Our wind held so fair and steady at north-east that on the ninth day
we sighted Porto Santo in the Madeiras, and two days later the
Canaries. So persuaded was our captain of a very good passage, and
so earnest to give the Spaniards no inkling of our purpose, that he
would not touch for water, but held on without once dropping anchor
or striking sail till the thirty-fifth day.
In spite of the terrible shock my sudden meeting with Harry had given
to my spirits, and in spite of my despair at being condemned to face
my shame and sorrow for I knew not how many months, I could not but
feel a calm grow over me as we proceeded. None can tell, save he who
has tried it, what it is to a perturbed spirit to sail on day after
day over those sunny seas with all the magic of the West before.
Less and less I brooded over the old life, and more and more on the
glory of the new, till, as Frank had said, the past seemed to grow
small, and a faint hope arose in me that my crime was not too great
for pardon, seeing that I knew how hard my brother would try to
forgive.
I employed myself in studying navigation and the Spanish tongue with
Frank, nor were ship duties wanting, for it was ever our captain's
way to have the gentlemen tally on a rope as well as the meanest
mariner when need was.
He hated nothing so much as idleness, and those who had no work had
always to find play, which he himself was not slow in furnishing.
'I know nothing,' he used to say, 'that breeds discontent and faint
hearts like the union of these two, dullness and idleness.'
So with games, and music, and rummaging and cleaning arms, our
spirits were kept up when they were like to sink for want of work.
Frank was very earnest about this on our present voyage, for as we
neared the Indies the hands, being young, began to frighten
themselves with tales of the great strength and richness of the
Indian cities, until, had it not been for Frank's care in stopping
and preventing such idle talk with other inducements, they would have
come to think Nombre de Dios as big as London and as strong as
Berwick.
Nor were we allowed to lose sight of the godly purpose of our
enterprise. Prayers were ordered every day night and morning, which
our captain read very earnestly, never forgetting a prayer to God for
the Queen's Majesty, her most honourable council, and the speedy
'making' of our voyage, the same having a very good effect, for the
half at least of the crew were as good Puritans as himself.
Thus it was in a very hopeful and godly state that, on the evening of
the thirty-fifth day we saw the Isle of Guadeloupe towering on the
horizon like a priceless jewel in the setting sun. With all our
music and many a gay flourish of our trumpets we saluted it, and that
night as we lay a-hull our musicians gave us a double portion of
melody.
With the first morning light we ran in and anchored off a little
rocky island three leagues off Dominica, where we lay three days to
refresh our men. And here we landed and wandered at will, to taste
for the first time the surpassing loveliness of the tropics.
How shall I tell of those first days in the Indies? My pen seems a
dumb dead thing when I think of it. Much as I had thought, and
dreamed, and read of them, this waking, this seeing was far beyond
all. On either hand the heights of Guadeloupe and Dominica towered
serenely out of their soft beds of lustrous green. The glittering
waters between were studded with island gems ablaze with every bright
hue which God has made, that we may taste the glory which is to come.
All about us was the hum of bright flies, the sparkle of feather and
gorgeous flowers, and the rustle of the scented air through the
crowded canes as it passed on to wave with dreamy motion the heavy
crowns of the slender palms. And over all, with faint and soothing
voice, there came in through the dense growth of vine and brake the
deep-toned booming of the surf.
Such is the pale shadow that I have power to paint of the banquet on
which our souls feasted as we lay in the deserted huts which the
Indians, who came there to fish, had built. So rich and heavenly was
that world that I could not wonder how men were led on to think that
a little farther, only a little farther, must be a land where gold
and gems would be as the sand and pebbles here, nay, where beyond
some glittering hill they would see the open gates of Paradise.
Not only by the memory of all that beauty does the time live in my
mind, but also because it was here I first had real speech with my
wronged brother. As we lay in those Dryad's bowers our sorrow seemed
so far away and little in this New World, so dim beside its dazzling
glory, that it was for a time half forgotten amidst the thousand new
things that crowded our thoughts. Like two Sileni we lay, as Mr.
Oxenham had said, in the arms of lady Nature, and all that was sad
melted in the glow of her luxuriant life.
