struck Wintherhey in the shoulder inflicting a sore wound. As he turned around to see whence it came, another pierced his lungs, and he fell. Oliver, the master-gunner, then aimed his caHver at the assailants. "The touch be- ing dankish," a rain now falling, it missed fire. In return, an arrow sped from the enemy and slew Oliver outright. His piece happened to be the only one that the party had. Their defence, therefore, must be made only with their swords and targets. In this ex- tremity Drake's resourcefulness was brought into fine play. Indeed, had he not been "expert in such af- faires," and had he not "valiantly thrust himselfe into the dance against these monsters," not one of the party would have escaped alive. Ordering his com- panions to edge toward the enemy, shifting their ground from place to place as they advanced, those having targets to receive what they might of the ene- my's arrows, those behind to pick up and break the arrows that passed the targets, he took the lead. In this manceuvre his object was to exhaust the enemy's 236 The Boy's Drake supply of arrows: these once spent he would have the savages in his power. And so it happened. When it was apparent that they had but a single arrow left he brought the dead gunner's piece again into action. It was now charged with a bullet and hail-shot. He aimed it directly at one of the two of the "sourer sort," who was Oliver's slayer, and brought him down. The poor fellow was hit in the abdomen and fell with an awful cry, "so hideous and horrible a roare," it seemed to the narrator, "as if ten bulls had ioyned [joined] in roaring." With this the battle instantly ended. The strange and appalling spectacle terrorised the enemy. Divers others dashing out of the woods on either side had now joined them, yet they fled incontinently. And after them their re-enforcements ran away. Drake and his men carrying their desperately wounded com- rade with them made their boat without further mol- estation. The next day Drake returned with the boat, this time "well appointed," in readiness for fur- ther attack if attempted, to recover Oliver's body. It was found lying where it had been left, but stript of the outer garments and with an English arrow stuck fast in one eye. None of the natives was met. Mean- while this same day Wintherhey died of his wounds. Drake grieved at the loss of these two trusty men, especially of Wintherhey "whom for many good parts he loved dearly." He would rather have saved him, said he, than "slain an hundred enemies." Winther- hey was one of the bravest of the gentlemen-at-arms in the company, while Oliver was an experienced sea- The Tragedy of Port St. Julien 237 gunner. Both bodies were buried on an island in one grave "with such reuerence as was fit for the earthen tabernacles of immortall soules, and with such com- mendable ceremonies as belong vnto souldiers of worth in time of warre, which they most truly and rightfully deserued." So concludes the chaplain's account of this melancholy incident given in the authorised narra- tive. Thereafter no more trouble was had with these natives. On the contrary, when they comprehended that Drake meant them no harm if they turned not against him, they became fair friends with him and suffered his men to do what they would without inter- ruption during the remainder of the stay at Port St. Julien, which covered two months. Close upon this incident came one of graver import culminating in the greater tragedy of Port St. Julien — the trial of Thomas Doughty and his execution. Doughty's name is nowhere mentioned in the au- thorised account, the culprit being designated gener- ally as *'the person accused." And the account is so edited with the manifest intent of presenting Drake's attitude in the best light before his critics, and so in- complete, that we must go to the other narrations, especially that of Doughty's partisan, Cooke, for the particulars, partially given or altogether suppressed, in order to have the full-rounded story. What the formal charge against Doughty really was does not clearly appear. It was certainly not quite as the authorised narrative's preface states it: in effect, his engagement before sailing, in a plot to murder 238 The Boy's Drake the captain and some others faithful to him, and the ultimate overthrow of the ''whole action intended." Francis Pretty, in his narrative which Hakluyt prints, tells us that the inquiry was into the "actions of M. Thomas Doughtie" which were found "not to be such as he [Drake] looked for, but tending rather to con- tention and mutinie, or some other disorder whereby, without redresse, the successe of the Voyage might greatly have been hazarded.'* Edward Cliffe, the nar- rator of Captain John Wynter's part of the voyage, says that the culprit was accused on several articles, but does not name them. What they were is in- dicated in various manuscripts yet preserved. As Corbett finds them, they were in general conspiracy by several means to prevent the voyage going for- ward. The trial was held on the last day of June: the place, one of the rocky islands of the harbour. The whole company were assembled for the solemn proceedings. Gathered about Drake were the ships' captains and the gentlemen-at-arms, the others of the company forming the outer circle. At Drake's right stood Capt. John Thomas, as his assistant, holding a bundle of papers "rolled up together where in were written dyvers and sundry articles," or letters. Drake opened with an unimpassioned speech ac- quainting the assembly with the particulars of the cause. He "propounded to them the good parts that were in the gentleman [the accused], the great good will and inward affection, more then [than] brotherly, The Tragedy of Port St. Julien 239 which he had euer since his first acquaintance borne him, not omitting the respect which was had of him among no meane personages in England." Yet, al- though his private aflPection of Doughty was great, "the care he had of the state of the voyage, of the ex- pectation of her Majestic, and of the honour of his countrey did more touch him" than "the private re- spect of one man." The letters, or papers, which he would deliver would disclose the gravity of the ac- cused's offences — letters written to him with the par- ticulars from time to time which had been observed not so much by himself as by his good friends "not onely at sea, but even at Plimmouth: not bare words, but writings; not writings alone, but actions, tending to the ouerthrowe of the service in hand and making away with his person." Before the articles held by Captain Thomas were read Drake addressed Doughty direct. The report is Cooke's, and, turned into modern English spelling for more comfortable reading, runs in this wise. "'Thomas Doughty, you have here sought by divers means, inasmuch as you may, to discredit me, to the great hinderance and overthrow of this voyage, besides other great matters wherewith I have to charge you withal, the which if you can clear yourself of you and I shall be very good friends, whereto the contrary you have deserved death.' "Master Doughty answered, 'It should never be ap- proved that he merited any villany towards him.' 240 The Boy's Drake ' By whom will you be tried ? ' *Why, good General, let me live to come into my country [England] and I will there be tried by her Majesty's laws.' 'Nay, Thomas Doughty, I will here impanel a jury on you to inquire further of these matters that I have to charge you withal,' 'Why, General, I hope you will see your commis- sion be good,' *I warrant you my commission is good enough.* 'I pray you let us then see it. It is necessary that it should be here shown.' 'Well, you shall not see it,'" Then turning to the assembly Drake exclaimed, "'Well, my masters, this fellow is full of prating. Bind me his arms, for I will be safe of my life. My mas- ters, you that be my good friends — Thomas Hood, Gregory — ^you there, my masters, bind him."' So they took him and bound his arms behind him. "Then he [Drake] gave divers furious words unto Thomas Doughty, as charging him to be the man that poisoned my lord of Essex [in Ireland], as he thought. And then again, whereas [when] Master Doughty avouched to his face that he [Doughty] brought him [Drake] first to the presence of my lord [Essex] in Ireland. " ' Thou bring me to my lord ? Lo ! my masters, see how he goeth about to discredit me! This fellow with my lord was never of any estimation. I think he never came about him: for I that was daily with my lord The Tragedy of Port St. Julien 241 never saw him there above once, and that was long after my entertainment with my lord.'" Now Drake called a jury of about forty in number, comprising the "chiefest of place and judgment in the whole fleet," with Capt. John Wynter as foreman, and the trial proceeded in regular order. The jury heard the articles as read by Captain Thomas, and Doughty' s answer. None of these articles did he "greatly deny" till the statement of one Edward Bright was heard. This was a declaration that Doughty had told Bright in Drake's garden at Plym- outh, before the sailing of the expedition, that the queen and council were to be "corrupted." To this Doughty made answer, "Why, Ned Bright, what should move thee thus to belie me ? Thou knowest that such familiarity was never between thee and me. But it may be I said if we brought home gold we should be the better welcome: but yet that is more than I do remember." Upon further talk it fell out that Doughty had also said at the same time that my lord Treasurer — Lord Burghley — had a "plot," or plan, of the voyage. Whereat Drake interjected, "No! that he hath not!" Doughty admitted that he had. "How.?" demanded Drake. "He had it from me," answered Doughty, inadvertently. This roused Drake to a white heat of indignation. "Lo! my masters," exclaimed he to the jury, "lo my masters, what this fellow hath done! God will have his treacheries all known, for her Majesty gave me special commandment that of all men my lord Treas- 242 The Boy's Drake urer should not know it; but see, he his own mouth hath betrayed him!'