holes, as near to the keel as he could, laying something against them, that the rushing of the water might not be heard.

Thomas Moone, although not without much dismay and unwillingness, consented to do so, and kept his promise.

The next morning, August 15, Drake went out early in his pinnace fishing; and, after inviting his brother to accompany him, inquired with a careless air, "Why their ship was so deep in the water?" Upon this the steward, going hastily down, found himself at once up to the waist in water; and in great alarm cried out that "the ship was sinking!"

Immediate recourse was had to the pumps; but, of course, to no purpose: and, after many hours' labour, the crew willingly acceded to Drake's proposal, set the poor Swan on fire, and went on board the pinnace.

The next day they resolved to seek out a place in the Sound of Darien where they might leave their ship at anchor, concealed and safe; and by thus leading the Spaniards to believe that they had quitted the coast, might the better prosecute their design with the pinnaces.

Accordingly, having reached the Sound in five days, Drake selected a convenient spot; and, having cleared away the trees and bushes, and erected huts, they remained here fifteen days; cleaned their vessels, and took in stores of provisions, which were plentiful. To fill up the time, one half the men were allowed to amuse themselves alternate days with shooting at the butt, quoits, and other sports, whilst the rest worked.

On the 5th of September, Drake, leaving the ship and one of the pinnaces with his brother, proceeded with the other two pinnaces to the Rio Grande. Here, cruising about between Cartagena and Tolon, he took six frigates laden with hogs, hams, and maize; and at the end of three days, having arrived at Port Plenty, in the Island of Pinos, he resolved to go with three pinnaces to Cartagena, leaving the rest of the men under the command of his brother, John Drake, who had succeeded in establishing a communication with the Symerons.

On the 16th October he anchored within sight of Cartagena; but deemed it not prudent to land: and, on the 20th, the Spaniards sent out two frigates without any cargo in them, evidently in the hope that Drake would take and man them, and thus weaken

his small force by dividing it: however, he was not to be thus entrapped; but burnt one of them and sunk the other, in sight of two full-manned frigates, which came out, but were soon forced to retire. He now sprung on shore from one of his pinnaces, in the face of all the troops, which were assembled on the hills and hovering in the woods, but were afraid to come within range of the shot of his pinnaces.

"To leap upon an enemy's coast," says Johnson, "in sight of a superior force, only to show how little they were feared, was an act that would in these times meet with little applause; nor can the general be seriously commended, or rationally vindicated, who exposes his person to destruction, and, by consequence, his expedition to miscarriage, only for the pleasure of an idle insult, an insignificant bravado. All that can be urged in his defence is, that perhaps it might contribute to heighten the esteem of his followers; as few men, especially of that class, are philosophical enough to state the exact limits of prudery and bravery; or not to be dazzled with an intrepidity, how improperly soever exerted. It may be added, that perhaps the Spaniards, whose notions of courage are sufficiently romantic, might look upon him as a more formidable enemy, and yield more easily to a hero of whose fortitude they had so high an idea."

On the 27th of November they returned in their pinnaces to the ships, where they found everything in good order, but received the heavy news of the death of John Drake, and another young man called Richard Allen, who were both slain in attempting to board a Spanish vessel.

"The manner of their death was this. When they saw the frigate at sea, the company were very importunate on John Drake to give chace and set upon this frigate, which they deemed had been a fit booty for them, but he told them that they wanted weapons to assail: they knew not how the frigate was provided; they had their boat laden with planks to finish what his brother had commanded. But this would not satisfy them: they still urged him with words and supposals; If ye will needs (said he) adventure, it shall never be said that I will be hindmost, neither shall you report to my brother that you lost your voyage by any cowardice you found in me.'

6

Thereupon every man shifted as he might for the time, and heaving the planks overboard, they took such few weapons as they had: namely, a broken-pointed rapier, one old fisgee, and a rusty calliver: John Drake took the rapier, and made a gauntlet of his pillow: Richard Allen took the fisgee, both standing at the head of their pinnace, called the Lion: Robert Cluich took the calliver, and so boarded. But they found the frigate armed round about with a close fight of hides, full of pikes and callivers, which were discharged in their faces, and deadly wounded those that were in the foreship: John Drake in his belly, and Richard Allen in his head. But notwithstanding their wounds, they, with care, shifted off the pinnace and got clear of the

frigate, and with all haste recovered their ship; where, within an hour after this, this young man of great hope ended his days, greatly lamented of all the company."

Early in January, six of the company fell sick, and died within two or three days; and at this time there were thirty men ill of a calenture, occasioned by a sudden change from cold to heat, or from the salt or brackish water procured at the mouth of the river, the seamen having been too lazy to go farther up.

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Among the rest, Joseph Drake, another of our Captain's brothers, died in our Captain's arms of the same disease, of which that the cause might be the better discerned, and consequently remedied to the relief of others, by our Captain's appointment he was ript open by the surgeon, who found his liver swollen, his heart as it were sodden, and his gutts all fair. This was the first and last experiment that our Captain made of anatomy in this voyage.

