in revenge of which the expedition consumed with fire all the houses, as well in the country as in the town of St. Jago, the hospital excepted, which was left uninjured.

The Portuguese had their revenge: for before the fleet was many days at sea a fatal sickness broke out among the people, occasioned doubtless by the long stay at that most unhealthy place St. Jago, and between two and three hundred men died. They are described as having been marked with small spots like those which appear in the plague. They next proceeded to Dominica, which they reached in eighteen days. The island was at this time inhabited by a savage people (the Caribs), who were naked, having their skins painted: they were well made, handsome and strong, very civil, and ready to assist in watering the ships. That being done, the fleet made sail for St. Christopher's, where they refreshed the men with what they could find, and spent their Christmas; but saw no inhabitants, and had reason to believe there were none on the island.

A council being held, it was decided they should next proceed to the great island of Hispaniola, being allured thither by the fame of the city of St. Domingo, the most ancient and chief place in all that region. On arriving there, they were informed that the Spaniards were in great force in that quarter, particularly at St. Domingo. On new year's day, by the advice of a pilot whom they had captured in a frigate, they landed twelve hundred men at a convenient spot, about ten or twelve miles from the city. The General, after seeing all the men safely landed, returned to the fleet, "bequeathing them to God and the good conduct of Maister Carleill."

On approaching the town, about a hundred and fifty horsemen came out to oppose them; but were received by the invaders so gallantly, with pikes and small shot, that they retreated hastily within the two seaward gates, both of which were manned and planted with ordnance, and other troops were placed in ambuscade by the road side. Carleill divided his force into two parties, giving Captain Powell the command of one division. It was settled that they were to enter at both gates at the same time, the General swearing to Powell "that with God's good favour they would not rest till they met in the market-place." Powell with his company pushed through one of the gates, and the

General through the other; and after some fighting they both gained the market-place, or square, in which was the great church. Here they quartered themselves; and by making trenches and planting ordnance, held the town for the space of a month without loss. One day, however, the General had occasion to send a message to the Spaniards by a negro boy carrying a flag of truce: an officer of the King of Spain's galley meeting the boy, struck him through the body with a staff, and the poor fellow, having crawled back to the General, and told him what had happened, died on the spot.

"The General," says Cates, "being greatly passioned, commanded the provost martial to cause a couple of Fryars, who were among his prisoners, to be carried to the same place where the boy was stricken, accompanied with a sufficient guard of our soldiers, and there presently to be both hanged, despatching at the instant another poor Spanish prisoner, with the reason wherefore this execution was done; and with this message further, that until the party, who had thus murthered the General's messenger, were delivered into our hands, to receive condign punishment, there should no day passe, wherein there should not two prisoners be hanged, until they were all consumed, which were in our hands."

The murderer of the boy was delivered up the next day, and the General compelled the Spaniards to execute him with their own hands.

The English demanded a ransom for the city; and as the inhabitants were very slow in coming to terms, every morning, for several successive days, the suburbs were set on fire.

"But the invaders," says Cates, "found it no small travail to ruin them, being very magnificently built of stone, with high lofts. Two hundred sailors from daybreak till nine o'clock, when the next began, did nothing but labour to fire these houses; yet we did not consume so much as one-third part of the town; and so in the end, what wearied with firing, and what hastened by some other respects, we were glad to take, and they at length agreed to pay, a ransom of five and twenty thousand ducats. In the gallery of their King's house, there was painted, on a very large escutcheon, the arms of the King of Spain, and in the lower part of the 'scutcheon a terrestrial globe, containing upon it the whole circuit of the sea, and the earth, whereon is a horse standing on his hind legs as in the act of leaping from it, with a scroll proceeding from his mouth, whereon was written, Non sufficit Orbis.' We looked upon this as a very notable mark and token of the unsatiable ambition of the Spanish king and nation, and did not refrain from pointing it out to the Spaniards, who were sent to negociate with us; nor from sarcastically enquiring what was meant by such a device? at which they would

6

shake their heads and turn aside their faces, in some smiling sort, without answering any thing, as if ashamed thereof."

Having amply supplied themselves with strong wine, sweet oil, vinegar, olives, and other provisions, together with woollen, linen, and silk cloths (of plate or silver they found but little), they put to sea, and stood over to the mainland, keeping along the northern coast till they came in sight of Cartagena; and entered the harbour about three miles westward of the town. To enter the town it was necessary for the troops to pass along a narrow isthmus not above fifty paces wide, having the sea on one side and the harbour on the other; and at the extremity was a stone wall built across it, with an opening just wide enough for the horsemen or a carriage to pass. This was barricadoed with wine-butts filled with earth, and placed on end. Against this part the assault was made.

Our

"We soon,” says Cates, "found out the barricadoes of pipes or butts to be the meetest place for our assault, which, notwithstanding it was well furnished with pikes and shot, was, without staying, attempted by us: down went the butts of earth, and pell-mell came our swords and pikes together after our shot had first given their volley, even at the enemy's nose. pikes were somewhat longer than their's, and our bodies better armed, with which advantage our swords and pikes grew too hard for them, and they were driven to give place. In this furious entrée, the Lieutenant-General slue with his owne hands the chief ensigne-bearer of the Spaniards, who fought very manfully to his live's end."