We had no spirit for the revels of our comrades, for chasing the
bright-hued birds, or plucking the gleaming flowers. We were both
happier to lie looking over the sea where our dainty ships rocked,
and dreamily talk over Harry's Italianate notions that rose unbidden
here. Being to me now of undreamed-of interest, since my old faith
was gone, they were a subject we could talk on more as we used to do.
'Surely,' I remember him saying, 'surely that Italian friar was right
who told me that the soul was not in the body. Can you not feel
here, Jasper, how great a thing it is? Can you not feel how there is
something that binds you like a brother to all this music of bird and
leaf and air and sea? What can it be but the great soul of the
universe. That is it, and the friar was right. It is that great
soul which is not in our bodies, rather are our bodies in the
soul--the soul that is yours and mine and hers and God's.'
So would our speech always come back to our sorrow and part us again.
Yet were we too drunken with the western wine to feel the past too
deeply. Thus, then, once or twice during our stay there we had
speech of these things, and I began to hope still more that some day
we might be the same again together, and, moreover, to feel that I
was beginning to understand what it was he thought of the great
universal secret.
On the third day after our coming to the island we sailed again,
greatly refreshed, and in two days more we had sight of Tierra-Firme,
being the high land above Santa Marta, but came not near the shore,
that we might not be seen. So without sight of Carthagena we passed
on, till on the 12th of July we dropped anchor off the haven whither
we were bound.
It was a spot our captain had noted on his voyage the last year, not
only as being sheltered by two high points from the winds and a very
commodious harbour, but also because no Spaniard had any dwelling
between this place and Santiago de Tolu on the one hand and Nombre de
Dios on the other, the nearest being at least thirty-five leagues
distant. Moreover, there was an abundance of food there, both fish
in the sea and fowls in the woods around, the most plentiful being
certain birds like to our pheasants, which the Spaniards in those
regions call guans and curassows. It was by reason of the great
store of these delicate fowls that our captain named the place Port
Pheasant.
[Illustration: Overhung with a dense growth of trees.--p. 239]
It must be remembered we had our three pinnaces to set up, for in
them we were to make our attack. It was most necessary then to have
a hidden place for this work, and it was not a little his knowledge
of this secret haven that gave our captain his great hopes of
success. He judged no one knew it but himself and those who had been
with him in his previous voyage. Being thus perfectly secure, Frank
rowed in to see how best to bring the ships to moorings there, and I
went in the boat.
No place could have been better fitted to our purpose. The headlands
were but half a cable's length apart, and so overhung with a dense
growth of brakes and trees, all strange to me, that little could be
seen beyond save the climbing hills on the mainland. But as soon as
we rowed in I could see what a paradise it was.
Before us opened a rounded haven, from eight to ten cables' length
every way. The waves died languidly away towards the shore in
ever-lessening ripples, as though hushed by the surpassing beauty of
the place. Where, with loving whispers, they lapped the golden
beach, they reflected a picture more dazzling than my eyes had ever
seen. Heaped up in wild profusion was a tangled mass of every hue of
green that clothed to the water's edge the gently swelling hills.
Wherever the rocks could find a place to peep, their own rich colour
was almost hidden by hanging bunches of scarlet flowers. Huge rough
tree-trunks I could get a glimpse of here and there, with great
sinews of rugged bark that stood boldly out from them, and were lost
in the glowing brakes which covered the ground. In the branches
fluttered birds that mocked the radiance of the flowers, while on
every point the crested and bronze-hued pheasants plumed themselves,
and screamed defiance one against the other. Lost to all else but
this fairyland I was hardly plunged, as it were, into some delicious
dream, when I was rudely awakened.
''Vast rowing, lads,' said Frank suddenly, in quick, hushed tones.
'Look! What's yonder?'
His keen eye was the first to see it. I looked where he pointed, and
in a moment my paradise was tumbled to earth. Away in the trees rose
a thin blue cloud of smoke. There was no mistaking it; the hand of
man must be there. 'Whose was it?' was what we each asked ourselves
with melancholy foreboding.
Our captain, though as disappointed as any of us to see a cuckoo in
his nest, seemed nothing daunted. Rowing back quickly to the ships,
he ordered out our other boat, and manning both to their full
holding, not forgetting muskets, bows, and pikes, returned speedily
to land.
No sooner were we ashore than we could see many traces of men having
been there very lately. There were black spots where fires had been,
and marks of fresh clearing in the brakes. Setting ourselves in
order, we cautiously went forward along a track that seemed to lead
to the fire, Frank leading the way in spite of all our efforts to
dissuade him.