* To this outburst Doughty offered to "set his hand to what so was there written," meaning the articles, or anything else that Drake would "set down," if he would permit him to live and answer the charges in England. Drake replied, "Well, once let these men find whether you be guilty in this or no, and then we will farther talk of the matter." Upon which he de- livered the "bills of indictment" to Wynter, the fore- man. Then up spoke Master Leonard Vicary, the lawyer, and Doughty's especial friend, who was one of the jury, "General, this is not law, nor agreeable to jus- tice, that you offer." To which Drake retorted: "I have not to do with you crafty lawyers, neither care I for the law, but I know what I will do." "Why," answered Vicary, "I know not how we may answer for his life." "Well, Master Vicary," Drake returned curtly, "you shall not have to do with his life, let me alone with that. You are but to see whether he be guilty in these articles that here is objected against him or no." "Why, very well, then there is, I trust, no matter of death." "No, no. Master Vicary." With this the jury drew apart and deliberated upon their verdict. The authorised narrative gives it, as agreed upon, in these words. That ''He had de- serued death: And that it stoode by no meanes with The Tragedy of Port St. Julien 243 their safety to let him Hue: And therefore they remitted the manner thereof^ with the rest of the circumstances, to the Generall." But Cooke adds an important quali- fying clause. They found all to be true without any doubt, he says, except on one article, and this was the charge of Edward Bright which had most effected Drake. Some of the jury doubted whether Bright "were sufficient with his only words," that is his word alone, "to cast away the life of a man." His honesty, too, was questioned. For, as Cooke puts it, "it dyd argwe [argue] small honestie in a man to conceale such a mattar yf [if] it had bene spoken in England," and to bring it out at this place where "wyll was lawe, and reason put in exile." But Bright was vouched for by others as "a very honest man." And Drake, when with the verdict he heard the doubt, dismissed it with the remark, "Why, I dare to swear that what Ned Bright hath said is very true." Upon receiving the verdict Drake, calling all the com- pany to follow him except Doughty and Doughty's brother, withdrew to the water-side. Here he opened a bundle of papers which he proposed to lay before them as bearing on the case. Turning over the lot he exclaimed, "God's will! I have left in my cabin that I should especially have had," meaning his com- mission. Cooke insinuates that he really had no such commission as he assumed. On the other hand the authorised narrative indicates that he had more than ordinary authority. It avers that before his depart- ure Queen Elizabeth committed to him "for his com- 244 The Boy's Drake pany" her "sword to use for his safety with this word ^ We doe account that he which stnketh at thee, Drake, striketh at vs.' " The first letter that he showed was from John Hawkins to Essex recommending him to the earl for service in the latter's campaign in Ireland. Next he displayed letters from Essex to Hawkins thanking Hawkins for sending him "so good a servitor," Next, letters from Essex to Secretary Walsingham in his, Drake's, "great commendation." Next, from Sir Chris- topher Hatton to himself for his acceptance into his company of Hatton's men, John Thomas and John Brewer, and their "well usage" in the voyage. Lastly, a bill of her Majesty's adventure of a thousand crowns in the enterprise. These were shown as further evi- dences of Doughty's treachery. "My masters," said he [the report is again Cooke's], "you may see whether this fellow hath sought my discredit or no, and what should hereby be meant but the very overthrow of the Voyage, as first by taking away of my good name and altogether discrediting me, and then my life." In such event he asked what would they do .? They could not carry the voyage further themselves, nor yet return to England with surety. Then he appealed to their love of gain. "Now, my masters, consider what a great Voyage we are like to make! The like was never made out of England! For by the same the worst [the least or the humblest] in this fleet shall become a gentleman. And if this Voyage go not for- ward, which I can not see how possible it should if The Tragedy of Port St. Julien 245 this man hve, what a reproach it will be, not only unto our country but especially unto us, the very simplest here may consider of." Then he put the question of Doughty's fate directly to their votes. "Therefore, my masters, they that think this man worthy to die let them with me hold up their hands, and they that think him not worthy to die hold down their hands." Apparently most, if not all, hands went up. Cooke, who alone gives the account, declares that jealousy of the favour which Doughty had formerly had from Drake moved some, and fear of Drake impelled others to lift their hands. With this decisive vote Drake, followed by the com- pany, returned to his "judgment seat" and formally pronounced Doughty "the child of death," "persuad- ing" him "withal that he would by this means make him the servant of God." Yet he would give the cul- prit a chance to escape his doom. If any of the com- pany could between that and the next morrow devise any way that might save his life Drake would hear it. And to Doughty, "he wished him himself to devise some way for his own safeguard." Whereat Doughty responded: "Well, General, seeing it is come to this pass that I see you would have me made away, I pray you carry me with you to the Peru and there set me ashore." "No, truly. Master Doughty," Drake replied, "I cannot answer it to her Majesty if I should so do. 246 The Boy's Drake But how say you, Thomas Doughty, if any man will warrant me to be safe from your hands and will un- dertake to keep you, sure you shall see what I will say unto you/' Thereupon Doughty, looking toward Captain Wyn- ter, asked of him, "Master Wynter, will you be so good as to undertake this for me ?" Wynter replied that he would. "Lo! then my masters," said Drake, "we must thus do: we must nail him close under the hatches and re- turn home again without making any Voyage, and if you will do so, say your hands." At this, Cooke relates scornfully, a number of "des- perate banckwrouptes" [bankrupts], "that could not lyve in theyr countrye [at home in England] without the spoyle of that [voyage] as others had gotten by the swete of theyr browes, sayd, God forbyde, good Gen- erall!" So fell this proposition. And warning Doughty to prepare for death, and giving him a day's respite to put his aflFairs in order, Drake rose and the assem- blage broke up. The second day after. Doughty was commanded to "make hym ready to dye" forthwith. He then ap- peared bearing a most "cherefull countenance," as "one that dyd altogethar contempne [contemn] lyfe," and prayed Drake that ere he died he might receive the sacrament. This Drake not only granted but of- fered to accompany him to "the Lord's table"; for The Tragedy of Port St. Julien 247 which Doughty gave him hearty thanks, terming him affectionately "my good Captain." At the same time Drake gave him the privilege of choosing the manner of his execution. Being a gentleman he answered he should but lose his head, and inasmuch as he must needs die, that kind of death was most agreeable to his mind. Then the two together received the sacrament, the chaplain Fletcher conducting the service. And then, at the same table, the two sat down to a banquet of the best things that the place yielded, and dined to- gether "as cheerefully in sobriety as ever in their lives they had done aforetime: each cheering up the other, and taking their leave by drinking each to the other, as if some journey onely had beene in hand." A strange and dramatic spectacle indeed. And as this scene was enacting, the place of execution was being made ready hard by, and from it must have come to the ears of the banqueters echoes of the grewsome sounds. All was completed by the close of the dinner, and Doughty expressed his readiness for the final act as soon as it pleased his captain to order it. But first he would speak with Drake a few words in private. Ac- cordingly they "talked a parte the space of halfe a quarter of an houre." What was said at this inter- view Drake never divulged. At its conclusion, the procession, "with bylls and staves," marched at once to the block. Here Doughty showed himself no less "valyant 248 The Boy's Drake then [than] all the tyme afore/' Falling to his knees he offered a prayer. He prayed first for "the queenes maiestie of England his sovereigne lady and mastres [mistress]"; then for "the happy successe of this voy- adge," beeseching "God to turne it to the profite of his contrye." He remembered also "divars his good frinds, and especially ser [Sir] William Wynter, pray- enge Mastar John Winter to comend hym to that good knyght," Rising from his prayer he addressed the captain with a gentle pleasantry: "Nowe truly, I may say, as did ser Thomas More, that he that cuts my heade shall have little honestie, my necke is so short." Then casting his glance over the assembled company he de- sired them all to forgive him, and "especially some that he dyd perceyve to have displeasure borne them for his sake." These were men under suspicion of having been his accomplices. Naming several he be- sought Drake to "be good" to them. He declared that they had never practised with him any treachery toward the captain. "Neyther dyd he hym selfe evar thinke any villanous thowght agaynst hym." Now embracing Drake and calling him once more his "good Captain," he bade him farewell, and laid his head upon the block. And when the head fell Drake caused it to be taken up and held before the company as he proclaimed, "Loe, this is the end of traytors ! " Throughout the ordeal the condemned gentleman had borne himself with such dignified bravery as to DOUGHTY'S BRAVE ENDING. They took their leave by drinking each to the other. The Tragedy of Port St. Julien 249 command the admiration of all. By the worthy man- ner of his death, the chaplain wrote, he "fully blotted out whatever staine his fault might seeme to bring vpon him." He was buried on the island beside the two victims of the conflict with the natives. While digging the grave the men found a "great grinding stone broken in two parts." These pieces they utilised for head and foot stones of the two graves, and the space between them was built up with other stones and turf. And on the tablets were engraved the names of the three soldier-sailors, the dates of their deaths, and a "memoriel of our generalls name," all in Latin, "that it might be the better vnderstood of all that should come after." "These things finished and the whole company be- ing together," Drake solemnly, as Cooke alone records, "protested before God that what so evar he was shuld offend the viij [eighth] parte that Doughty had done, should dye for it." On the Sunday next following, Drake ordered the whole company to receive the sacrament, previous to which each man was to "confess" to the chaplain, the captain saying he would have all old quarrels forgiven. This was done. Yet in a little while the old quarrels were renewed. The old discord, too, between the gen- tlemen-at-arms and the marines was heightened as a result of Doughty's taking off. These dissensions came along with the oppression of cold, the vehemency of the southern winter, spare diet, and a sickness that 250 The Boy's Drake fell upon several of the company. At length, when a month had passed since the execution, Drake saw that something must be done, and that vigorously, to check the rising demoralisation and firmly to unite the com- pany under his single control. Accordingly on the eleventh day of August he or- dered all hands ashore, announcing that he had some matter of importance to say to them. Then followed another dramatic performance in which our great cap- tain once again demonstrated his remarkable skill as a commander of men. Taking position in a tent, one side of which was laid open that all might plainly see and hear him, he called Captain Wynter to stand at his one side and Captain Thomas at the other while "his man," prob- ably the faithful Diego (the escaped negro who had remained attached to him since the Nombre-de-Dios affair) laid in front of him a "great paper book." Ob- serving these formalities the chaplain stepped up and offered to give a sermon. But the captain waved him aside. "Nay, soft. Master Fletcher," said he, "I must preach this day myself, although I have small skill in preaching." Then calling out to the assem- blage, "Be all here, yea or nay.?" and the answer being all present, he commanded each ship's company to group together. This done, and all at attention, he opened his discourse with these prefatory remarks. (The