That done, they urged him to come away. But Drake refused to budge;
whereupon, knowing how much depended upon his safety, they picked him
up in their strong arms and carried him to his pinnace. Not all his
entreaties or threats could move them, and the only satisfaction he
could get out of them was:
“What’s the good of the treasure of the Spanish Main if we have not
Francis Drake?”
Thus it was that Drake found himself back in his pinnace, heading out
for sea. But the night’s adventures were by no means over. In the
harbour they found a big ship coming in. They promptly boarded her and
took her, finding her to be well stocked with wines and other good
things; and, taking her along with them, they made their way to a small
island a little distance from Nombre de Dios, where they rested and
refreshed themselves.
The Spaniards discovered where they were, and sent a messenger to
Drake; they wanted to make sure who had attacked them. Drake received
the emissary courteously, answered his questions frankly, assured him
that the English arrows were not poisoned, and that he was indeed
Francis Drake; gave him a present for himself, and then sent him back
with a message to the Governor.
“Tell him,” he said, “to keep his eyes open, for if God lend me life
and leave I mean to reap some of your harvest which you get out of the
earth and send into Spain to trouble all the earth!”
Away went the Spaniard and delivered his message, no doubt to the
consternation of the Governor.
In a couple of days Drake felt that it was time to go to the Isle of
Pines, where he had left Rouse and his men. Arrived here, he told of
his misadventures, and Rouse, growing disheartened, washed his hands
of the whole affair and went home; which Drake didn’t really mind, for
he preferred to work on his own, and was by no means despondent. He
decided that he would tackle Carthagena, the chief town on the Spanish
Main, which, if he could surprise it, would amply repay him for his
voyage.
The Governor of Nombre de Dios, however, had taken the precaution of
warning Carthagena of the proximity of the Dragon, as they called Drake
now, so that when the English appeared off Carthagena they were met by
shots from the town, which told Drake that his surprise attack would
not come off. He knew, too, that the town was too strong to attempt
to assault it openly, so he contented himself with seizing a number
of ships lying at anchor in the harbour--right under the noses of the
Spanish guns.
Then he sailed from Carthagena, deciding to lie low awhile in the Gulf
of Darien till the excitement had subsided, when he would sally forth
again. One thing worried him: he hadn’t sufficient men to man the ships
and the pinnaces. He resolved to get over the difficulty by sinking
one ship--the _Swan_--commanded by his brother John. He had to do this
secretly, for he knew that his men would never consent to her being
sunk. So, taking old Tom Moore, his carpenter, into his confidence, he
succeeded in overcoming his qualms and arranging for him to bore holes
in the ship’s bottom; and in due course the _Swan_ began to fill and
to settle down. Drake, passing by in one of his pinnaces, asked John
what was the matter with his ship; had she sprung a leak? Instantly
it was “All hands to the pumps!” But pumped they never so quickly the
water gained, and soon the men had to abandon the ship, which presently
plunged beneath the surface; and Drake had achieved his purpose.
Then away to the Gulf of Darien, where they rested and amused
themselves at various good old English games. Here Drake learnt from
a negro he had with him, one Diego, that the Cimaroons, who hated the
Spaniards like poison, would no doubt be willing to join forces with
him against them; and Drake sent his brother John to the mainland to
negotiate with the Cimaroons. The mission was successful, and John
returned to report that the Cimaroons, eager to take their vengeance on
the Spaniards for all the evil they had wrought, would be willing to
co-operate with the English, and would lead them anywhere they liked.
Drake, following the counsel of the Cimaroons, decided to postpone
operations until the rainy season was over. Now, as the waiting period
had to be filled in somehow, or his men would grow weary of waiting,
Drake, knowing that inactivity is the worst thing for sailors and
soldiers, determined to be up and doing on the sea. So, moving to a
safer harbour, he made that his headquarters, leaving there a number of
men under command of John. With the remainder he set out in a couple
of pinnaces to see what was to be picked up along the coast. First he
dashed into Carthagena harbour, and cut out two frigates from under the
muzzles of the guns; later, when the Spaniards grew weary of being at
the mercy of the Dragon, and sent out two big ships to take him, Drake
met them, and though they were well armed and well manned he sent them
scurrying back to their harbour. One of his two prizes he sent to
the bottom, and the other he burnt; and then, wanting to feel terra
firma beneath his feet, pulled to the shore. Something told him that
the Spaniards had prepared an ambush for him; but Drake determined to
land, and, springing ashore, he defied the hidden Spaniards to do their
worst! And instead of doing that they bolted!
