Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

boat with fowls, eggs, and a hog, and with them one of their captains, who willingly came into the boat, and desired to be conveyed by the English to their ship.

By this man Drake was informed, that no supplies were to be expected here, but that southward, in a place to which he offered to be his pilot, there was great plenty. This proposal was accepted, and on the 5th of December, under the direction of the good-natured Indian, they came to anchor in the harbour called, by the Spaniards, Valperizo, near the town of St. James of Chiuli, where they met not only with sufficient stores of provision, and with storehouses full of the wines of Chili, but with a ship called the Captain of Morial, richly laden, having, together with large quantities of the same wines, some of the fine gold of Baldivia, and a great cross of gold set with emeralds.

Having spent three days in storing their ships with all kinds of provision in the utmost plenty, they departed, and landed their Indian pilot where they first received him, after having rewarded him much above his expectations or desires.

They had now little other anxiety than for their friends who had been separated from them, and whom they now determined to seek; but considering that, by entering every creek and harbour with their ship, they exposed themselves to unnecessary dangers, and that their boat would not contain such a number as might defend themselves against the Spaniards, they determined to station their ship at some place, where they might commodiously build a pinnace, which, being of light burden, might easily sail where the ship was in danger of being stranded, and at the

same time might carry a sufficient force to resist the enemy, and afford better accommodation than could be expected in the boat.

To this end, on the 19th of December, they entered a bay near Cippo, a town inhabited by Spaniards, who, discovering them, immediately issued out to the number of an hundred horsemen, with about two hundred naked Indians running by their sides. The English, observing their approach, retired to their boat, without any loss, except of one man, whom no persuasions or entreaties could move to retire with the rest, and who, therefore, was shot by the Spaniards, who, exulting at the victory, commanded the Indians to draw the dead carcase from the rock on which he fell, and in the sight of the English beheaded it, then cut off the right hand, and tore out the heart, which they carried away, having first commanded the Indians to shoot their arrows all over the body. The arrows of the Indians were made of green wood for the immediate service of the day; the Spaniards, with the fear that always harasses oppressors, forbidding them to have any weapons, when they do not want their present assistance.

Leaving this place, they soon found a harbour more secure and convenient, where they built their pinnace, in which Drake went to seek his companions, but, finding the wind contrary, he was obliged to return in two days.

Leaving this place soon after, they sailed along the coast in search of fresh water, and, landing at Turapaca, they found a Spaniard asleep, with silver bars lying by him to the value of three thousand ducats;

not all the insults which they had received from his countrymen could provoke them to offer any violence to his person, and therefore they carried away his treasure, without doing him any farther harm.

Landing in another place, they found a Spaniard driving eight Peruvian sheep, which are the beasts of burthen in that country, each laden with an hundred pounds weight of silver, which they seized likewise, and drove to their boats.

Further along the coast lay some Indian towns, from which the inhabitants repaired to the ship, on floats made of seal-skins, blown full of wind, two of which they fasten together, and, sitting between them, row with great swiftness, and carry considerable burthens. They very readily traded for glass and such trifles, with which the old and the young seemed equally delighted.

Arriving at Mormorena on the 26th of January, Drake invited the Spaniards to traffick with him, which they agreed to, and supplied him with necessaries, selling to him, among other provisions, some of those sheep which have been mentioned, whose bulk is equal to that of a cow, and whose strength is such that one of them can carry three tall men upon his back; their necks are like a camel's, and their heads like those of our sheep. They are the most useful animals of this country, not only affording excellent fleeces and wholesome flesh, but serving as carriages over rocks and mountains where no other beast can travel, for their foot is of a peculiar form, which enables them to tread firm in the most steep and slippery places.

On all this coast, the whole soil is so impregnated with silver, that five ounces may be separated from an hundred pound weight of common earth.

Still coasting, in hopes of meeting their friends, they anchored on the 7th of February before Aria, where they took two barks with about eight hundred pound weight of silver, and, pursuing their course, seized another vessel laden with linens.

On the 15th of February 1578, they arrived at Lima, and entered the harbour without resistance, though thirty ships were stationed there, of which seventeen were equipped for their voyage, and many of them are represented in the narrative as vessels of considerable force; so that their security seems to have consisted, not in their strength, but in their reputation, which had so intimidated the Spaniards, that the sight of their own superiority could not rouse them to opposition. Instances of such panick terrors are to be met with in other relations; but as they are, for the most part, quickly dissipated by reason and reflection, a wise commander will rarely found his hopes of success on them; and, perhaps, on this occasion, the Spaniards scarcely deserve a severer censure for their cowardice, than Drake for his temerity.

In one of these ships they found fifteen hundred bars of silver; in another a chest of money; and very rich lading in many of the rest, of which the Spaniards tamely suffered them to carry the most valuable part away, and would have permitted them no less peaceably to burn their ships; but Drake never made war with a spirit of cruelty or revenge,

or carried hostilities further than was necessary for his own advantage or defence.

They set sail the next morning towards Panama, in quest of the Caca Fuego, a very rich ship, which had sailed fourteen days before, bound thither from Lima, which they overtook on the 1st of March, near Cape Francisco, and, boarding it, found not only a quantity of jewels, and twelve chests of ryals of plate, but eighty pounds weight of gold, and twenty-six tons of uncoined silver, with pieces of wrought plate to a great value. In unlading this prize they spent six days, and then, dismissing the Spaniards, stood off to sea.

Being now sufficiently enriched, and having lost all hopes of finding their associates, and perhaps beginning to be infected with that desire of ease and pleasure which is the natural consequence of wealth obtained by dangers and fatigues, they began to consult about their return home, and, in pursuance of Drake's advice, resolved first to find out some convenient harbour, where they might supply themselves with wood and water, and then endeavour to discover a passage from the South-sea into the Atlantic ocean; a discovery which would not only enable them to return home with less danger, and in a shorter time, but would much facilitate the navigation in those parts of the world.

For this purpose they had recourse to a port in the island of Caines, where they met with fish, wood, and fresh water, and in their course took a ship laden with silk and linen, which was the last that they met with on the coast of America.

But being desirous of storing themselves for a

[blocks in formation]
« ElőzőTovább »