With three companions, all expert swimmers, the commander put to sea, assuring his followers "that if by Gods help he once more put aboard his Foot in his Frigot, he would certainly get them all into her in spite of all the Spaniards in the Indies." The raft was so low in the water that each wave broke over them,[XXIII‑17] fretting and chafing their lower limbs, while their bodies from the waist upward were scorched by the stinging heat of a tropical sun. Six hours passed by slowly and wearily, and night was now approaching, while under a freshening gale the waves dashed higher and higher, threatening each moment forever to engulf the four cowering figures. Little hope or life was left in them, for none could endure such hardship through all the long days that must elapse before they could expect to reach their ships. At length when all seemed lost a sail appeared, and then another. Did they belong to their own missing boats or to the war vessels of the enemy? Better to brave any danger than fall alive into the hands of the Spaniards. Drake at once affirmed them to be the pinnaces expected at the rio Francisco, and so it proved. Within an hour he was on board; before daybreak next morning he had rejoined his command, and by sunrise all had embarked for the Cabezas, where they found their vessels lying safely at anchor.[XXIII‑18]
PRIZES SECURED.
The gold and silver were now divided by weight in equal shares between the French and English, and a final expedition despatched to Nombre de Dios for the buried silver, and to rescue or bring back word of the wounded officer and his two companions. Hardly had they set foot on the shore of the rio Francisco when one of the missing Frenchmen came forth to meet them. He declared that within half an hour after Drake had begun his retreat, the captain and his remaining comrade, the latter half stupefied with wine, had been taken by the Spaniards; that he himself had escaped only by throwing down his plunder, and that the hidden treasure had probably been recovered, for the ground had been thoroughly searched. Nevertheless the men were ordered to push forward, and succeeded in unearthing some thirteen bars of silver and a few wedges of gold, wherewith they returned without adventure to the coast.
The Spanish fleet was now ready to sail, having taken on board the last load of its rich freight, and nothing was to be gained by remaining longer on the coast. Drake parted on good terms with his French allies, and after capturing a vessel[XXIII‑19] laden with provisions, fitted out his ships for their homeward voyage. The cimarrones were dismissed with suitable presents for themselves, and a profusion of silk and linen for their wives. Sail was then set; and on a Sabbath forenoon, the 9th of August 1573, the squadron cast anchor in Plymouth Sound. It was the hour of divine service, as the chroniclers tell us, when news of the arrival spread through the town; and in all the churches men and women abandoned their devotions and flocked to the shore to welcome their brave countrymen, who thus returned to their native land with so much gold and glory.
COSTLY TREASURE.
Among those who accompanied Drake in his expedition to Tierra Firme in 1572 was one John Oxenham, who, three years later, planned a daring but, as the event proved, a disastrous raid on the Spanish mainland and went in search of the treasure-ships which frequented its southern coast. Landing on the Isthmus with only seventy men, he beached his vessel, covered her with boughs, buried his cannon in the ground, and guided by friendly cimarrones marched twelve leagues inland to the banks of a river flowing toward the south. Here a pinnace was built, large enough to contain the entire party, and dropping down unnoticed to the mouth of the stream Oxenham sailed for the Pearl Islands, which lay in the track of vessels conveying treasure from Lima to Panamá. Prizes were made of two vessels containing gold and silver to the value of nearly three hundred thousand pesos, and the adventurers now began their homeward journey. But on the very night of their departure information of the capture was sent to Panamá, and within two days a strong force started in pursuit. The treasure was recovered, the English were defeated, and their ship being taken, the survivors, some fifty in number, fled to the mountains, where they lived for a time among the cimarrones. Finally they were betrayed to the Spaniards and all put to death, with the exception of five boys who were sold into slavery. Thus ended the first piratical cruise attempted by Englishmen in the South Sea.[XXIII‑20]
The prayer which Drake uttered when first he gazed on the Pacific did not remain long unanswered; for the great captain was one of those self-helpful men which the Almighty seldom fails to assist. On the 15th of November 1577 he set out upon the famous expedition which was to place him in the foremost rank of navigators. On September 6th, in the following year, he cleared the strait of Magellan, and was the first to carry the English flag into the ocean beyond. After capturing a large amount of treasure between the coast of Peru and the bay of Panamá, he sailed as far north as the forty-third parallel, expecting to find a passage eastward to the Atlantic.[XXIII‑21] Thence returning he arrived at Plymouth by way of the Cape of Good Hope, after a voyage of nearly three years, on the 26th of September 1580.[XXIII‑22] His flag-ship the Pelican was taken to Deptford, and on board the bark in which he had compassed the world[XXIII‑23] this stout-hearted mariner, who had begun life as a prentice boy on a small trading vessel, feasted his royal mistress, and bowed the knee while one of the greatest of England's sovereigns bestowed on him the title of Sir Francis Drake.
On the breaking-out of hostilities between England and Spain in 1585 Elizabeth determined to strike a blow at the Spanish possessions in the New World, while yet Philip was but contemplating the great enterprise which three years later terminated in a disaster that has no parallel in the annals of naval warfare. On September 12, 1585, a fleet of twenty-five ships with a number of pinnaces set sail from Plymouth, having on board two thousand three hundred men, among them Frobisher and other captains of armada fame, and as commander Sir Francis Drake.
The expedition first shaped its course toward Spain, and after hovering for a while on that coast, capturing many prizes, but none of value, landed on the first of January 1586 in Española, within a few miles of Santo Domingo. The city was taken after a feeble resistance, but little treasure was found there, for the mines were now abandoned, the native population well nigh exterminated, and copper money was in common use among the Spaniards. A ransom of twenty-five thousand ducats was at length paid, and loading their fleet with a good store of wheat, oil, wine, cloth, and silk, the English sailed for Cartagena, captured that city almost without loss, and retired on payment of a sum equivalent to about one hundred and forty-five thousand pesos. By this time sickness had so far reduced their ranks that they were compelled to abandon the main object of their enterprise, namely, the occupation of Nombre de Dios and Panamá, and the seizure of the treasure stored on either side of the Isthmus. It was resolved, therefore, to return to England.[XXIII‑24] After touching at Saint Augustine, and securing in that neighborhood treasure to the amount of ten thousand pesos, and coasting thence northward to the Roanoke, where the members of the colony recently established[XXIII‑25] by Raleigh were taken on board the fleet, Drake landed at Portsmouth on the 28th of July 1586. The spoil amounted to three hundred thousand pesos, purchased at the cost of seven hundred and fifty lives. One third of this amount only was divided among the survivors, giving as the lowest share of an individual the sum of thirty dollars.
THE GRAND RESULT.