having been absent from the ships nearly a fortnight, a rapid return
march was deemed imperative. The start was hastened by a little episode
at the Panama gate. While the marauders were at breakfast just before
daybreak they were startled by a lively fusillade at that end of the
town. A company of cavaliers from Panama had galloped up, supposing that
Drake had left, and had encountered his sentries at the gate. Several of
the cavaliers were killed in the skirmish and the rest scattered.
Fearing that they were a scouting party and might be followed by a large
force, Drake gave immediate orders to fall in for the departure. At dawn
they were crossing the Chagres bridge and on their way at a quick gait.
It was a hard and rushing march throughout to the coast where the ships
lay, the men for days with empty stomachs and footsore. But it was
cheerfully performed under Drake’s buoyant leadership and his promise of
golden spoil they were yet to win before they finally sailed back to
England.
After the return to their rendezvous Drake divided the company into two
bands to rove in the pinnaces, one eastward the other westward, for
plunder off the coast. The eastward rovers soon captured a fine Spanish
frigate; and this ship, because of her strength and “good mould,” Drake
retained, and fitting her as a man-of-war added her to his fleet. He was
in need of some new craft, for he had recently sunk one of his three
pinnaces. Shortly after, in March, additional strength came in a French
ship, a rover out of Havre, under one Captain Tetou with seventy men.
The Frenchman had appeared when Drake’s ships were again at the
“Cativaas,” needing water and provisions. Drake supplied his wants. Then
the Frenchman, desiring to join him in a venture, the two struck a
bargain for a second raid on the isthmus treasure teams. The Frenchman
with twenty of his men was to serve with Drake, “for halves”: the
plunder obtained to be equally divided.
For this expedition Drake selected fifteen of his men and the Cimaroons
with him before, so that the whole company, exclusive of the natives,
numbered but thirty-five, besides the two captains. Leaving his “Pasha”
and the French ship in a safe road, he manned the reformed Spanish
frigate and his two pinnaces, and sailed toward “Rio Francesco.” The
frigate was left at Cabecas, with a crew of English and French, the
pinnaces alone continuing to Rio Francesco. Here the band landed and
took up their march, Drake charging the masters of the pinnaces to be
back at this place without fail on the fourth day following, when they
expected to return. They proceeded in covert through the woods toward
the highway over which richly laden “recuas” were now coming daily from
Panama to Nombre de Dios. When they had marched, as in the previous
journey to Panama, to a “convenient point” between Rio Francesco and
Nombre de Dios, they bivouacked for that night. As they rested “in great
silence” they could hear the distant sounds of many carpenters working
on the ships at Nombre de Dios, which was customarily done in the night
time because of the great heat of the day; and their ears were charmed
with the music of the bells of the trotting mule teams on the road.
Early the next morning, April first, a jangle of bells nearing their
cover told the approach of an unwonted number of recuas. Putting
themselves in readiness they cautiously moved down toward the highway.
Three great teams from Panama were coming along together. One consisted
of fifty mules, the other two of seventy each, and each mule carried
three hundred pounds’ weight of silver: one hundred and ninety mules in
all with a total of fifty-seven thousand pounds of the metal; while some
were also laden with a small quantity of gold. Their guards comprised
forty-five soldiers, fifteen to each recua. At the moment the teams were
abreast them Drake’s band sprang out, and took such hold of the heads of
the foremost and hindmost mules that the rest stopped short and lay
down. There followed a quick exchange of bullets and arrows, and then
the flight of the guard “to seek more help abroad.” In the skirmish the
French captain was painfully wounded and one Cimaroon was killed. The
raiders hurriedly relieved the mules of their burden, taking all of the
treasure that they could well carry, including a few bars and quoits of
gold, and burying a large part of the rest in various places—in burrows
which great land crabs had made, beneath the trunks of fallen trees, and
in the sand and gravel of a shallow river—to be taken away later as
occasion might offer. Two hours were consumed in this business. Then the
return march was started by the way they had come. They had scarcely
re-entered the woods when they heard both horse and foot clattering
along the road behind them. This force, however, did not pursue them,
and it was supposed that they tarried to repossess the mules and the
rifled packs. The march had not far progressed when the wounded French
captain was obliged to drop out and seek rest in the woods, hoping soon
to regain his strength. He was never again seen by his companions,
though repeatedly sought, and it was afterward learned that he fell into
the hands of the Spaniards. Later on the march another of the Frenchmen
was missed. His fate, also ascertained subsequently, was not so tragic
as his captain’s, though hard and with sorry results to the band in that
through it they lost much of the treasure which they had hidden. While
rifling the teams he had drunk much wine, and overloading himself with
pillage, had started ahead of the rest and become lost in the woods. He,
too, was captured by the Spaniards, and under torture he revealed the
places of the buried plunder. Rio Francesco was reached after two days
of marching and here no pinnaces were met. Instead they saw a fleet of
seven Spanish pinnaces cruising off the coast. They “mightily suspected”
that these Spaniards had taken or spoiled their boats.