reporter again is Cooke, his spelling as before modernised for easier reading.) "My masters, I am a very bad orator for my bring- The Tragedy of Port St. Julien 251 ing up hath not been in learning, but what so I shall here speak let every man take good notice of what I shall say: and let him write it down, for I will speak nothing but I will answer it in England, yea before her Majesty, as I have it here [pointing to the "great paper book"] already set down." Then he proceeded to read from his manuscript. "Thus it is, my masters, that we are very far from our country and friends. We are compassed in on every side with our enemies. Wherefore we are not to make small reckoning of a man, for we cannot have a man if we would give for him ten thousand pounds. Wherefore we must have these mutinies and discords that are grown amongst us redressed, for, by the life of God, it doth even take my wits from me to think on it! Here is such controversy between the sailors and the gentlemen, and such stomaching between the gentlemen and sailors, that it doth even make me mad to hear it! But, my masters. I must have it left [ .? stopped]. For I must have the gentleman to haul and draw with the mariner, and the mariner with the gentleman. What! let us show ourselves all to be of a company, and let us not give occasion to the enemy to rejoice at our decay and overthrow. I would know him that would refuse to set his hand to a rope. But I know there is not any such here. And as gentlemen are very necessary for government's sake in the Voy- age, so have I shipped them for that, and to some farther intent. [To train them for officers for further and larger operations against the Spanish-American 252 The Boy's Drake colonies, as Corbett understands.] And yet, though I know sailors to be the most envious people of the world, and so unruly without government, yet may not I be without them. Also, if there be any here willing [desirous] to return home, let me understand of them. Here is the 'Marigold,' a ship that I can very well spare. I will furnish her to such as will return with the most credit I can give them, either to my letters or any way else. But let them take heed that they go homeward, for if I find them in my way I will surely sink them. Therefore you shall have time to consider hereof until to-morrow, for, by my troth, I must needs be plain with you! I have taken that in hand that I know not in the world how to go through withal. It passeth my capacity. It hath even bereaved me of my witts to think on it." At this the company as with one voice cried that none would return. All would take such part as their Captain-General should. "Well then, my masters," he would know, "came you all forth with your good wills or no .? " The answer returned, "they came all with their wills." Then he would ask, "At whose hands, my masters, look you to receive your wages ? " At yours. "Then how say you .? Will you take wages or stand to my courtesy ? " "At your courtesy. For we know not [said some] what wages to ask." The Tragedy of Port St. Julien 253 Now having the men full in hand he turned to the officers. First, he commanded the steward of the "Elizabeth" to lay down the keys of his room. This was done. Next, all the ships' captains and masters were formally discharged from their posts, one after another, to their amazement and that of the company generally. Captains Wynter and Thomas protested, asking "what should move him so to displace them?" His answer was a query in turn: could they give any reason why he should not do so .? In other words, he was the supreme commander, to appoint or discharge at will. He, however, bade them be content, and probably they were not long in discerning his motive. With these summary acts he resumed his speech, and came to a representation of the Doughty offences. "You see here the great disorders that we are entered into. And although some have already received con- dign punishment as by death, who, I take God to wit- ness, as you all know, was to me as my other hand; yet, you see, over and besides the rest, his own mouth did betray his treacherous dealing; and see how, trusting in the singularity of his own wit, overreached himself at unawares. But see what God would have done: for her Majesty commanded that of all men my lord Treasurer should have no knowledge of this Voyage; and to see that his own mouth hath declared that he hath given him a plot thereof. But, truly, my masters, and as I am a gentleman, there shall no more die. I will lay my hand on no more, although there be here that have deserved as much as he." Two of these he 254 The Boy's Drake named, and they humbled themselves before him, one falling to his knees and praying forgiveness. Next the gossip that the voyage had been set forth by cer- tain patrons — Sir Christopher Hatton, or Sir William Wynter, or John Hawkins — was taken up, and Drake proceeded to give in detail the whole story of the in- ception and backing of the enterprise, as has been given in a previous chapter, sustaining his statement with letters and documents. Then the notable speech was brought to a close in these words. "And now, my masters, let us consider what we have done. We have now set together by the ears three mighty princes, as first her Majesty, [then] the Kings of Spain and Portugal. And if this Voyage should not have good success, we should not only be a scorning or a reproachful scoffing stroke unto our ene- mies, but also a great blot to our whole country for- ever. And what triumph would it be to Spain and Portugal! And again the like would never be at- tempted." Then with an appeal to their pride, to the true Eng- lishman's regard for the honour of his country, he restored all the officers to their posts as formally as he had deposed them. This done, he renewed his assurance to the company that he would satisfy every man in the voyage, else he would sell all he had even to his shirt. He had good reason so to promise, "for," said he, "I have somewhat of mine own in England, and besides that I have as much adventure in this Voy- age as three of the best whatsoever. And if it so be The Tragedy of Port St. Julien 255 that I never come home, yet will her Majesty pay every man his v^^ages, whom indeed you and we all come to serve." This, Queen Elizabeth's direct as- sociation with the enterprise, he would impress upon them. "To say you come to serve me I will not give you thanks, for it is only her Majesty that you serve and this Voyage is only her setting forth." And *'so wishing all men [of the company] to be friends, he willed them to depart about their business." Thus the performance ended with Drake's purpose fully accomplished. He was thenceforth to be recog- nised as the sole supreme commander, and himself the servant of his queen. The Doughty tragedy was to be a closed chapter for the remainder of the Voyage. XX THROUGH MAGELLAN'S STRAITS THESE things thus ended and set in order, our generall discharged the Mary, viz., our Por- tuguese prize, because she was leake [leaky] and troublesome, defaced [broke up] her, and then left her ribs and keele vpon the iland where for two monethes together we had pitched our tents. And so, having wooded, watered, trimmed our ships, despatched all our other businesses, and brought our fleet into the smallest number, even 3 onely besides our pinnaces, that we might the easier keepe ourselves together, be the better furnished with necessaries, and be the stronger maned against whatsoever need should be, August 19 we departed out of this port, and being now in great hope of a happier issue to our enterprise, which Almighty God hitherto so blessed and pros- pered, we set our course for the Straights Southwest." So the authorised narrative brings the grim Port St. Julien chapter to an end and turns to the next and awe-inspiring stage of the momentous venture. When all was in readiness for the embarkation the company were assembled for a solemn service to in- voke the blessing of Heaven upon their further under- 256 Through Magellan's Straits 257 taking. A general communion was celebrated, fol- lowed by prayers for the queen, the council, the church, and the "Common weal of England"; the singing of psalms, and thanksgiving for "God's great and singular graces" thus far bestowed upon them. And at the departure, they conferred upon the place of their long sojourn with Its tragic happenings both In Magellan's day and theirs, the gory name of "Island of Blood." Port Jullen was left in this order: Drake leading with the "Pelican" flying the English ensign; the "Elizabeth" as vice-admiral following, and the bark "Marigold" close by her. Now, according to the nar- rator, Fletcher, the "Marigold" was in command of Edward Bright, the chief witness against Doughty: but later on in his narrative Fletcher alludes to Thomas as yet her captain; more likely Bright had been promoted to the mastership. He had shipped originally as a ship's carpenter. That Drake was able to carry his men to the dreaded straits without a murmur was regarded by his con- temporaries as a conspicuous merit. So terrible were they counted in that day that the "very thoughts" of attempting them "were dreadful," wrote one contem- porary. So dangerous was the seeking of them and so troublesome the voyage, wrote another, that It "seemed a thing almost impossible" to be performed, and for thirty years before Drake's venture "no man made account thereof." The Spaniards for that period had given up this way to their Pacific posses- 258 The Boy's Drake sions as impracticable, and, as we have seen, had car- ried all of their Pacific trade overland across the Isth- mus of Panama to and from the Caribbean ports. The last navigator before Drake to attempt the pas- sage from the Atlantic side was one Simon de Alca- zova, a Portuguese serving the King of Spain. He succeeded only in penetrating it some "twenty-five or thirty leagues," when he was forced to return; and afterward he was murdered by his men In mutiny. This was In the year 1535. Of the earlier attempts, following Magellan's feat, two only had been success- ful, and both ended tragically. The sea stories of the terrors of the mysterious passage had given European sailors a horror of It, and toward the last of the at- tempts, thirty years back, navigators who would at- tempt it were forced to refrain by threatened mutiny among their men. However, what misgivings Drake's sailors may have secretly had, they wisely kept them to themselves, and all went well as they sailed onward into the unknown. On August 20, the next day after leaving Port St. Jullen, the squadron made Cape Virgins at the mouth of the straits. And now they paused for another ceremony impres- sive as novel In the lonely sea. First, Drake ordered the three ships to "strike their top-sails upon the bunt," in homage to the Queen of England and in acknowledgment of her full right in whatever discov- eries he might make. Then before the assembled company he formally changed the name of the flag- Through Magellan's Straits 259 ship from the "Pehcan" to the "Golden Hind," "in remembrance," the authorised narrative records, "of his honourable friend and favourer Sir Christopher Hatton," whose crest bore that design. Then the chaplain delivered a sermon "teaching true obedi- ence." Then the ceremony closed, like that at the departure from Port St. Julien, with prayers, "and giving of thankes, for her maiesty and most honour- able counsell, with the whole body of the common weale and Church of God." The