The captain and pilot, who had also arrived, told him that the ship carried one hundred and twenty-two thousand pesos of gold, and that the rest of her cargo consisted of silks, satins, damasks, with musk and other merchandise, with provisions of all sorts in abundance.
They were detained on board while the galleon their prize was carried into Puerto Seguro. There was here a stream of clear water, with plenty of fish, fowl, and wood to be obtained, as also numerous hares and coneys. As soon as they had anchored, the English employed themselves in transferring the rich cargo on board their own vessels, as also in dividing the treasure, to each man being allotted a certain portion; but the crew of the Content were very far from contented, and showed some inclination to mutiny. They were, however, to all appearances speedily pacified, though as it turned out they were far from being really so.
The Spaniards were supplied with sufficient arms to defend themselves against the natives and everything else they required, for which the captain, in the name of the rest, expressed himself very grateful. All the passengers and most of the ship’s company were allowed to go except two Japanese lads, who were detained, and three others who had been born in Manilla, the youngest of whom afterwards became a page to the Countess of Essex.
Besides these, Rodrigo, a Portuguese who had visited Canton and other parts of China, and had been in Java and the Philippines, was kept, and a Spaniard, Thomas de Ersola, an experienced pilot between Acapulco, the Ladrones, and the Philippines.
The Santa Anna, which had still five hundred tons of goods in her, was set on fire, and all arrangements being made, on the 19th of November, to the joy of their crews, the Admiral, firing a farewell salute, stood out of harbour at three o’clock in the afternoon, and with a fair wind, steering westward, they commenced their homeward voyage.
The King’s ship was soon burnt down to the water’s edge, but curious as it may seem, she escaped destruction. Her cables being burnt through, she drifted on shore, when the Spaniards managed to extinguish the flames, and with the planks they had obtained and the sails and rigging which had been landed, the trees in the neighbourhood supplying them with masts and yards, they fitted her for sea, and before long contrived to make their escape.
Cavendish took a great liking to Ersola, and placed much confidence in him as a pilot. He seemed to merit this by the accurate way in which he guided the ship across the Pacific.
On going out of the harbour the Content had been left astern. Night coming on, she was lost sight of, and when morning broke she was nowhere to be seen. In vain the Desire waited for her. At length, spreading her sails, she stood on her course.
From that day no more was seen of the hapless Content, nor was the slightest clue obtained as to what became of her. Some thought that she had sailed for the Straits and been lost, but Ersola was of opinion that Captain Hare, who commanded her, thinking to be wiser than Drake, had attempted the North-East Passage, and had got so far north that he had perished, with all his company, in the ice.
That there was such a passage no one doubted, and that America was a continent by itself, independent of the rest of the world.