In this emergency Drake determined to reach his ships at all hazard.
From trees that had been brought down a river by a recent storm he had
his men construct a raft. For a sail a biscuit sack was utilized, and a
young tree was stripped for an oar to serve instead of a rudder. Upon
this rude craft he embarked with a few volunteers, and as he pushed off
he comforted the company left behind with the assurance that “if it
pleased God he should put his foot in safety aboard his frigate he
would, God willing, by one means or other get them all aboard despite of
all the Spaniards in the Indies.” He had thus sailed out into the sea
some three leagues, under a parching sun and for about six hours all the
while sitting up to the waist in water and at nearly every surge to the
armpits, when two pinnaces were descried coming inward under a spanking
breeze. As they neared they were seen to be his own pinnaces. At the
sight the half-drowned raftsmen set up a shout. But they were evidently
not seen by those on the pinnaces, for the boats shifted and ran into a
cove beyond a point of land. Since they did not come out again Drake
concluded that they were to anchor there for the night. Thereupon he
piloted his shaky craft ashore, and leaping off, ran around the point
and so came upon them, to the great astonishment of their occupants and
his greater relief. Their masters accounted for their delay in reaching
the rendezvous in telling how they had been beaten back by a heavy
storm, and had been obliged to stand off to avoid the Spanish pinnaces.
Drake’s companions of the raft were first succoured; and then he
himself, not stopping for rest, that evening rowed to Rio Francesco,
where the remainder of the company and the treasure were taken off and
brought to the pinnaces. At dawn next morning all set sail back again to
the frigate, and thence directly to the ships at Fort Diego. Upon the
arrival here Drake at once divided the treasure by weight into two even
portions between the English and French.
Shortly after twelve of Drake’s men and sixteen of the Cimaroons were
secretly sent again to the isthmus, for the buried treasure, and also,
if possible, to recover the French captain. They learned no more than
that Captain Tetou had been taken by the Spaniards, while the treasure
had mostly disappeared, the earth having been dug and turned up for a
mile about the hiding places. They found, however, thirteen bars of
silver and a few quoits of gold, which they took off.
Now it had become “high time to think of homewards.” The frigate was
supplied from the “Pasha” with what necessaries were needed fully to
supply her, and the “Pasha” was turned over to the few Spaniards whom
they had all this time detained. Then Fort Diego was left, the French
ship accompanying Drake’s little fleet. For a few days they rode among
the Cabecas. Afterward they parted with the French ship, and cruised
about seeking another Spanish frigate which they might take to augment
the fleet. Meanwhile they passed “hard by” Cartagena, in the sight of
the Spanish ships lying off that port, defiantly displaying the flag of
St. George in the main top of the frigate, “with silk streamers and
ancients down to the water.” Finally in July they were on the homeward
voyage in two captured Spanish frigates and with their pinnaces. Their
parting with the Cimaroons was most affectionate. Drake gave Pedro,
their chief, a rich cimeter which he had received as a gift from Captain
Tetou, and which the savage had secretly coveted, and Pedro gave Drake
four wedges of gold as a “pledge of his friendship and thanks.” Drake
would decline the gold, but seeing that Pedro would be pained at a
refusal, he accepted it and turned it into the common stock of his
company.