"The surgeon that cut him up overlived him not past four days, although he were not toucht with that sickness of which he had been recovered a month before, but only of an overbold practice which he must needs make upon himself, by receiving an over-strong purgation of his own device, after which, once taken, he never spake; nor did his boy recover the health which he lost by tasting it till he saw England. Altogether twenty-eight of our men died here."

Drake now made his arrangements for proceeding by land to Panama. They set out on Shrove Tuesday the 3rd of February, leaving only a few sound men to secure the ships and tend the prisoners. They were in all forty-eight, being eighteen English, and the rest Symerons. In a few days they reached Venta Cruz.

The King, or Chief of these people, dwelt in a city sixteen leagues south-east of Panama, and was able to raise seventeen hundred fighting men. The towns consisted of about sixty families; in which, to use Prince's words, "the people lived cleanly and civilly."

Drake, having been informed by the Symerons that numerous recoes conveying treasure would now be coming across the isthmus from Panama, or from Venta Cruz to Nombre de Dios, set out for the purpose of waylaying them on their route. He arrived, on the 11th of February, at the top of a very high hill; on the very summit of which grew a tree of great size, from which both the North and South Seas could be seen. Here one of the chief Symerons, taking Drake by the hand, desired him to ascend "that goodlie and great high tree," as the manuscript

terms it. Having done so by means of steps cut out in the trunk, he found that in the midst of the branches they had constructed a convenient arbour, in which twelve men might sit; and from thence he clearly discerned both the north and south Atlantic Oceans.

Drake having taken a full view of that sea, of which he had heard such golden reports,' with great solemnity besought God "to give him life, and leave, once to sail an English ship in those seas ;" and, adds the historian, " he was heard in what he asked, as will hereafter appear." Camden gives the following account of this discovery

:

"Drake," he says, "roving for a time up and down in the parts adjoining, discerned from the mountains the South Sea. Hereupon the man, being influenced with ambition of glory and hopes of wealth, was so vehemently transported with desire to navigate that sea, that falling down there upon his knees, he implored the Divine assistance that he might, at some time or other, sail thither and make a perfect discovery of the same; and hereunto he bound himself with a vow. From that time forward, his mind was pricked on continually night and day to perform his vow.”

This, however, was not the first discovery of the great South Sea. In the year 1513, six years previous to the voyage of Magelhaens, Vasco Nunnez de Balboa, a Spanish commander of Darien, to verify the intelligence he had received, marched with a body of Spaniards and Indian guides across the isthmus. He was opposed on the passage by the natives. They demanded who the bearded strangers were, what they sought after, and whither they were going? The Spaniards answered, "They were Christians; that their errand was to preach a new religion, and to seek gold; and that they were going to the Southern Sea." This answer not giving satisfaction, Balboa made his way by force. On arriving at the foot of a mountain, from the top of which he was informed that the sea he so anxiously wished to discover was visible, he ordered his men to halt, and he himself ascended alone. As soon as he had attained the summit, he fell on his knees; and, with uplifted hands, returned thanks to heaven for having bestowed on him the honour of being the first European that beheld the sea beyond America. Afterwards, descending to the sea-shore, in the presence of his followers and of many Indians, he walked up to his middle in the water, with his sword and target; and called upon them to bear testimony that he took

possession of the South Sea, and all which appertained to it, for the King of Castile and Leon.

A similar account of Balboa's discovery is given by Southey, but in a more solemn and impressive manner:

"Falling prostrate on the ground, and raising himself again upon his knees, as the manner of the Christians is to pray, lifting up his eyes and hands towards heaven, and directing his face towards the new-found South Sea, he poured forth his humble and devout prayers before Almighty God, as a spiritual sacrifice with thanksgiving, that it pleased his Divine Majesty to reserve unto that day the victory and praise of so great a thing unto him, being but a man of small wit and knowledge, of little experience, and base parentage. And having beckoned his companions to come to him, he again fell to his prayers as before, desiring Almighty God and the blessed Virgin to favour his beginning, and to give him good success to subdue those lands to the glory of his Holy name, and increase of his true religion; all his companions did likewise, and praised God with loud voices for joy. Then Vasco, with no less manly courage than Hannibal of Carthage showed his soldiers Italy from the promontories of the Alps, exhorted his men to lift up their hearts, and to behold the land even now under their feet, and the sea before their eyes, which should be unto them a full and just reward of their great labours and travails now overpast. When he had said these words, he commanded them to raise certain heaps of stones in the stead of altars, for a token of possession."

Ramusio says that Vasco, after returning thanks to God and all the saints of heaven, addressed himself to the sea itself, exclaiming "O mare del sur, Rege gli altri mari, fá che placido et quieto riceva la mià venuta !"

When arrived within view of Panama, Drake and his party quitted the frequented path, and secreted themselves in a wood near the road between Panama and Nombre de Dios. Thence Drake sent one of the Symerons, in the dress of a native of Panama, to ascertain on what night the recoes were expected. These recoes consist of fifty, sixty, or seventy mules laden with treasure, and are guarded by a considerable number of armed men. The spy soon returned with the information that the treasurer of Lima was on his route to Europe, and would pass by that very night with eight mules laden with gold, and one with jewels.

On the receipt of this information they immediately marched towards Venta Cruz; and Drake, selecting a convenient spot,

* Southey, from Eden's translation of Peter Martyr.