motive of the sig- nificant change in the flag-ship's name was more than merely to compliment one of Drake's patrons. It was plainly a shrewd stroke calculated, as Corbett notes, to allay the resentment which Hatton might naturally feel at the execution of Doughty, his principal man in the expedition; and, by thus attaching conspicuously to his name whatever glory the enterprise should at- tain, to secure his support at court where Hatton was a rising favourite when Drake left England. Now the prows were turned directly into the strange frith, and all, gentlemen and sailors, were alert. What were they to encounter ^ What wondrous sights to see .? What perils to meet .? As the ships carefully advanced great fires arose on the north side of the broad mouth kindled by natives. What did these signify .? Maybe they were warning signals to other natives. But it was never known. Very soon the utmost skill of the ships' masters was brought into requisition. A narrow pass was entered "carrying with it much winde, often turnings and 26o The Boy's Drake many dangers." From this pass they fell into what seemed a "large and maine sea." Again, they were threading among "broken Hands'* with "large pas- sages between." During the first night they had in sight an island which recalled the Fogo of the Cape Verdes, like it burning "alofte in the aire in a wonderful sort with- out interruption." Some of the broken islands were found inhabited by an "infinite number" of fowl, Hke great ducks or geese, "which the Welch named Pen- guin." They were the flightless sea-bird so named — a corruption of the English term pin-wing — by earlier English navigators: a party of gentlemen navigators in the year 1536 coming upon a northern species on the "Island of Penguin" in Newfoundland seas. Leaving these islands astern they sailed on a winding course, between snow-capped mountains on either side rising in magnificent terraces. The tiers "reaching them- selves above their fellowes so high that between them did appear three regions of clouds," filled the behold- ers with wonder. On islands "neere adjoyning the roots" of the moun- tains "rearing their heads into the cold and frozen regions," were seen masses of trees weighted with snow and frozen rain, yet ever green. So crushed down were their branches, and so close together, that they formed "sweet arbors," beneath which, the ground being de- fended from cold, various herbs were found flourishing, "as it were, as in the summer of England." Many of these "simples" as thyme, marjoram, "Alexander's Through Magellan's Straits 261 scurvy-grass," the men gathered. Natives were met here, a "comely and harmless people, but naked." Their bodies v^ere painted with "formes and divers col- lours." The men, for the most part, had red circles painted about their eyes and red strokes on their fore- heads. The women were ornamented with bracelets and necklaces made of white shells. On the fourth day, the twenty-fourth of August, the voyagers fell in with "three Hands, being trianglewise one from another." These lie close to the main-land at a turning of the passage to the south-west. On the largest Drake, accompanied by his gentlemen and the principal mariners, made a formal landing, and took possession of the three in Queen Elizabeth's name. The largest, in her honour, he named EHzabeth Island, the other two, respectively, Bartholomew's, because the day was St. Bartholomew's Day, and St. George's, in honour of England. On both the smaller islands more penguins were found, and in greater abundance than before. No less than three thousand, if we are to believe the narrators (and on this figure they all agree) were killed within the single day of their stay here. This game proved good eating, the flesh being "not far unHke a fat goose in England"; and the fleet were well victualled with it salted down. The onward course continued through what after- ward came to be called the Broad Reach. From the three islands to the end, the way was found to be very crooked, with "many turnings and, as it were, shut- tings up as if there was no passage at all." More buf- 262 The Boy's Drake feting by repeatedly changing winds, sweeping down without warning upon the ships in icy squalls, was suffered. More than once they were in imminent dan- ger of wreck. The mountains on either side continued impressive. Rising "with such tops and spires into the aire, and of so rare a height," the chroniclers thought that surely they might be "accounted amongst the wonders of the world." And yet, as before, the "lowe and plaine groundes" were seen to be "very fruitfull, the grasse greene and naturall, the herbes, that are of very strange sorts, good and many, the trees, for the most part of them, alwaies greene, the ayre of the temperature of our countrye, the water most pleasant": indeed a place, as the good chaplain observed, "that lacketh nothing but a people to vse the same to the Creators glory and the encreasing of the Church." At length, nearing the Pacific, the fleet came upon "such a shutting up" of the straits "to the North- wards," and such "large and open fretes [Latin, fre- tum, a strait] toward the South," that Drake was doubtful which was the proper turn to take. There- fore, he brought the ships to anchor under an island, and taking a ship's boat with several of the gentlemen- at-arms, he rowed forward to reconnoitre for the true passage. When this was found, and the party had returned to the fleet, they met riding under the same island a canoe filled with a crew of natives. The boat interested the Englishmen quite as much as its occupants, and its beauty roused their admiration. It Through Magellan's Straits 263 was made of the bark of trees, handsomely moulded, and of "comely proportions," with a semicircular high prow and stern. The seams were stitched with thongs made of seal-skins. It had no other calking, yet so close was the stitching that it was as dry as an ordi- narily calked craft. So excellent was the workman- ship throughout that it seemed to the Englishmen "never to have beene done without the cunning and expert judgment of art": and that, too, not for the use of a rude and barbarous people, but as a pleasure boat for some "great and noble personage, yea, of some Prince." These natives were also found amiable. But they were in marked contrast with the others previously met in the passage, and with the Patagonians on the At- lantic side, for they were a small people. The chroni- clers described them as of "a mean stature but well set and compact" in form. Like the others they had great pleasure in painting their faces. On the island one of their houses was visited, a slender abode made of poles covered with skins of beasts. Inside were "fire, water, and such meate as commonly they can come by, as seales, mussels, and such like." The ves- sels in which they kept water, and their drinking cups, were made, like the canoe, of the bark of various trees, and fashioned as cleverly. Their tools with which all this work was done were knives made of great mussel shells which are found of extraordinary size in the straits. These knives were fashioned by breaking off the thin brittle edge of the shell and grinding a new 264 , The Boy's Drake edge by rubbing upon stones. Thus the blade was so tempered and given so keen an edge that it could cut the hardest wood and bones of a "marvellous hard- ness." From these tough bones were cut fishgigs to kill fish, an occupation in which these natives were most dexterous. On the sixth of September, seventeen days after the ships had entered the wondrous straits, they had left astern *'all these troublesome Hands," and had be- fore them the longed-for goal. They had come to Cape Pillar, at that time the Cape "Deseado," or "Desired," of Magellan's naming, at the entrance of the Pacific. Here it was Drake's intention to mar- shal the company ashore, and after a sermon by the chaplain, to set up a monument to Queen Elizabeth, for a "perpetuall remembrance" of his coming and occupation of the point. He had the plate duly en- graved and in readiness to place without delay. But this ceremony had to be abandoned. It was impos- sible for the fleet to come to anchor and the boisterous wind would not suffer them to make any stay. So they sailed on and directly out. And Drake's prayer for life and leave once to sail this sea with an English ship was at last fulfilled. XXI ON THE PACIFIC DRAKE had little time for formal rejoicings over so successfully attaining the sea of his desire. He must make all haste again "toward the Hne" for the refreshment of his men. All had become wearied with the "nipping cold" which they had en- countered "vnder so cruell and frowning a winter," and some were sore ill from exposure. He would, moreover, push on the quicker to begin the business of his voyage — the seeking of Spanish prizes, and the sacking, if might be, of Spanish Pacific ports. It was his original plan as he outlined it in England, to work up the coast and ultimately come upon and surprise Panama from the Pacific side. He had little if any fear of being checkmated in this game, for he felt sure that his daring scheme of making the Pacific by way of the straits could not be discovered in season by the enemy. So, issuing orders that in case of separation of the fleet the rendezvous should be "in 30 deg. or there- abouts " on the coast of Peru, he steered north-west, in accordance with the markings on the common Spanish 26s 266 The Boy's Drake maps which erroneously gave the trend of the coast in that direction instead of northward. This led early to trouble: to awful perils in an unprecedented storm which lasted, with slight intermissions, for fifty-two days, beat the fleet about, and drove them far south- ward; and finally separated them, leaving the "Golden Hind" alone to pursue the remainder of the voyage. Incidentally Drake by accident made a discovery of great importance which contributed much to his re- nown. All went well till the second day on the mistaken course. They had sailed north-west about seventy leagues when the storm struck them — a fierce gale from the north-east. Turned roundabout, for more than a fortnight they could carry no sail, while they were driven to the west-south-west, midst snow, sleet, and rains, and in darkness. At length, by the close of the month, September, they had been carried as was calculated so far south as the fifty-seventh south lati- tude, and about two hundred leagues longitude to the west of the straits. Meanwhile, to add to their terrors, there had been a partial eclipse of the moon. This oc- curred in a lull of the storm on the evening of Septem- ber 15, and lasted half an hour. No improvement in the weather followed as they hoped, the gale rather in- creased in fury. On the twenty-fourth the wind shifted so that they could turn about and work back again to the north-east under sail. In this course they continued about a week when they made the first land they had seen since the storm first fell upon them. On the Pacific 267 But the wind blew so strong that they could not an- chor. During the following night the "Marigold," obliged to bear away before the gale, parted company with the others and was never more seen. On her, with Captain Thomas and Master Bright, were twen- ty-eight souls. According to the authorised narrative, her fate was not known by the others, and Drake hoped and expected that she would ultimately be re- covered at the appointed rendezvous. But the Chap- lain Fletcher in his notes avers