The return voyage was made with such a merry wind that the distance from
Cape San Antonio in Florida to the Scilly Islands was accomplished in
twenty-three days. Plymouth was reached on a Sunday, August nine, during
“sermon time,” and the news of Drake’s arrival "did so speedily pass
over all the church and surpass their minds with desire and delight to
see him that very few or none remained with the preacher: all hastening
to see the evidence of God’s love and blessing toward our Gracious Queen
and country, by the fruits of our Captain’s labours and success. Soli
Deo Gloria." So piously ends the chronicle.
The profits of this buccaneering voyage, with the bullion brought home,
were large to all who had part in it. Drake’s share made him
comparatively rich. As the historian Camden put it, he had “gotten a
pretty store of money by playing the sailor and the pirate.” Among the
prizes that he took were a number of frigates engaged in the coasting
trade, carrying gold, silver, and merchandise, and newly built through
the energy and skill of Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the destroyer of the
French colony in Florida.
XVII
ON THE PACIFIC COAST
Three years later Drake had begun his preparations for his crowning
exploit in the voyage round the globe. In the interim he had served
voluntarily in Ireland (1573) under the Earl of Essex, furnishing at his
own expense three frigates, with their equipment of munitions and men.
This service brought him a strong friend and ultimate patron in Sir
Christopher Hatton, then vice-chamberlain. And by Hatton he had been
favourably presented to the queen, who received him most flatteringly,
and is said to have encouraged him to follow up his attacks upon the
colonies of Spain, her bitterest enemy, though yet nominally at peace
with her.
This voyage was planned with the utmost secrecy and its real object was
carefully concealed. Even when the fleet had actually set sail the
company on board were not aware of their true destination; and the
mystery enveloping the enterprise most fascinated the bold and daring
spirits enlisted in it. The statement had been given out that
Constantinople was the goal of the voyage, but it was pretty generally
felt that sooner or later the Spanish American possessions would be
reached. Spain, which at length had been apprised by her envoy of
Drake’s movements, shrewdly suspected that his aim, as before, was the
Spanish Main; and it was the Spaniards’ belief that he particularly
contemplated a fresh attack upon Nombre de Dios and the “Treasure of the
World.” To prey upon Spanish ships and loot Spanish possessions was
indeed an uppermost purpose with him, but his scheme involved a far
greater sweep of operations than the Spaniards imagined. He meant, above
all, to accomplish his ardent desire expressed on that tree top on the
Isthmus of Panama, to sail an English ship into and to explore the
Pacific, and incidentally to harass the Spanish colonies on the Pacific
Coast, which from Patagonia to California was then under Spanish rule.
The encompassing of the globe, however, was an afterthought growing out
of the circumstances in which he found himself on the western North
American coast.
The fleet assembled for this voyage were five small ships, the largest
of only one hundred tons, the smallest of fifteen, and the average of
the whole lot fifty-five tons. They comprised: the “Pelican,” the
flag-ship, and the largest, with Drake in command; the “Elizabeth,”
eighty tons, Captain John Winter; the “Marigold,” thirty tons, Captain
John Thomas; the “Swan,” a flyboat, fifty tons, Captain John Chester;
the “Christopher,” a pinnace, fifteen tons, Captain Thomas Moon. And in
the holds of the larger ships were stored four pinnaces in parts, to be
set up when needed. The vessels were stocked and provisioned for a year
or more. Some of them, at least Drake’s ship, were luxuriously
furnished. We are told of his rich tableware embellished with silver,
presumably some of it prizes taken on his previous voyage; of silver
pots and kettles in the cook-room; and of other sumptuous fittings.
“Neither,” says the historian, “had he omitted to make provision also
for ornament and delight, carrying to this purpose with him expert
musicians,” a band of fiddlers to play for him at dinners; “and divers
shews of all sorts of curious workmanship whereby the civility and
magnificence of his native country might amongst all nations
whithersoever he should come, be the most admired.” The company
comprised, according to the account which Hakluyt gives, one hundred and
forty-six men, gentlemen and sailors; another puts the number at one
hundred and sixty-three “stout and able seamen.”
