CAPTURE OF A GREAT TREASURE SHIP. 311 



enemies in those waters. They rifled the ships of their valuables, and these included a 

 large quantity of silk and linen, and one chest of silver reales. But they heard that which 

 made their ears tingle, and inflamed their desires for gain ; the Cacafuego, a great treasure 

 ship, had sailed only a few days before for a neighbouring port. Drake immediately 

 cut the cables of the ships at Lima, and let them drivo, that they might not pursue him. 

 " While he was thus employed, a vessel from Panama, laden with Spanish goods, entered 

 the harbour, and anchored close by the Golden Hinde. A boat came from the shore to 

 search it ; but because it was night, they deferred the search till the morning, and only 

 sent a man on board. The boat then came alongside Drake's vessel, and asked what ship it 

 was. A Spanish prisoner answered, as he was ordered, that it was Miguel Angel's, from 

 Chili. Satisfied with this, the officer in the boat sent a man to board it ; but he, when 

 on the point of entering, perceived one of the large guns, and retreated in the boat with 

 all celerity, because no vessels that frequented that port, and navigated those seas, carried 

 great shot/' The crew of the Panama ship took alarm when they observed the rapid 

 flight of the man, and put to sea. The Hinde followed her, and the Spanish crew abandoned 

 their ship, and escaped ashore in their boat. The alarm had now been given in Lima, and 

 the viceroy dispatched two vessels in pursuit, each having two hundred men on board, 

 but no artillery. The Spanish commander, however, showed no desire to tackle Drake, 

 and he escaped, taking shortly afterwards three tolerable prizes, one of which yielded 

 forty bars of silver, eighty pounds' weight of gold, and a golden crucifix, "set with goodly 

 great emeralds." One of the men having secreted two plates of gold from this prize, and 

 denied the theft, was immediately hanged. 



But it was the Cacafuego that Drake wanted, and after crossing the line he promised 

 to give his own chain of gold to the first man who should descry her. On St. David's 

 Day, the coveted prize was discovered from the top, by a namesake of the commander, one 

 John Drake. All sail was set, but an easy capture was before them; for the Spanish 

 captain, not dreaming of enemies in those latitudes, slackened sail, in order to find out 

 what ship she was. When they had approached near enough, Drake hailed them to strike, 

 which being refused, " with a great piece he shot her mast overboard, and having wounded 

 the master with an arrow, the ship yielded." Having taken possession, the vessels sailed 

 in company far out to sea, when they stopped and lay by. She proved a prize indeed : 

 gold and silver in coin and bars, jewels and precious stones amounting to three hundred 

 and sixty thousand pieces of gold were taken from her. The silver alone amounted to a 

 value in our money of 2 IE, 000. It is stated that Drake called for the register of the 

 treasure on board, and wrote a receipt for the amount ! The ship was dismissed, and Drake 

 gave the captain a letter of safe conduct, in case she should fall in with his consorts. 

 This, as we know, was impossible. 



Drake's plain course now was to make his way home, and he wisely argued that it would 

 be unsafe to attempt the voyage by the route he had come, as the Spaniards would surely 

 attack him in full force, the whole coast of Chili and Peru being aroused to action. He 

 conceived the bold notion of rounding North America : in other words, he proposed to 

 make that passage which has been the great dream of Arctic explorers, and which has only, 

 as we shall hereafter see, been once made (and that in a very partial sense) by Franklin and 