They rushed together into the town, and gave the enemy no time to breathe until they got to the market-place, when they were suffered to remain quietly, and lodge in the town—the inhabitants going into the country to their wives. During the fight the Indians made use of poisoned arrows, the least scratch of the skin with which caused death.

They kept possession of Cartagena for six weeks, and pursued the same course to obtain a ransom as they had done at St. Domingo ;

“and though,” continues Cates, "upon discontentments and for want of agreeing in the first negociations for a ransom, they touched the town in its outposts, and consumed much with fire, yet the other miseries of war were suspended; and there passed divers courtesies between us and the Spaniards, as feasting and using them with all kindness and favour. The Governor, the Bishop, and many other gentlemen of the better sort, visiting the General and Lieutenant General."

The only loss the English sustained from the enemy, during their stay here was that of Captain Varney and Captain Moon, and five or six other persons, who were killed by the discharge of some muskets from the bushes, when standing on the deck of a vessel they had boarded.

But the disease which they had brought with them from the Cape de Verde Islands never left them: they suffered much from sickness, which carried off a great number of men, and of those who survived very few ever recovered their strength; they lost their memory, and became imbecile in mind. The name given to the disorder was the calenture, which is " a verie burning and pestilent ague." The continuance of this disease, which was doubtless what is now called the yellow fever, and the great mortality resulting from it, obliged them to give up their intended enterprise against Nombre de Dios, and from thence overland to Panama, where the blow was to have been struck for the treasure. Their first resolution to return homewards was taken at Cartagena; but after "a little firing of the town," in consequence of some disagreement touching the ransom, it was concluded that one hundred and ten thousand ducats should be paid.

At a consultation respecting this ransom it was stated that they might at first have demanded a great deal more; but now the above-mentioned sum was deemed sufficient

"Inasmuch," says Cates, " as we have taken our full pleasure, both in the uttermost sacking and spoiling of all their household goods and merchandise, as also in that we have consumed and ruined a great part of their town with fire. And whereas we had in the expedition a great number of poor men who had ventured their lives, suffered much from sickness, wasted their clothing, and what little provision their slender means had enabled them to lay in, with the best intention of punishing the Spaniard, our greatest and most dangerous enemy, we cannot but have an inward regard to help toward their satisfaction of this their expectation; and, by procuring them some little benefit, to encourage them, and to nourish this ready and willing disposition both in them and in others, by their example, against any other time of like occasion."

The officers did still more for their men. In the official document drawn up on the occasion they state

“But because it may be supposed that therein we forgot not the private benefit of ourselves, and are thereby the rather moved to incline ourselves to this composition, we declare hereby, that what part or portion soever it be of this ransom for Cartagena, which should come unto us, we do freely give and bestow the same wholly upon the poor men who have remained with us

in the voyage, meaning as well the sailor as the soldier, and wishing with all our hearts it were such or so much, as might seem a sufficient reward for their peaceful endeavour."

On the 1st of March the expedition left Cartagena, and on the 27th of April reached Cape St. Antonio, the westernmost part of Cuba. Finding no fresh water there, they made for Matanzas; but the weather being boisterous, were driven back to Cape St. Antonio, where their water was exhausted; and, after much search, they found only some pits of rain-water.

Here," says Cates, "I do wrong if I should forget the good example of the General, who, to encourage others, and to hasten the getting of water aboard, took no less pains than the meanest. Throughout the expedition, indeed, he had everywhere shown so vigilant a care and foresight in the good ordering of his fleet, accompanied with such wonderful travail of body, that doubtless, had he been the meanest person, as he was the chiefest, he had deserved the first place of honour. And no less happy do we account him for being associated with Master Carleill his lieutenant-general, by whose experience, prudent counsel and gallant performance, he achieved so many and happy enterprises, and by whom also he was very greatly assisted, in setting down the needful orders, laws and course of justice, and the due administration of the same upon all occasions."

course for the coast of On the 28th of May they high masts, as a look-out

From hence they continued their Florida, keeping the shore in sight. discovered a scaffold raised upon four station towards the sea. Upon this, Drake manned the pinnaces and landed, to see what place of strength the enemy held there, no one in the armament having any knowledge of it. Having gone up the river St. Augustine, they came to the fort of St. Juan de Pinos, newly erected by the Spaniards, and not yet completed. On their approach the engineers took the alarm, and, abandoning the work, made the best of their way to the city of St. Augustine, where there was a garrison of 150 men. When the English landed the next day to storm this fort, they found nobody there. There were fourteen great pieces of brass ordnance placed on a platform, which was constructed of large pine-trees laid across one on another, with some little earth between. The garrison, which, as they learned from a French fifer, who was a prisoner in the fort, consisted of 150 men, had retired in such haste that they left behind them the treasure-chest, containing about 20007.

In like manner, on the English marching to the city of St. Augustine, the Spaniards, after they had fired a few shot at