They sailed out of Plymouth on the fifteenth of November, 1577. But this
proved to be a false start. The wind falling contrary they were forced
the next morning to put into Falmouth, where a furious tempest struck
them and nearly wrecked the whole fleet. So they were obliged to return
to Plymouth for repairs. The second start was made successfully, on the
thirteenth of December. Twelve days later they were off the coast of
Barbary, and on the second day they called at Magador, where they
tarried long enough to put together one of their pinnaces. While at this
work they entertained some of the natives, who promised to bring them
choice provisions in return for gifts of linen cloth, shoes, and a
javelin. But the next day an unlucky incident changed the aspect of
affairs. A group supposed to have come with the provisions appeared at
the water side and a shipboat was sent out to meet them. As the boat
touched the shore a sailor sprang from it with outstretched hand to give
a hearty sailor’s welcome. He was instantly seized, flung across a
horse’s back and galloped away. It was afterward learned that this
violent act was committed only to ascertain to whom the ships belonged.
It was feared that they might be Portuguese ships, and these Moors were
then at war with the Portuguese. The captured sailor was brought before
a chief, and when this chief found out that the ships were English, the
sailor was hurried back with apologies and loaded with presents. But the
fleet was then gone. The sailor was returned to England at the first
opportunity, none the worse for his experience.
From Magador the fleet coasted the shore and put next into port at Cape
Blanco. On the way down their first captures were made. These included
three Spanish fisher boats, “canters,”—or canteras, they were termed—and
three Portuguese caravels, the latter bound to the Cape Verde Islands
for salt. At Cape Blanco a ship was found riding at anchor with only two
“simple mariners” aboard her. She was promptly taken and her cargo added
to their spoil. In this harbour the fleet remained four days, during
which time Drake mustered his men on land and trained them “in warlike
manner to make them fit for all occasions.” Before departing he had
shifted such things as he desired from the captured canters and returned
them to their owners save one, for which he gave in exchange one of his
little barks, called the “Benedict,” or the “Christopher,” which name
the canter afterward bore. Only one also of the captured Portuguese
caravels was retained. Next the Cape Verde Islands were reached, and a
landing made at Mayo (Maio), where luscious fruits were added to their
stock of provisions. Drake sent out a company of his men to view this
island, and they feasted on “very ripe and sweet grapes,” and cocoa
which was new to them. Next the fleet sailed by St. Jago [San Thiago],
but far enough off to escape danger from the inhabitants whom they
mistrusted: and properly, for the latter discharged three pieces at them
as they passed by, the shot falling short of them. Off this island they
took their richest prize thus far. She was one of two Portuguese ships
to which they gave chase. They boarded her, when overhauled with a
shipboat, without resistance. She yielded them with other valuable
articles a good store of wine. Her pilot, one Nuno da Silva, was
retained for service, which proved to be excellent, through a
considerable part of the voyage, while the rest of her crew and her
passengers, of whom there were several, were sent off in the newly
set-up pinnace, graciously provided by her captors with a butt of wine
out of their booty and some victuals. She was added to the fleet, with
the name of “Mary” bestowed upon her, and put under the charge of Master
Doughty, a volunteer and perhaps investor in the expedition, and a
personal friend of Drake. Doughty was not a seafaring man, and he seems
to have got into difficulty with his crew soon after taking command of
the prize. Within a few days complaints of his conduct of her coming to
Drake, he was called to the “Pelican,” and the captain’s own brother
Thomas Drake (another younger brother) appointed to his place, the
captain accompanying Thomas Drake on the prize. In the “Pelican” Doughty
had no better luck, for complaints of abuse of his authority here soon
arose. Accordingly he was deposed and sent to the “Swan” in no post of
command. Farther along on the voyage he came to a tragic end, the
central figure of a dramatic scene, as will appear later in this
narrative. Next after San Thiago, Fuego (Fogo), the “burning island,”
then throwing out volcanic flames, and lastly “Brava,” found in contrast
a “most pleasant and sweet” isle, were passed.
Then they “drew towards the line,” where they were becalmed for three
weeks, but yet “subject to divers great stormes, terrible lightnings,
and much thunder.” Along with this “miserie,” however, they enjoyed an
abundance of fish, as “Dolphins, Bonitos, Flying fishes,” some of the
latter falling into their ships. It was now known to the company that
their next destination was America, at Brazil.