Meanwhile, John Drake had been busy. He did not want to be out of all
the fun, so one day, espying a Spanish ship, he put off in a pinnace,
taking only one man with him, and tried to capture her. The result was
a foregone conclusion--both the intrepid and foolhardy Englishmen were
killed. John was never so lucky as Francis!
Thus it came about that when Drake returned to his headquarters to give
his men a rest he found his brother gone, and suffered an agony of
spirit, for the hardy mariner had loved his brave brother. Still, what
is done cannot be undone, and the Englishmen had to resign themselves
to fate. The hot weather having now set in, they had other troubles to
think about; fever had laid its fell grip upon them, and took a heavy
toll during the time of rest. Then came the Cimaroons with news of the
Spanish fleet. This heralded the dispatch of the treasure from Panama
across the Isthmus of Darien--a journey which up till then had been
unattended by danger from a European foe, although now and again, no
doubt, the Cimaroons had sought to get a blow in at the Spaniards.
Drake now intended to give the Dons a shock; he meant to march inland
and waylay the treasure mule-train. He had only eighteen of his men
who were fit to travel, but he picked out thirty Cimaroons and Pedro
to go with him. Pedro, by the way, had whetted the curiosity of Drake
by telling him of a great sea far away beyond the hills, and the
adventurer told himself that this must be the wonderful South Sea of
which the men of the past had spoken. He decided to have a look at it,
with a view to future exploring.
So off across the isthmus went the little band of black men and
white--strange companions, who had at least one bond of sympathy,
namely, hatred of the Spaniards. The Cimaroons knew the way, and led by
the most favourable route--through forests and over hills and across
rivers. On every side were new and strange sights to the Englishmen,
who marched by day, and slept by night in branch-houses built by the
Cimaroons to shelter them from the mists which bring fever.
After a fairly uneventful journey, the company arrived at the other
side of the isthmus, and found before them a high mountain, up which
they toiled, to see, as Pedro had told them, the great sea. The summit
being reached, they saw that on a tree-trunk the Cimaroons had cut
steps, and in its branches had erected a platform. Drake clambered up
to this, and stood there facing the sea--the mighty Pacific rolling
before him, the great Atlantic spread out behind him. He had come
within sight of the South Sea--the first Englishman to do so.
A moment’s silence. The sight seemed too much for the adventurer; then,
bursting out a vow that he would be the first Englishman to sail its
waters, he cried:
“But one thing do I ask of Heaven, and that to sail once in an English
ship in that sea!”
Then, having feasted his eyes upon the scene before him, he called up
his company, and there, one by one, the English sailors registered
their vows to follow him wherever he went, and when.
But there was no time to dally. Pressing work must be attended to; the
future must be left to itself. So away towards Panama City Drake and
his men went, cutting their way through the forest and keeping a good
look-out lest they be surprised by Spaniards. However, they escaped
notice, and after two days’ hard work came to open country, and before
them lay Panama, the city of gold and silver; and away in the harbour
rode the treasure fleet, waiting to disgorge its rich cargoes.
The day was still young when they came within sight of their objective,
and, knowing that they must not be seen yet, Drake kept his men under
cover until night, meanwhile sending a Cimaroon to spy out the land and
to discover when the treasure-train would set out on its journey to
Nombre de Dios.
Anxiously the adventurers waited, longing to get to business, wondering
whether it might happen that they would have to wait hidden very long.
But presently the spy came back with news that cheered, and made them
feel that they had the treasure in their hands already! That very night
the treasure-train was to set out for Nombre de Dios--a train of fifty
mules, heavy laden, to be followed the next night by two other trains
of like size. How those Englishmen’s fingers itched!