that she was "swal- lowed up with the horrible and unmercifull waves, or rather mountaines of the sea," and that he and Brewer, the trumpeter, heard "their fearefull cryes when the hand of God came upon them." Her disappearance chanced in the second watch of the night when the chaplain and the trumpeter were on the watch. The "Golden Hind" and the "Elizabeth" battling the storm managed to keep the course for another week. Then on the seventh of October they were up again to the opening of the straits, past it, and come to a harbour among some islands a little north of Cape Pillar. This haven they entered toward night "with a sorrie saile," by "a most narrow passage of rocks" as "through the eye of a nedell." Here in shelter the worn and wearied men hoped to enjoy a little ease till this "intollerable tempest" had spent itself. But only a few hours after anchoring they were caught in a furi- ous squall and thrown into confusion. The "Golden Hind's" cables broke and her anchors "came home" [dragged], while the "Elizabeth" was forced to slip 268 The Boy's Drake hers. Both ships succeeded in reaching the open sea, but they were almost immediately separated. And they were never to meet again. So it was that the "Golden Hind" was left alone. What became of the "Elizabeth" ? She did not foun- der, nor did she suffer hurt. On the contrary, she prosperously scudded home to England and there re- ported the probable loss of Drake. We have the story in the narrative of Edward Cliffe who was on board her: "The seventh of October falling into a dangerous bay full of rocks . . . there we lost company of M. Drake the same night. The next day, very hardly escaping the danger of the rocks, we put into the Streights againe, where we ankered in an open bay for the space of two dayes, and made great fiers on the shore to the end if M, Drake should come into the Streights hee might finde us. After, we went into a sound where we stayed for the space of three weekes; and named it The Port of Health, for the most part of our men being very sicke with long watching, wet, cold, and euil diet, did here, God be thanked, wonder- fully recouer their health in short space. Here we had very great muscles, some being 20 inches long, very pleasant meate, and many of them full of seed-pearles. We came out of this harbour the first of Nouember giuing ouer our voiage by M. Winters compulsion, full sore against the mariners' minds, who [Wynter] al- leged he stood in dispaire as well to haue winds to serue his turne for Peru [for the rendezvous] as also On the Pacific 269 of M. Drakes safety. So we came back againe through the Streights." Wynter was no coward. He was simply restive under Drake's autocratic leader- ship, and welcomed this opportunity, honourably as he doubtless thought, to break away. In his deposi- tion before the admiralty court after his return to England, he complained of Drake's arbitrary acts. The taking off of the Portuguese prize — the "Mary" at Cape Verde Islands for example. This was con- trary to Wynter's "good wish," but he could not pro- test for he had no authority there "but such as pleased the said Drake to give and take away" at his own will and pleasure. Had he "contraried" Drake he would have punished him with death, he declared, and in- stanced the case of Doughty. Therefore, being "where no justice would be heard" he was enforced to "con- tent'* himself "with silence." Probably after his fire signals in the straits had failed to discover the "Golden Hind" he honestly believed she was lost, or that ulti- mately Drake would also abandon the voyage and at- tempt to return home. Now the "Golden Hind" alone was again driven back southward by the continuing storm. As she drifted or was beaten along Drake kept a constant lookout for both of his lost consorts. With the disap- pearance of the "Elizabeth" he named the bay where they had found such brief shelter together, the "Bay of Severing of Friends.'^ The tempest raged till the "Golden Hind" had been carried as low down as the fifty-fifth parallel. Here the gale somewhat abated. 270 The Boy's Drake and Drake was enabled to run in among a group of islands and anchor. These islands, Corbett conject- ures, are in Darwin's Sound, a few leagues to the south of the former anchorage of the fleet in this quarter. And the point where Drake now anchored Corbett surmises to have been either somewhere off Stewartland, or about the western approaches to the Beagle Channel. Here two restful days were passed in the lull of the storm. All the sick, of whom there were not a few, and the well received much comfort from a diet of wholesome herbs found here, with good fresh water. The natives were seen "travelling for their living from one island to another in their canowes, both men and women, and young infants wrapt in skins, and hange- ing at their mothers backs." These proved to be friendly folk and Drake trafficked with them, as usual giving trinkets in exchange for what they had: in this case chains of shells and other trifles. Still the sea continued troubled and the blustering winds again became threatening. Then the storm revived and with a furious energy. The sea was "rowled vp from the depths euen from the roots of the rockes as if it had been a scroll of parchment." The "Golden Hind's" anchors gave over their holdfast, and leaving behind the greater part of the cable with one anchor, she was committed almost helpless to the rolling sea which tossed her "like a ball in a racket." Again Drake's skilful seamanship saved her from wreck. At length, she fell in with the "vttermost part On the Pacific 271 of land towards the South Pole." And now the tem- pest instantly died away, and the unparalleled storm, which for violence and continuance "full 52 dayes" had exceeded all records "since Noahs flood," was over. Its sudden cessation as soon as the "Golden Hind" had reached this "uttermost part" Drake de- voutly interpreted "as though God had sent them of purpose to the end which ensued." This end was Drake's great discovery. He identi- fied these islands as part of the archipelago through which he had passed in the straits. Thus he saw that Magellan had not discovered as supposed the only way between the two oceans. The cosmographers of that time had represented the straits to be a passage between America and a vast antarctic continent stretch- ing east and west about the world, which they called "Terra Australis Incognita." Drake saw no such continent here. Outside the uttermost cape or head- land of "all those islands" there was "no maine or island" to the southward, but instead the open sea with the meeting of the Atlantic and the Pacific "in a most large and free scope." This uttermost cape or headland was Cape Horn, afterward so named, in honour of a Dutch sailor. It was a momentous discovery none the less to our hero's credit because accidental. How he came to it he described some years after to Sir Richard Haw- kins, the worthy son of Sir John, and himself a great navigator, who repeated the description in his Obser- vations upon a voyage of his own into the South Sea 272 The Boy's Drake in 1593. 'T remember," wrote Sir Richard, "that Sir Francis Drake told me . . . that standing about when the winde changed he was not well able to double the southermost iland, and so anchored under the lee of it; and going a-shore, carried a compasse with him, and seeking out the southermost part of the iland, caste himself downe upon the uttermost poynt, grovel- ling, and so reached out his bodie over it. Presently he imbarked, and then recounted unto his people that he had beene upon the southermost knowne land in the world, and more further to the southwards upon it then [than] any of them, yea, or any man as yet knowne." Fletcher also was on this island, and he set up a stone that he found there upon the flat side of which he cut Queen Elizabeth's name, the "year of Christ and the day of the month"; while Drake named the group " Elizabethides" in honour of his mistress. That Drake made this discovery is not admitted by some of the early and later historians, although the evidence is unmistakable; and it is popularly credited to the Dutch navigator Schouten, in the service of the East India Company, who was the first to double Cape Horn, in 1616. Drake did not at once report the discovery upon his return from this voyage, but kept the matter secret, except among his closest con- fidants, for some time, that the Spaniards should not learn of it and its strategical importance. Later Hak- luyt accepted it, giving, on Drake's authority, in his "New Map" in the second edition of his Principal On the Pacific 273 Navigations, an open sea below South America in place of the Terra Australis Incognita set down by the earlier cosmographers. The fine weather, that came with his great discovery, Drake took as a further sign from heaven that the Di- vine Hand had guided him. Says the authorised nar- rative, "Now our troubles did make an end . . . and all our calamities, onely the absence of our friends excepted, were removed, as if God, all this while, by his secret providence had led vs to make this discou- ery, which being made, according to his will, he stayed his hand, as pleased his maiestie therein, and refreshed vs as his seruants." Now Drake was anxious to return north and reach the appointed rendezvous on the Peruvian coast as speedily as possible in the hope of there recovering the lost consorts. So after two days spent among the "Elizabethides," on the thirtieth of October sails were set and the "Golden Hind" was again gallantly ply- ing north-westward. XXII "MAKING" THE VOYAGE IN their course up from the "Elizabethides" the voyagers kept "close aboord the shore as well as of the broken land," and on the second day they chanced upon two islands "lying like stragglers from the broken land." These are supposed to have been the Ildefonso group, off Darwin Sound. They looked inviting, and anchoring off them, Drake made a landing with the ship's boat. They were found to be "store- houses of most liberall provision of victuals" — birds* eggs in great profusion, sujfficient to stock the whole fleet had they been here together. As many as the "Golden Hind" could conveniently stow away were taken aboard, and the ship sailed on. Hence, north-north-west as the Spanish charts indi- cated the Chilian coast to trend, she forged ahead for twelve days more, till the height of forty-four degrees was reached. Meanwhile another interesting island of considerable size had come into view; but nothing of the looked-for Chilian coast. Drake's growing sus- picion that the Spanish charts were misleading had become a conviction, and he now boldly changed the 274 ''Making" the Voyage 275 course, steering north-east. This move in due time brought its reward. After two days' saihng in this direction he made the desired coast, at the mouth of the Valdivia River which enters the sea at the Puerto de Corral, ChiH. No fit harbour being seen here he coasted onward at a safe distance offshore till he had come to the height of thirty-seven degrees south or thereabouts. Still finding "no convenient place of abode," or sign of the lost consorts, at this point he determined to leave the main-land, lest he should be discovered, and run for that considerable island which had continued in view. It was the Chilian island of "Mucho." Mocha, as the gazetteers set down in these modern days, is re- sorted to by whalers, the peaceful successors in these tranquil South Seas of our buccaneers