From the moment of leaving the Cape Verde Islands, they sailed
fifty-four days without sight of land. On the fifth of April the
Brazilian coast presented itself to view. In the distance they saw fires
on the coast. These they afterward learned were set by the natives when
their ships were sighted, as a sacrifice to “the devils about which they
use conjurations.” The custom of these natives, it seemed, whenever a
strange ship approached the coast was to perform weird ceremonies to
conjure the gathering of shoals and the outbreak of tempests by which
the ship would be cast away. Two days afterward there actually came upon
them a “mightie great storme both of lightning, rayne, and thunder,”
during which they lost the “Christopher,” their captured canter. While
sailing southward, however, they found her a few days later, and the
place where she was met Drake called the “Cape of Joy.” Landing, they
found no people, but the footprints they saw in the clay ground led them
to believe that the inhabitants were “men of great statute,” if not
giants. On or about the twenty-seventh of April they were at the great
river La Plata. They merely entered it, and finding no good harbour bore
to sea again. In bearing out the “Swan” was missed. They next made
harbour in a fair bay where were a number of islands, on one of which
were seen many “sea wolves” (seals). In early June they were anchored in
another harbour, farther south, which they called “Seal Bay” because of
the abundance of seal here. They killed from two hundred to three
hundred of them, the chronicler averred, within an hour’s time. Again
the “Swan” was found, and having become unseaworthy, she was stripped of
her furnishings and burned. A few days later the “Christopher” was also
discharged for the same reason. On the twentieth of June the fleet came
to anchor at Port St. Julien, Patagonia, above the Strait of Magellan,
giving entrance to the Pacific.
St. Julien was the original winter port of Magelhaens, so named and
established by him, and whence he sailed to his discovery of the
mysterious strait. Drake similarly made it his port for recuperation and
preparation before attempting his passage of this strait to the goal of
his ambition. Here two months were spent, while the ships were put in
thorough condition,—three only, now, the “Mary,” the Portuguese prize,
having been broken up on her arrival because leaky,—and the company
disciplined for the better conduct of the adventures before them. The
stay was most dramatically and painfully marked, however, by the trial,
conviction, and beheading of Drake’s friend, the unfortunate Master
Doughty, on the charge of inciting a mutiny in the fleet. The sight of a
gibbet set up, as was supposed, seventy years before by Magelhaens for
the execution of certain mutineers in his company, may have suggested
this inexplicable proceeding, which has been the subject of much
speculation by historians and of condemnation by Drake’s harsher
critics. The affair is thus vividly reported, with careful
particularity, by Hakluyt’s chronicler:
“The Generall began to inquire diligently of the actions of M. Thomas
Doughtie and found them not to be such as he looked for, but tending
rather to contention or mutinie, or some other disorder, whereby
(without redresse) the successe of the voyage might greatly have been
hazarded: whereupon the company was called together and made acquainted
with the particulars of the cause, which were found partly by master
Doughtie’s owne confession, and partly by the evidence of the fact, to
be true: which when our Generall saw, although his private affection of
M. Doughtie (as hee then in the presence of us all sacredly protested)
was great, yet the care he had of the state of the voyage, of the
expectation of her Majestie, and of the honour of his countrey did more
touch him (as indeede it ought) then [than] the private respect of one
man: so that the cause being thoroughly heard, and all things done in
good order as neere as might be to the course of our lawes in England,
it was concluded that M. Doughtie should receive punishment according to
the qualitie of the offence: and he seeing no remedie but patience for
himselfe, desired before his death to receive the Communion, which he
did at the hands of M. Fletcher our Minister, and our Generall himselfe
accompanied him in that holy action: which being done, and the place of
execution made ready, hee having embraced our Generall and taken his
leave of all the companie, with prayers for the Queenes majestie and our
realme, in quiet sort laid his head to the blocke, where he ended his
life.”
Whether he were guilty or not, Doughty’s fine courage and manly bearing
throughout his ordeal calls only for admiration.
The execution over, Drake made a speech to the assembled company,
persuading them to “unitie, obedience, love, and regard of” their
voyage: and “for the better confirmation thereof” he “willed every man
the next Sunday following to prepare himselfe to receive the Communion
as Christian brethren and friends ought to doe.” This, the chronicler
concludes, was done “in very reverent sort, and so with good contentment
every man went about his businesse.”