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Sir Francis Drake
by
They pursued the enemy into the town, in which they met with some plunder, which was given to the Symerons; and treated the inhabitants with great clemency, Drake himself going to the Spanish ladies, to assure them that no injuries should be offered them; so inseparable is humanity from true courage.
Having thus broken the spirits, and scattered the forces of the Spaniards, he pursued his march to his ship, without any apprehension of danger, yet with great speed, being very solicitous about the state of the crew; so that he allowed his men, harassed as they were, but little time for sleep or refreshment, but by kind exhortations, gentle authority, and a cheerful participation of all their hardships, prevailed upon them to bear, without murmurs, not only the toil of travelling, but, on some days, the pain of hunger.
In this march, he owed much of his expedition to the assistance of the Symerons, who being accustomed to the climate, and naturally robust, not only brought him intelligence, and showed the way, but carried necessaries, provided victuals, and built lodgings, and, when any of the English fainted in the way, two of them would carry him between them for two miles together; nor was their valour less than their industry, after they had learned from their English companions to despise the firearms of the Spaniards.
When they were within five leagues of the ships, they found a town built in their absence by the Symerons, at which Drake consented to halt, sending a Symeron to the ship, with his gold toothpick, as a token, which, though the master knew it, was not sufficient to gain the messenger credit, till, upon examination, he found that the captain, having ordered him to regard no messenger without his handwriting, had engraven his name upon it with the point of his knife. He then sent the pinnace up the river, which they met, and afterwards sent to the town for those whose weariness had made them unable to march further. On February 23, the whole company was reunited; and Drake, whose good or ill success never prevailed over his piety, celebrated their meeting with thanks to God.
Drake, not yet discouraged, now turned his thoughts to new prospects, and, without languishing in melancholy reflections upon his past miscarriages, employed himself in forming schemes for repairing them. Eager of action, and acquainted with man’s nature, he never suffered idleness to infect his followers with cowardice, but kept them from sinking under any disappointment, by diverting their attention to some new enterprise.
Upon consultation with his own men and the Symerons, he found them divided in their opinions; some declaring, that, before they engaged in any new attempt, it was necessary to increase their stores of provisions; and others urging, that the ships, in which the treasure was conveyed, should be immediately attacked. The Symerons proposed a third plan, and advised him to undertake another march over land to the house of one Pezoro, near Veragua, whose slaves brought him, every day, more than two hundred pounds sterling from the mines, which he heaped together in a strong stone house, which might, by the help of the English, be easily forced.
Drake, being unwilling to fatigue his followers with another journey, determined to comply with both the other opinions; and, manning his two pinnaces, the Bear and the Minion, he sent John Oxenham, in the Bear, towards Tolu, to seize upon provisions; and went himself, in the Minion, to the Cabezas, to intercept the treasure that was to be transported from Veragua and that coast, to the fleet at Nombre de Dios, first dismissing, with presents, those Symerons that desired to return to their wives, and ordering those that chose to remain to be entertained in the ship.
Drake took, at the Cabezas, a frigate of Nicaragua, the pilot of which informed him that there was, in the harbour of Veragua, a ship freighted with more than a million of gold, to which he offered to conduct him, being well acquainted with the soundings, if he might be allowed his share of the prize; so much was his avarice superiour to his honesty.