But they knew there would be stern work before them ere their hands
laid hold on the treasure, and, wasting no time on anticipatory
visions, they marched forward through the darkness till they came
to the junction of the Nombre de Dios and Panama roads. Here Drake
disposed his forces carefully, dividing them into two companies of
eight Englishmen and fifteen Cimaroons--a company on each side of
the road, under command of Drake and John Oxenham respectively. The
companies were posted, not exactly opposite each other, but in such
positions that one could seize the hindmost mules and the other the
foremost, and so get the Spaniards between two fires.
There followed an anxious time of waiting, during which a man dared
hardly breathe, let alone speak. Then through the night air came
the cheery tinkling of bells, and they knew that the train was
approaching. The only thing that worried them was that the tinkling
came from two ways--from Venta Cruz and from Panama. They knew that the
treasure-train would not come from Venta Cruz; but the question was
which would get there first?
They needn’t have worried; the whole matter was settled for them! One
of Drake’s men had been drinking too much, and the neat brandy had got
into his head; so that when he heard the bells he got muddled and lost
his sense of locality. When the bells from Venta Cruz drew nearer he
thought they were the bells from Panama. Now, the former heralded only
the approach of a single Spanish officer, who would have been allowed
to proceed without molestation had not the drunken sailor raised
himself up from the long grass to hurl himself at the Spaniard. Quick
as lightning a Cimaroon hauled him back. But too late; the officer
had seen the white shirt which the man wore--as did his comrades, for
identification--and, suspicious that there should be anyone lying in
wait at such a spot, and at such a time, he urged his mule on towards
Panama at top speed, expecting to be followed.
But none followed him; for Drake’s orders were to lie low, even now.
On, therefore, went the officer, to meet the treasure-train, which was
in charge of the Treasurer of Lima, who was naturally pretty startled
to see the galloping figure.
“A miracle has happened!” cried the officer. “El Dragon has
come--though how, Heaven only knows--and he lies in wait for the
treasure!”
Now, the Treasurer of Lima, like most of his compatriots, had a
wholesome dread of Drake, and though it passed his comprehension that
such a thing should have taken place, yet he considered it wise to
adopt precautionary measures, lest there should be any truth in the
scared officer’s apparently wild tale.
So, keeping back the actual treasure-train, he sent on a line of mules,
two of them with loads of silver, the rest with provisions, just to
act as a decoy; and Drake, having kept his men quiet, and hearing the
tinkling of the bells as before, imagined that everything was going
quite smoothly, and that after all the Spanish officer had not seen the
drunken sailor.
The mule-train came to the ambush; there rang a shrill whistle-call,
and the Englishmen and the Cimaroons leapt to their feet, fell upon the
Spaniards, seized the mules, and began to rifle their packs, expecting
to find a rich haul of treasure.
And all they found were the two loads of silver and an assortment of
victuals!
However, there it was; and the important thing was to square things up
somehow, and to get back to the coast before the Spaniards could stop
them. The way back lay through Venta Cruz. It was the easier way, and
Drake vowed he’d go by that road, even though it meant fighting his way
through. He must hurry on before the men of Panama had time to warn
Venta Cruz. The Cimaroons pledged themselves to follow him through
thick and thin, and with this assurance Drake immediately set out.
The Cimaroons went on in front as scouts, and presently reported that
they had located the presence of Spanish troops by the smell of the
gun-matches. Whereupon Drake got ready to fight, thinking he might have
to cut his way through. On they went, silently, carefully; but soon the
Spaniards saw them, and they were challenged.
“Who goes there?” they cried.
“Englishmen!” came back the bold, proud, staggering answer that
wellnigh sent the Spaniards fleeing for their lives.
“In the name of the King of Spain, yield!” cried the captain of the
troop.
“Never!” bellowed Drake. “For the honour of the Queen of England, I
must have passage this way,” and discharged his pistol full at the
captain. Then, with good Queen Bess’s name on their lips, the English
opened fire upon the Spaniards, who responded promptly, with fatal
effect to one Englishman and wounds to others, including Drake himself.
Still the little band kept up their fire, and presently the Spanish
fire slackened somewhat, and Drake’s whistle sounded the “Charge!”
