166 
DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Cuap. XI.—D. S. 
ringing and drums beating, marched to the market¬ 
place. Here a desperate tight ensued, in which Drake 
received a wound, but knowing that if the general’s 
heart stoops the men’s will fail, he concealed it. One 
of his trusty fellows, Oxenham, and his brother, with 
sixteen men, proceeded to the king’s treasure-house, and 
here piles of silver were found, and still more in the 
Governor’s residence. Drake then told his men that 
“ he had brought them to the treasury of the world, 
and if they did not gain it, none but themselves were 
to blame.” Here, however, from loss of blood his 
strength failed him. His men bound up the wound, 
and carried him by main force to his pinnace. 
On recovering, Drake decided on crossing the Isth¬ 
mus ; but having lost many men by sickness, among 
them his brothers Joseph and John, he removed the 
remaining force to his own ship and pinnace. The 
‘ Swan ’ was sunk. His object was to intercept on 
the Isthmus a train of mules laden with the king’s 
treasure. On meeting it he attacked and chased the 
party in charge as far as Cruces, giving strict orders 
not to hurt women or unarmed men. In their wander¬ 
ings the invaders came to a high tree, and climbing it 
viewed with transports of joy the great Pacific, an 
ocean as yet entirely closed to English enterprise. 
Among those who accompanied Drake was one John 
Oxman, or Oxenham, who appears to have been a 
favourite with the captain, and who shortly afterwards 
returned to try his fortune in a hazardous scheme of 
privateering. In 1575, he arrived on the Atlantic 
side of the Isthmus, in a vessel of 140 tons, and with 
