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.