We had not gone far before we came to a tree in the midst of the
track, so great that four men at full stretch could not have girdled
it about. I saw Frank stop suddenly and look up on the trunk.
'Ah, Jack Garrett, Jack Garrett,' said he, 'what game is this you
have been coursing with my hounds?'
I followed his eyes and saw a leaden plate nailed to the tree, on
which were graven these words:
CAPTAIN DRAKE.
If you fortune to come to this port, make hast away! For the
Spaniards which you had with you here the last year have bewrayed
this place, and taken away all that you left here.
I depart from hence, this present 7th of July 1572.
Your very loving friend,
JOHN GARRETT.
'My thanks, Jack Garrett, for your kindly warning,' cried Frank. 'A
true Plymouth man are you, though you did whistle away some of my
best hounds. See what comes,' he continued, turning to me, 'of
sparing these false Spaniards' lives. It is enough to make a man cut
the throat of every prisoner he takes--a thing, by God's help, I will
never do, whatever it cost me. May they have their reward for their
treachery, though, by God's mercy, we are too well furnished to be
hurt by the loss of any gear they stole.'
'Where will you go now, then?' I asked.
'No whither, my lad,' said he. 'Here I purposed to set up my
pinnaces, and here I will do it. The Spaniards are not here now, and
if they keep away but two days, I shall order things so that, by
God's help, they shall rue their coming, if that is their mind.'
He was very cheerful and resolute with it all, and made us so too,
yet I know he was sorely tried, by his frequent speaking of God's
name, which was always his way at times when he felt need of all his
courage, as indeed he did now; for though we found the place
deserted, the fire we had seen being but the remains of Garrett's
work, left perhaps as a signal to us to be on our guard, yet there
was no telling when the Spaniards would be down on us.
No time, therefore, was lost in carrying out our captain's resolve.
Harry having, as I have said, a good knowledge of such matters,
speedily marked out a piece of land about three-quarters of an acre
in extent, of pentagonal form, with one side touching the shore. The
whole crew then started cheerily to clear this, hauling the trees as
they were felled with pulleys and hawsers, in such wise as to make a
rampart all round, a look-out boat being despatched meanwhile to one
of the points to watch for any disturbance.
All that day we laboured at our fort, and most of the night too; yet
next morning much still remained to be done when we saw our look-out
boat rowing hard towards us.
'Sail ho!' shouted the steersman, as soon as he was in hail. 'Three
sail bearing hard down on us.'
'Blister the fool's tongue!' said Frank beneath his breath, as he
stood at my side and saw something like alarm in the younger
mariners' faces, but he sang out cheerily, 'Good news, good news, my
lads. Now we will trap them here, and never a breath of our coming
shall reach Nombre de Dios.'
The man reported the three sail, as well as he could tell; a bark
about the _Swan's_ size, a caravel, and a smaller craft. All set to
work cheerily to carry out Frank's order; for we were in excellent
heart again, to see that our captain thought only of offence.
Some pieces of ordnance were removed from the ships, to be set by
Harry and Mr. Oxenham in the best positions they could find for the
defence of our fort. The ships were then warped over to the entrance
of the haven, where they were moored on either hand close under the
rocks, so that they could not be seen by a ship till she was well
within. Each had a holdfast to the opposite point, that they might
be warped across the mouth as soon as the enemy had passed in. All
fires were extinguished, and the small-shot, gunners, and bowmen who
were ashore at the fort were well concealed.
So we lay waiting in great anxiety for what was to come. Mr. Oxenham
and Harry, by pouring out a fire of jests and comfortable speeches,
kept up the youngsters' spirits as well as might be, though I think
by their looks there was many a heart thumping hard, when we saw
through the bushes a large Spanish shallop rowing in towards our
haven.
As the shallop came on a bark of some fifty tons and a caravel of
Seville build, as Mr. Oxenham told us, hove to right opposite our
entrance. The shallop came as far as between the points, and then,
after stopping as though to discover the place thoroughly, rowed back
to the ships.
It was impossible to tell whether they had seen us or not; so, seeing
what our aim was, we could but rejoice when we saw them all make sail
and stand in. On they came, a pretty sight to see, swaggering in
most gallantly.