of three cen- turies back. The "Golden Hind" dropped anchor in its pleasant harbour on the twenty-fifth of November, and Drake with a picked crew rowed ashore. It was seen to be a fruitful place, "well stored with sundry good things." Upon landing Drake was received by a group of the Indian inhabitants with every demonstra- tion of good-will. These inhabitants were not natives of the island, but refugees from the main-land. They had been driven "by the cruell and most extreame dealings of the Spaniards" to fly from their old homes and fortify themselves here against their enemies. Several of the group, "with great courtesie," offered Drake fruits, maize, poultry; others brought down "two very fat sheepe" as a special present for him. 276 The Boy's Drake In return, according to his custom, he gave them vari- ous trinkets. By signs he made them understand that his coming w^as for no other purpose than to traffic with them for the products of their island, and to ob- tain supply of fresh water. In the same language they joyously expressed their happiness to accommodate him; and the next morning was appointed for the business. At this, with more gestures of friendliness on both sides, he departed for the ship with his little cargo of fruits, hens, and the good fat sheep, to return in the morning as arranged. That night, says the chaplain Fletcher In his notes, gratefully though slipping a bit in grammar, "our mut- ton and hens was to us so sweet that we longed for day that we might have more such bargains at their hands, yea every man desired to be a South Sea merchant." They were to receive instead a stunning shock. Bright and early next morning Drake was off again, now with a fine crew of nine men. They carried a lot of trinkets for exchange for the good things ex- pected, and "barrlcoes," or barrels, to take off the fresh water. Fearing no harm, the men carried neither "bowe nor other shot": only their swords and targets, which they were accustomed always to carry on all shore ventures. Beckoned by the natives, they came to a landing In a narrow creek bordered on both sides with reeds growing high and thick. Two sailors, Tom Flood and Tom Brewer, were first put ashore with the water barrels. They started off cheerily for the watering-place near by which the Indians had in- *' Making" the Voyage 277 dicated. When they had passed about half the way, to the amazement of their comrades in the boat they were set upon by their guides and carried off. At the same moment out from behind rocks screened by the reeds bordering the creek sprang some five hundred Indians and stormed the boat-load with a hot shower of arrows and darts. Simultaneously other Indians be- gan hauling the boat inshore by the painter. Others dashed at the oars. So unexpected and sudden was the attack that the boat-load were helpless. Every man of them was hit by arrows or darts several times. One suffered a score of wounds. He was the negro Diego, Drake's devoted servant. Another — John Brewer, the trumpeter — had seventeen. Several were dangerously hurt. Among the latter was Drake him- self. He was cut by an arrow in the face under the right eye, and struck also in the head and an arm. At such close range was the assault and so crowded the boat that the targets were of slight protection, while the swords were useless. Had not one of the sailors quickly cut the painter and released the boat all must have perished. With only two oars left, the creek full of rocks, and the surf running high, they made their perilous way back to the ship and the wounded were hastened aboard. Immediately another boat was sent back with a fresh crew, armed to the teeth, to rescue the two captured sailors. But the Indians were now gathered in such large numbers on the shore that it could not be accomplished, and the poor fellows had 278 The Boy's Drake to be left to their fate. When this crew returned to the ship they begged that the wrong might be revenged by a broadside into the crowd ashore; but Drake would not permit it. He was "more desirous to pre- serve one of his owne men alive then [than] to destroy one hundred of his enemies." That these Indians had taken Drake and his party for Spaniards was doubt- less the explanation of their act. For, says the narra- tive, "though command was given to the contrary, some of our men in demanding water vsed the Spanish word Jgua" in their hearing. With so large a number of painfully wounded men, things were in a bad way for a little while on the "Golden Hind." The chief surgeon was dead; his assistant was on the absent "Elizabeth"; and there was only left the surgeon's boy, "whose good will was more then [than] skill hee had." But fortunately — ■ and here again we have a remarkable example of our hero's resourcefulness — Drake himself, with his picked- up knowledge of surgery and medicine, was able to minister to his own and the others' hurts. Thanks to his skill, coupled with the fresh food they had ob- tained and the healing sea air, all in good time were recovered save two — the ship's gunner, a Dane called "Great Niel," and the faithful Diego, whose loss our captain sincerely deplored. The weapons of these Mucho Indians, the narrator remarks in passing, which did such cruel harm, were arrows made of reeds headed with stone "very brittle and indented," and darts of great length tipped with iron or bone. "Making" the Voyage 279 In the afternoon of this fateful day, the inhospit- able island was left and search made for a happier port which might afford the wounded some rest. Bending the ship's course, as the wind would favour her, again toward the main, four days later, the thir- tieth of November, the voyagers fell in with a bay which seemed to answer their purpose. This was Philip's Bay, as they called it, a little way above Val- paraiso. At its mouth the "Golden Hind" dropped anchor, and a boat was manned to discover whether it fulfilled its promise. The boatmen returned with an unsatisfactory report. They could not find that its shores afforded either fresh victuals or fresh water. They had seen huge herds of "buffes" (buffaloes) roaming about, but no sign of any inhabitants. One native, however, placidly fishing in the bay, they had come upon as they were returning. And him, with his canoe, they brought back with them. He was a fine figure as the narrator pictures him. "A comely personage and of good stature," clad in a single "white garment reaching scarcely to his knees," arms and legs bare, long hair falling from a strong head. Drake received him affably on the "Golden Hind's" deck. It was a lucky meeting as events shortly proved. By signs and gestures he indicated his readiness to be of any service to the stranger cap- tain. Drake gave his customary reply: he would trade with the people for his needs: fresh victuals and water. This the good fellow promised immediately to bring about. So, after he had been handsomely en- 28o The Boy's Drake tertained and pleased with gifts, he was returned to the ship's boat to be landed "where he would." Along with him went his canoe, a dainty bit of craft made of reed straw. Upon landing he willed the crew to stay by while he sought his friends. Two or three of his kind at once made their appearance seemingly from a hiding. To these he was seen to impart his news: displaying his presents, and evidently expressing the strangers' de- sire for trade. All this was apparently quite to their satisfaction. Then he and the others disappeared. The crew remained awaiting developments for an hour and more, ever on guard. At length their man returned accompanied by his "captain," or chief, and others loaded down with good things, hens, eggs, a fat hog, and "such like." To allay any suspicion of their good intent the savages packed these offerings into one of their own canoes and paddled it to the ship's boat then lying "a reasonable distance" off the shore. And with the goods went the chief. "He would needs commit himself to the credit of our men, though strangers, and come with them to our Generall with- out any of his own acquaintance or countriemen with him." This was a remarkable show of confidence to be sure, but, you see, he and his people evidently thought the strangers to be Spanish, and with the Spaniards they were friendly. The chief was welcomed on the "Golden Hind" with greater courtesy, if possible, than his forerunner had received. He informed Drake by signs that all "Making" the Voyage 281 the ship's necessities could not be fully supplied at this place. There was, however, a larger place not far back to the southward where by traffic he might have at pleasure everything he stood in need of, and the accommodating chief would pilot him to that har- bour if he wished. This offer Drake accepted, the more gladly, as the narrative states, "because it was neere about the place appointed for the rendezvoues of our fleete." But there was a more inspiriting rea- son. As Pretty's narration notes, the chief dropped the observation that there was lately arrived in that harbour "a great ship laden from the kingdom of Peru." Now the "making of the Voyage," the raid upon Spanish ships and Spanish Pacific ports for plunder, was about to begin. No time was lost in getting away under the Indian's pilotage. Several of the company had planned a buffalo hunt ashore, but this had to be given up. A day's sailing back southward brought them to the de- sired port. This was Valparaiso, serving as the port of Santiago. It was reached on the fifth of December, a year from the time of Drake's start out from Eng- land, and not a word of his break into the Pacific had yet come to any South Sea Spanish settlement. All of them were believed to be absolutely secure from inva- sion by any European enemy, corsair or pirate. So all were off guard. Drake was to fall upon them "like a visitation from Heaven." Valparaiso at this time, according to Pretty, was a 282 The Boy's Drake town of ''not above nine households," indifferently protected. In the harbour rode the treasure-ship of which the Indian had told, with only eight Spaniards and three negroes aboard her. She was a famous ves- sel. She was called, as the narrative puts it, the *' Captaine of Mori all, or the Grand Captaine of the South, Admirall of the Islands of Salomon." Corbett informs us that she was the identical ship which the famous Spanish navigator Sarmiento de Gamboa had commanded in the expedition of Mendana de Neyra eleven years before (1567) to discover the fabled "Isles of Ophir," now called the Solomon Islands, and per- haps Australia. The few of her crew aboard suppos- ing the incoming "Golden Hind" to be a Spanish ship, welcomed her with the beating of drums, and, as was afterward learned, made ready a "bottiji" (a Spanish pot) of Chilian wine to drink to the supposed friends. But as soon as she had come up with the Spaniard the intrepid and experienced Tom Moone, spoiling for adventure, was over her side with a board- ing party. Now the story is Pretty's, the authorised narrative discreetly suppressing these details. Moone "began to lay about him " vigorously, with the cry as he struck one of the crew, "Abaxo Perro! that is in English, Goe downe dogge!" to surrender by getting below. "One of these Spaniards seeing persons of that quality in those seas" — Pretty was a bit of a braggadocio — "crossed and blessed himselfe: but to be short, wee stowed them under hatches, all save one Spaniard, "Making" the Voyage 283 who suddenly and desperately leapt over boord into the sea and swamme ashore