There was a sharp volley of English shot, a flight of Cimaroon arrows,
and then “St. George and England!” yelled the English, “Yo peho, yo
peho!” cried the Cimaroons, and away they went at the Spaniards,
scattering them, sending them helter-skelter into Venta Cruz, whither
the foe followed them--into the heart of the city!
And that little mixed band captured Venta Cruz, and ransacked it!
But for all their roughness and eagerness for treasure, the English
behaved, as Englishmen always do--courteously; and neither women nor
children nor unarmed men had aught to say against them for their
treatment.
[Illustration: “‘For the honour of the Queen of England, I must have
passage this way!’ cried Drake, and discharged his pistol”]
Staying only long enough to take what treasure they could find, Drake
and his men pushed on from Venta Cruz towards the coast, which they
reached in due course, to find the sick men well, though it was but
natural they were all downcast at the failure of the journey to Panama.
Shortly afterwards, Drake joined hands with a French privateer, and
proceeded to make other plans for capturing some of the treasure from
the South. He knew that by this time the Spanish Main would be up in
arms and watchful against him; but he had come a long way, and felt he
ought to be paid for his trouble.
Oxenham was sent with a pinnace to cut out a provision ship; which
he did, capturing a fine frigate laden with sufficient food to serve
their purpose. Drake himself went along the coast towards Veragua,
stopping a frigate on the way, relieving her of some of her treasure,
and gathering from the captain--probably under pressure--that in the
harbour at Veragua there rode a Spanish ship with over a million
of gold in her hold. This was fine news indeed, and off to Veragua
hastened Drake, staying for nothing.
The pinnace shot into the harbour--and received a broadside from the
Spaniards, who were warned of their coming! Back went Drake. Clearly,
his luck was out!
But he would have one more try. He discovered that a treasure-train
was due at Nombre de Dios from Venta Cruz, and he made up his mind to
make an attempt to intercept this near Nombre de Dios. Putting back
to his harbour, he boarded his little fleet, consisting of the French
privateer and a couple of frigates captured from the Spaniards. The
_Pacha_, his own ship, was unseaworthy by this time, and he left her
“to the Spaniards” as something in return for those he had captured!
Sailing along the coast for another harbour, he left his vessels there,
and embarked in his pinnaces with fifteen Englishmen, twenty Frenchmen,
and a number of Cimaroons. On March 31 he landed the majority of his
forces at a river near Nombre de Dios, leaving the remainder to watch
the pinnaces.
Striking inland, the mixed band came within easy distance of Nombre de
Dios, and took up positions along the road, waiting for the coming of
the treasure-train as they had waited before. Across the still night
air came the sounds of carpenters hard at work repairing the ships
which awaited the treasure for King Philip; and then, just at the break
of day, there came the tinkle of bells--the sweetest of music to the
adventurers’ ears!
They could hardly believe their eyes; coming towards them were 190
mules, heavily laden, as the Cimaroons had told them, with gold and
silver--so much that they wouldn’t know what to do with it! Thirty tons
of silver and gold awaited the taking--when they had disposed of the
guard of forty-five Spanish soldiers.
Drake’s whistle rang shrilly again, and on the instant the raiders were
amongst the Spaniards, who, fighting bravely, kept their attackers busy
for a while. But the allies were not to be daunted, and presently the
Spaniards, thinking discretion the better part of valour, took to their
heels and ran.
Letting them go, Drake and his men fell upon the mule-trains and,
tearing open the packs, found that this time the lines had fallen in
good places for them. There was so much treasure, they could not carry
it all! They, therefore, hurriedly hid about fifteen tons of it in
the burrows of land crabs, in the bottom of a shallow river, under
trees--anywhere they could think of; and, every man carrying as much
as he could bear of gold, they started for the coast.
Meanwhile, the scared Spaniards had given the alarm in Nombre de Dios,
and while the raiders hurried off with the loads, troops were sent out
after them. Coming up with the deserted and rifled treasure-train, they
rejoiced to find some of the mules still laden, and these they sent
into the city while they looked about them, knowing that the Englishmen
could not have taken all the rest away. They discovered many of the
hiding-places, and seeing that they had succeeded in locating the major
portion of the treasure, they contented themselves with gathering it
up (employing 2,000 Mamoras and negroes to do this), and sending it
post-haste to Nombre de Dios, preferring not to go after the bold
raiders.