At last they were well inside, in full view of our ships, which yet
did not move an inch.
'Something must be wrong,' whispered Mr. Oxenham to me. 'Why the
devil does he not warp across, or at least give them a shot?'
Suddenly there was a loud flourish of trumpets on board the admiral
and the flag of St. George was run up, but still she did not stir.
'Her holdfasts must have dragged,' said Mr. Oxenham; 'I fear we are
undone.'
A puff of smoke leaped forth from the strange bark, and we looked to
see the admiral struck. The boom of the shot rolled across the still
waters, waking strange echoes in that land-locked bay, and setting
the guans a-screaming their ear-piercing cry. Ere the sounds died
away a trumpet brayed answer to our admiral, and we saw the red cross
flutter out from the stranger's top.
At first we thought it must be some treacherous Spanish stratagem,
but all our fears were at rest when, as our ships answered the
stranger's salute, we saw a boat put out from the bark and go abroad
the admiral.
Our fears and pains were all wasted; for she proved to be a bark from
the Isle of Wight, belonging to Sir Edward Horsey, the Governor,
'Wild Ned Horsey,' so well known to us, not only for the mad stories
of his ruffling youth and his piracies in the narrow seas during the
old days, but also for the excellent disposition he made for the
defence of the island, and above all for his notable services when he
rode at the head of Clinton's horse during the late rising in the
North.
He was a great gentleman now and high in the Queen's service, yet he
could not wholly give up his old ways, and had fitted out this
present ship, under Captain Ranse, to try what Popish prizes he could
pick up on the high seas or amongst the Indies. He had 'made' his
voyage so far as to take a shallop off Cape Blanco, and, what was
better, a caravel carrying _Advisos_ to Nombre de Dios.
He was thus able, when he heard our purpose, to confirm us from the
papers he had seized that as yet the Spaniards had no knowledge of
our coming. So very welcome and favourable for our purpose did this
seem that Captain Ranse was desirous to consort with us in our
venture.
Nothing could have been more to the minds of most of us than this,
seeing he had thirty good and well-armed men with him, but Frank was
little pleased with it, and would gladly have gone forward alone,
save that he thought it better to put a good face on a bad matter and
consent, seeing how Captain Ranse, if he were evilly disposed, might
bring all our voyage to naught.
So they were received upon conditions which I, being a scholar, was
appointed to draw, whereof having a copy I will set it forth, that
men in like case hereafter may see how the Prince of Navigators
ordered these things, since unhappy quarrels have many times arisen
between captains who have sailed in consort, by reason of their not
doing things orderly at the outset, after the ancient usages of the
sea.
As I sat in our council chamber, which had for its walls the rugged
buttresses of one of those huge trees of which I have spoken, and for
roof the vast spread of its branches, alive with screaming parrots, I
could not but muse on dull-eyed lawyers far away in their dingy
Temple; nor, as I wrote the dry note which contrasted so strangely
with the splendour of our audacious project, could I but marvel over
the might of our great Queen's peace, which in such humble shape
could reach even here to aid her loving subjects in ordering the
chivalrous brotherhood by which we hoped to add such glory to her
name. And thus I wrote the words as Frank spoke them, plain and
clear, that none might have to hunt for sense in a forest of sounds.
'I, Francis Drake, general of the fleet appointed for these seas, to
wit, the _Pasha_, of seventy tons and forty-seven men, and the
_Swan_, of twenty-five tons and twenty-six men, together with three
pinnaces unmanned, have consorted, covenanted, and agreed, and by
these presents do consort, covenant, and agree, with James Ranse, of
the _Lion_, fifty tons and thirty men, belonging to and being under
the flag of the Honourable Sir Edward Horsey, Knight, together with a
certain caravel to be hereafter measured, and a shallop, her prizes
and consorts, to have, possess, enjoy, and be partaker with me and my
fleet, and I with them, of all such lawful prize or prizes as shall
be taken by me or them, or any of us jointly or severally, in sight
or out of sight, ton for ton, and man for man, from this present 13th
day of July 1572, till such time as we mutually determine the
conditions contained herein.'
So it was signed, sealed, and delivered, and all being settled we
laboured together harmoniously--the carpenters at setting up the
pinnaces, and the rest by spells at completing the fort, exercising
in our weapons, the gathering of victuals, and many pastimes which
our captain devised.