to the town of S. I ago to give them warning of our arrival." The prize secured, Drake manned his ship's boat, and also that of the prize, and entered the town. It was found deserted, all the inhabitants having fled. His men gayly helped themselves to what was readiest at hand. Wines of Chili were taken from the ware- houses. A chapel was rifled of "a silver chalice, two cruets, and one altar cloth," Catholic spoil which Drake turned over to his Protestant chaplain. No harm to warehouse or dwelling was permitted. Nor was any injury suff'ered by the prisoners on the prize. The sack of the town over, Drake returned to her and set all of the prisoners ashore, save only her pilot, a Greek, named John Griego, whom he retained to pilot him to Lima. Then the "Golden Hind," well sup- plied with the takings of wines, bread, bacon, and other foods for a long season, put to sea again with the prize in tow. When they were well out Drake had her brought alongside his ship and ransacked her. Her product was surprising. Besides a good cargo of Chilian wine she was carrying "25000 pezoes of very find gold of Baldivia [Valdivia], amounting in value to 37000 ducats of Spanish money and above," or eighty thousand pounds of English money; some pearls; and a "great crosse of gold beset with emer- aulds, on which was nailed a god of the same metall." Some time was spent in the pleasant toil of "easing this ship of so heavy a burthen," as the narrative jo- 284 The Boy's Drake cundly records, by transferring her weakh to the "Golden Hind." This done, captor and captured were a-sail again, returning toward "the Hne." Along the way the Indian pilot, who had remained through the Valparaiso affair, was landed "in the place where he desired," bountifully rewarded by Drake for his profitable service "with many good things," which pleased him mightily. What was his fate on the dis- covery that he had led the English to the spoiling of Spaniards can only be conjectured. Drake was now on the lookout especially for a con- venient and safe harbour in which he might clean the "Golden Hind," which had again become foul, and also set up his other pinnace stowed in the hold in pieces: the first one had been lost sight of in the storm off Tierra del Fuego with eight men. With this pin- nace he could search every likely inlet or creek he might come upon, which his ship could not safely pen- etrate, in the hope of finding the lost consorts. These he was yet confident he would ultimately meet. He would also employ the smaller boat in encountering the "malice or treachery of the Spaniards," if by chance the voyagers should meet with any of them, rather than hazard the ship to their "cruell courtesie." Such a place was apparently found at the mouth of the Coquimbo River, not far south of a Spanish town which the narrator calls "Cyppo." Drake sent his ship's boat to the shore with a crew of fourteen men to reconnoitre. They had evidently been espied from the town, for no sooner had they landed than a party "Making" the Voyage 285 of Spaniards and Indians hove in sight approaching the water-side. They were a pretty large party too: three hundred horsemen and two hundred footmen, according to Pretty; but as the authorised narrative states it, "300 men at least, whereof 100 were Span- iards every one well mounted upon his horse, the rest . . . Indians running as dogs at their heeles, all naked/* Luckily for the fourteen, before this for- midable force could reach them, they were all able to escape except one, by scurrying from the main to a rock offshore and then to their boat which hurried them back to the ship. The one who failed to get away was an over-bold sailor, Richard Mining, who refused to run and dared the oncomers. They killed him, and, after his dead body was dragged from the rock to the main by the Indians, the Spaniards cut off his head and his right hand, and plucked out his heart, leaving the remains to the Indians to be shot full of arrows — all this in the sight of his horrified compan- ions. After the assailants had withdrawn some of the sailors ventured again ashore and gave the mangled body decent burial. Meanwhile the Spaniards reap- peared now bearing a flag of truce. But Drake would not trust them, and as soon as the burial party had re-embarked sails were set and the search renewed, northward. The next day another and more inviting harbour was come upon This was Salado Bay some leagues north of "Cyppo." Upon examination it proved to be quite suitable. Accordingly anchors were cast and 286 The Boy's Drake preparations made for a stay till the work as planned was done. Speedily all hands were at their appointed tasks. The "Golden Hind" was thoroughly trimmed, and her heavy guns were brought out of her hold and mounted, while the pinnace was put together on the deck of the prize. Fully a month's time was spent in this work and in exploring the region about. When the pinnace was full set up Drake took her with some "chosen men" and sailed southward, hoping to come upon the missing consorts in some inlet or secluded place along shore. But after several days' sailing, the wind being contrary, he was forced to return. He contented himself with the thought that, failing to make the rendezvous, the consorts had gone on toward Panama. Therefore he would push on northward without further delay, and, while continuing at "mak- ing" his voyage, would look into every inlet and bay for them. During the stay in this haven, the gentle- men of the company had fine sport in fishing. The narrator would have it believed that with "4 or 5 hookes or lines, in 2 or 3 houres" they "would take sometimes 400" fish, "sometimes more at one time." Salado Bay was left astern on the nineteenth of Jan- uary. The course was now close along shore. Near a place which the narrator calls "Tarapaca," on the Pisagua River, the first landing was made by a ship's boat party for fresh water. Ashore they lighted upon a Spaniard lying comfortably sound asleep, and at his side lay thirteen bars of silver, "weighing in all about 4000 Spanish duccatts." He was on his way from the "Making" the Voyage 287 renowned Potosi mines. They would not disturb him, but would relieve him of his burden. He did awake, but not till they had the silver, which they carried back to the ship instead of the water. A little farther on another landing was made, as before for water. Here more plunder was fallen upon. This time it was in the keeping of a Spaniard wide awake, with an Indian boy, driving a string of eight llamas, or Peruvian sheep, "as big as asses," each loaded with two leather bags containing a hundred pounds of fine silver. "We could not indure to see a gentleman Spaniard turned carrier so," says the narrator in his facetious way, "and therefore without intreaty we offered our seruices and become drouers, onely his directions were not so per- fect that we could keepe the way which hee intended, for almost as soone as hee was parted from us we with our new kind of carriges were come vnto our boates." The bags thus taken yielded in all some eight hundred- weight of silver. Next some Indian towns were passed where all the natives were found friendly. From one groups came out in queer craft with quantities of fish for traffic and took the trifles in exchange with glee. Their craft were "certaine hawses made of seale skins, of which two being ioyned [joined] together of iust [just, or equal] length and side by side resemble in fashion or forme a boate." In each was "a small gutt or some such thing blowne full of winde, by reason whereof it floateth, and is rowed very swiftly, carrying in it no small burthen." At another, by name Mormorena, or 288 The Boy's Drake Morro Morena, two Spanish officers were ruHng as governors. Drake would "try their courtesy" in the matter of traffic. They yielded gracefully, "more from feare than love/' however, the narrator avers; and a brisk trade followed with their people. Of all the novel things here found the sheep of the country were "most memorable." They were similar to those previously taken with the leather bags of gold, but bigger. In height and length, declares the narrative, they were equal to a "pretty cow," while their strength, if we are to accept these sailors' yarns, was enormous. " Vpon one of their backs did sit at one time three well growne and tall men, and one boy, no mans foot touch- ing the grounde by a large foot in length, the beast nothing at all complaining of his burthen in the meane time. The next adventure was at Arica, a Spanish town, and the port of the rich Potosi mines, which was reached on the seventh of February. This port Drake boldly entered. Within lay two. or three barks with only a lone negro in charge, all the crews being in the town, so secure from sea enemies was the region be- lieved to be. The negro was taken and the ships rifled. From one were got some forty odd (Pretty says fifty-seven) wedges of silver of the "bignesse and fash- ion of a brickbatte, and in waight each of them about 20 pounds." Drake would have followed up the capt- ure with a sack of the warehouses of the little town, a settlement then of about twenty houses, had his com- pany been "better and more in number" to cope with "Making" the Voyage 289 a force of horse that were there. Instead, he con- tented himself with keeping the place in alarm through the night following by the noise of his drums and trumpets. Early in the morning he was away, taking the captured negro along with him. Now he was hastening toward Callao, the port of Lima, to outrun the news of his presence in these waters which he feared might be sent there from Arica. His movements, moreover, were accelerated hy a report, which probably the captured negro had dropped, that a richly laden treasure-ship had sailed a short time before for Panama. This prize he must have. A breezy dash of a hundred miles brought him up to her. She was lying at anchor in a haven which the narrator calls Chule, a mistake, as Corbett thinks, for Chute, where is Hay, the port of Arequipa. To Drake's chagrin she was empty. A warning had reached her ahead of him from two of his prisoners that he had liberated; and two hours before his ar- rival she had discharged and hidden all her treasure. He had, therefore, only a valueless prize for his pains. A league offshore he made sail upon her and also upon his prizes taken at Arica, and left them to go whither they would, while he hurried on to Callao. A few leagues south of the port a Spanish bark was met coming therefrom. She was taken without any ado, and found to contain a cargo of linen. Her pilot he retained to conduct him into port. From her men he got word of another treasure-ship recently arrived at Callao, and this spurred him on. 290 The Boy's Drake Callao was reached on the fifteenth day of February. In this harbour were moored some thirty vessels, of which seventeen, most of these the finest Spanish ships in the South Sea trade, were full laden. The sails of many were ashore, and all were under slight watch, for here, as elsewhere, the masters and merchants were fearing the "approach of none such as we were.'