Drake, meantime, was hastening to the coast, where he expected,
naturally, to find his pinnaces. But when, elated at their success,
his men came within sight of the coast, their pinnaces were no longer
there, and in their places were seven Spanish pinnaces!
More hard luck! Here he was, with the first good haul he had made, and
yet unable to get away with it. He told himself--and his men--that come
what might he was going to get to his frigates somehow. Fortunately
for the boaster, the Spanish pinnaces, unaware of the presence of the
raiders so near at hand, weighed anchor and set out for Nombre de Dios.
But the question that faced Drake was how to get away? No pinnaces! He
solved the problem by building a raft at once, rigging up a sail out of
an old biscuit sack, and calling for three volunteers to go with him to
find the pinnaces.
Everyone volunteered, but he took the three he wanted, and then set out
on his crazy craft. At times it threatened to capsize, at others it
had them waist deep in the water; and at all times while they sailed
the blazing sun poured down upon them. At last they saw the pinnaces
they had lost; but the men in the boats did not see them, and they were
too far off for a hail to reach them. The pinnaces were lost sight of
as they rounded a headland, and Drake, taking the risk, beached his
raft and tore along the shore, in the hope of finding the boats run up
on the beach.
Sure enough, when the four racing men turned the headland they saw the
pinnaces lying ashore, and, incidentally, gave the sailors a scare,
for they thought that this sudden appearance betokened the failure and
pursuit of Drake. Drake, feeling it too good a joke to miss, let them
believe this for a time, and enjoyed the crestfallen look on their
faces. Then, with a shout, he told them all, and away went the pinnaces
to bring back the treasure and the men left behind.
In a little while all were on board the ships, jubilant at their
success, though three Frenchmen were missing. Drake sent a party ashore
to search for these, and to bring back the treasure that had been
hidden. Only one Frenchman was found, and none of the silver, which, as
we have seen, had been unearthed by the Spaniards.
Drake was angry at the loss, but taking comfort that he had really
managed to get a good haul, decided that it was time to return to
England. First of all he laid in a stock of food by capturing a
provision ship as they sailed tauntingly by Carthagena. Then, with
hearty farewells to Pedro and his Cimaroons, whom they allowed to take
whatever they wanted out of the ships, Drake and his merry men set sail
for England, where they arrived on Sunday, August 19th, 1573, and were
received with great joy by the people, who, forgetting all about the
preacher, rushed out of church to welcome the coming of the man who by
this time had grown to be one of their idols.
Queen Elizabeth, however, gave him a dubious welcome--that is,
publicly--for she was just then desirous of being at peace with Spain;
though it is by no means certain that she was not as delighted as Drake
at the success of his voyage, which had gained him much wealth and a
fine reputation as a leader of men.
A GALLANT FISHERMAN
A Brave Rescue in a Storm
Captain Albert Gempton, of Brixham, ranks amongst those men who have
helped to make England the mistress of the seas, being a gallant hero
with a whole host of brave deeds to his credit. A fisherman--a son
of Devon, which has produced so many hardy sons of the sea--probably
one of the most arduous pieces of work he ever undertook was when he
went to the rescue of two lads on a fishing smack off Lundy Island on
December 16, 1910. Incidentally, it shows the kind of thing that very
often befalls the fisherman, who, going out to reap the harvests of the
seas, encounters untold dangers, while we at home go to our breakfast
tables, and all unthinking eat the fish to catch which may have cost a
man his life.
On this particular day there had been a severe storm, which swept
along the coast and caught many fishing vessels at their work, a good
number of them being wrecked and all hands lost. The smack _Friendship_
was off Lundy Island when the storm broke out, and for a time bravely
battled against it; she held two men and two apprentices, and these
gallantly worked her, seeking to get into port. But Fate was unkind;
first the skipper was taken bodily by the angry waves and carried
overboard, and was not seen again. Then, almost immediately afterwards
the other man suffered a like fate; and the two apprentices, mere lads
learning the trade of the sea, found themselves alone on a smack they
knew not how to manage.