* Drake quietly dropped in at nightfall and anchored in the midst of the fleet. As quietly the rifling of the deserted ships was begun. In one, the "ship of one Mighall Angell," were fifteen bars of silver, a chest "full of royals of plate" [real de plata, a Spanish silver coin] some silks and linens. The chest was shifted to the "Golden Hind" with a goodly store of the silk and linens. From the few stray hands about this ship the Englishmen got their first news of Old-World hap- penings since their departure from England. But of greater moment as affecting their own affairs was the intelligence given by these sailors of a certain rich treasure-ship that had left this haven a fortnight before bound for Panama, and to touch at Paita on the way. She was the "gallant ship the Cacafuego, the great glory of the South Sea," full laden with bullion on its way to the Spanish king's treasury: the rarest game of the Pacific at that time. Here was a prize worth fighting for. Drake felt sure that with his lighter ship he could catch her notwithstanding her long start. So he hastened his present "business" that he might be off" for the chase. While the ships' looting was thus hurrying to a fin- *' Making" the Voyage 291 ish a vessel from Panama came into the harbour and anchored close to the "Golden Hind/' At the same time a custom-house boat coming out from the shore pulled up alongside her to inquire who she was. One of Drake's Spanish prisoners was made to reply, "Michael Angelo's ship from Chih." At this one of the boat's men started to climb up her side. As he neared the deck his astonished eyes were gazing into the mouth of a great gun. Back he scrambled and back rushed the boat shoreward. A shower of arrows was sent after her to stop her and prevent her giving the alarm to the town, but without effect. In the con- fusion the ship from Panama had cut her cables and was making off for sea. Drake's pinnace put after her. Soon she was reached and surrender demanded. Her reply was a harquebus shot which killed one of the pinnace's crew. Now the "Golden Hind" was off. To prevent pursuit Drake had cut the cables of all the ships in the harbour, and the masts of the larger ones, and let them drive whither they would, either to sea or on the shore. One shot from the "Golden Hind" was sufficient to make the Panama ship strike. Some of her crew lowered her boat and abandoned her. Hurriedly overhauled, she was found to contain only Spanish merchandise. With her in tow Drake made ready for his chase. It was to be the most exhilarating chase of the whole marvellous voyage. At the outset, however, Drake was balked by an exasperating dead calm, and only by clever manoeuvring did he escape disaster. As the 292 The Boy's Drake "Golden Hind" and her prize drifted off the mouth of Callao Bay, he could hear the bells of the town ringing out an alarm, and cries of "the French! the French!" By these cries it was some satisfaction to him, no doubt, to find that his identity had not yet been discovered, but his position was none the less perilous. The calm continued through the whole of the next day. Meanwhile in the town it had been learned that the enemy were not French but English, and preparations were making in hot haste for their pursuit. The Viceroy of Peru, Don Francisco de To- ledo, had hurried down from Lima with horse and foot, and had manned two of the drifting vessels in the harbour with soldiers to make after them. It was he who had found out who the enemy really were, from the arrows which Drake's men had fired into the custom-house boat. The pursuers got off upon the first gentle breeze that broke the calm, but before they could reach him Drake had managed by towing with his pinnace and ship's boat to get his ships out into the sea. And as they were approaching in the distance, he effected a clever ruse to turn them from the "Golden Hind" to the prize. Quietly and with the utmost haste he had the prisoners and prize crew transferred to the "Golden Hind," then, casting the prize off and letting her drive, while spreading all sail on the "Golden Hind," he sped away on the now increasing wind. The ruse was most successful. The pursuers drove directly for the prize, and by the time they re- covered her the "Golden Hind" was only a speck on "Making" the Voyage 293 the horizon. They laboured after her all that day, but as night fell gave up the chase and returned discom- fited to port. Had they caught up with her they were powerless for action, for their ships had no guns, and the soldiers were in no condition for fighting, since most of these landsmen had become deathly seasick. Meanwhile the freshening breeze had developed into a little gale, and the "Golden Hind" was flying north- ward at a spanking pace. As she drew near "the line" the wind again died down, and her sailors were put to the oars. On the second day of her run a Spanish frigate was met and easily taken. From her pilot Drake learned that his prey was only three days ahead of him. Two more days' sailing brought him to Paita. The "Cacafuego" had left some time be- fore, but from the crew of another prize which he took here — a ship laden with wine — he found that he had gained a day on her. Now there seemed the prospect of a fight, for the "Cacafuego" was said to be unusually well armed and quite warranting her name, which freely Englished means the "Spitfire." Thus an added relish was given the chase. Continuing from Paita the ship and the pinnace sailed in extended line: the ship a league and a half to sea, the pinnace carrying Drake close inshore. All eyes were keenly on the lookout. To whoever on either craft should first descry the prey Drake had promised a chain of gold for reward. The next day out from Paita a third prize was taken. This was a Spanish bark bound from Guayaquil to 294 The Boy's Drake Panama, laden with ships' ropes and tackhng, and having in her some eighty pounds weight of gold. She carried two friars as passengers; and a "gold crucifix studded with diamonds," which was among her plunder, may well have been theirs. The friars were set ashore together with her men, excepting the skipper and the supercargo, who were retained while the trans- fer of the treasure to the "Golden Hind" was made. During this operation Drake had a tussle with the supercargo. Some of the negroes of the crew had de- clared that there was some metal aboard not entered in the ship's papers. The supercargo stoutly denied this. Drake would not believe him and ordered him to be hung up till he confessed. He persisted in his denial. When a search had revealed no more than the papers called for he was released. This is the story as found in a deposition of John Drake, the captain's page, who some time after, in another expedition, not one of Drake's, was captured by the Spaniards. Nuiio da Silva gives another version of the affair. The au- thorised narrative does not mention it. If the story is true, it is the only charge or record of cruel treat- ment of his prisoners by Drake; and Corbett would set against this exceptional act the unusual excitement under which he was labouring at the time. When this prize was looted she was let drive whither she would like the rest. Forging ahead, within three more days Guayaquil was reached and passed without stopping. Five days later, the first day of March, Cape San Francisco was *' Making" the Voyage 295 approached. Still no sign of the pursued ship. Now a fourth prize was overhauled: another ship from Guayaquil to Panama, with fifteen thousand pesos of gold on her. From one of her passengers it was learned that the "Cacafuego'* could not be far ahead. Quickly this prize was relieved of her treasure and the chase renewed with fresh hope. A few hours later the cape rose in view. Almost at this moment John Drake, the page, who had climbed to the mast-head, cried the prey in sight and claimed the golden chain. She was descried serenely proceeding on her course evidently with no suspicion that she was being chased. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. Drake did not want to encounter her then. He would come upon her by surprise after nightfall. To check his progress by taking in sail would arouse her suspicion, for he was now in fair sight of her. So he resorted to a cunning device not uncommon with pirates of his time. It consisted in trailing at the ship's stern some heavy material which would reduce her speed while her sails were full set. In this case some empty wine jars, or casks, were used. Meanwhile the "Golden Hind's" decks were cleared for action. As night fell the distance between the chaser and chased had de- creased, but not enough to bring them dangerously near together. Early in the evening the chased was seen to have turned about and to be making for the chaser. It afterward appeared that her captain supposed his fol- lower to be a Spanish ship sent after him by the vice- 296 The Boy's Drake roy of Peru with some message. Perhaps, Drake thought, she might be coming to ascertain who her follower was, and if an enemy to fight. Whatever the manoeuvre meant the moment for action had come. Immediately he cast off his drags and winged toward her. Meeting her, he ran under her stern and brought to alongside. The Spaniard's captain, also her owner — San Juan de Anton — hailed the stranger. There was no re- sponse. Then he demanded who she was. Answer went back, "A ship from Chili." At this Anton ap- peared at his ship's side peering over. Instantly arose from the stranger's deck a shout: "English! Strike sail!" Then a solitary voice: "Strike sail! Senor Juan de Anton, unless you wish to be sent to the bottom!" "Strike?" retorted the Spaniard. "What kind of a cruet-stand do you think this is to strike ? Come aboard and do it yourselves!" A whistle sounded from the stranger's deck. Im- mediately followed a trumpet call. Then a volley of shot and arrows. The astonished Spaniard strove hard to bear away. But in vain. A big gun's shot knocked his mizzen overboard. Repair of the damage was made impossi- ble by a steady rain of shot and arrows. Suddenly a pinnace which had silently approached laid aboard him at port, and some forty Englishmen were clamber- ing into his chains and pouring over his side. Now "SOME FORTY ENGLISHMEN WERE CLAMBERING INTO HIS CHAINS AND POURING OVER HIS SIDES." "Making" the Voyage 297 Anton was alone on his deck his men having scram- bled below. Thus he was undone. He was taken at once to the "Golden Hind" where he first became aware who the stranger really was. Drake he saw in helmet and coat of mail, already disarming. His reception was courtly. "Accept with patience what is the usage of war," Drake graciously counselled as he ordered him below into confinement. It was all over within a few minutes from the sound- ing of Drake's signal whistle. Without the loss or hurt of one of his men, Drake found himself in posses- sion of the richest vessel in all the South Sea. In spite of her name the "Cacafuego" was but slightly armed. This is the story of the capture as Corbett finds it in a report of Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa who had it from Anton. None is given in the authorised narra- tive, while Pretty's account is in three lines: "We came to her and boarded her, and shot at her three peaces of ordinance and strake down her Misen." Through the rest of that night and all the next day and night Drake sailed the two ships together taking a direct course from the land out into the sea, and then feeling himself secure from molestation, he proceeded leisurely to gut the rare prize. Meanwhile the prisoners taken with her, officers and men, were treated handsomely. Anton was en- tertained at the captain's table, and was impressed with the stateliness and formality of the meals, which were served "to the sound of trumpets and other in- 298 The Boy's Drake struments," as he afterward reported. He remarked also how Drake wa