It

•HAR

J 572.

during the Reign os§yeen Elizabeth,

55

brake de-i a s fromrj y»iOuth,

H es ;

indeed, furnished with Letters ofMarque, or Reprizals, to give Sanc-tion to these Proceedings; But, as En-gland and Spain were not then in thebest Terms of Friendship, he thoughtthe general Licence of the Times wouldbe his Justification.

H e set Sail from Plymouth, on thefour and twentieth of May, 157 2, noone , but his Fellow-Adventurers,knowing any Thing of his Design.

They had so prosperous a Voyage,that, on the eight and twentieth of‘June, they had a Sight of Guadelupe,Weft. one of the I stands of the Weft Indies,adte " and failing, between that Istand andDominica, towards the Continent, di-rected their Course towards a Bay,which the Captain had, in a formerVoyage, called Port Pheasant. Herethey arrived, the twelfth of July, and,having moored their Ships, set theirCarpenters to Work to frame their Pin-naces. The next Day after their Ar-rival, came into the fame Bay an En-glijh Bark, of the Isle of Wight, com-manded by Captain James Ramose, witha Caravel, and a Sloop withOars, whichhe had taken from the Spaniards, nearthat Place. Captain Ramose, who hadseveral Men on Board, that had serv-ed Drake in a former Voyage, beinginformed of his Design, was willing tojoin with him in the Execution of it;And Drake, upon certain Conditions,admitted him. The twentieth of July,their Pinnaces being ready, they pro-ceeded to the IJlhmus of Darien, where^ ^ they made -themselves Masters of the

Town of Nombre de Dios, which theyJot lafftfp soon after lost again, the Circumstances

>n.

of which, Purchas and Hackluyt re-late, in the following Manner, fromthe Account of one Lopez Vas, a Por-tuguese, who was taken in the Year,1586. by some Ships belonging to theEarl of Cumberland, and had this Re-lation about him.

“ Drake landed one Hundred and" fifty Men, and leaving seventy of" them, with a Trumpet, in a Fort," with the Rest he went, in the Night,tc to the Market-place, and there dis-" charged his Callivers, and sounded" his Trumpet, which was answeredin like Manner from the Fort. The" Townsmen, being awaked out of‘ c their Sleep, by this unusual Noiset<r and Uproar, were so terrified, thatcc they fled into the Mountains; But14 or 15 of them, joining together, .came back, with their Harquebus-

ses, to fee what was the Matter 5 * i$ 7 2 °They saw the Englishmen, in a Cor-ner of the Market-place, and, per-ceiving they were few in Number,fired at them, and killed the Trum-peter. Those in the Fort hearingthe Harquebusses, and finding theirTrumpet was not answered, suppo-sed all those who were entered theTown were stain, and therefore fledto their Vessels. The Captain com-ing thither, with his Company, andseing all his Men fled, was surprizedwith a new Fear, and, leaving theirFurniture, they swam and waded totheir Pinnaces; and departed thePort; having done no farther Harmthere, than the killing of one Man,who looked out of a Window to leewhat the Disturbance was.”

The Author of the Columna Ro -strata fays, that Captain Drake was Column*himself wounded, and that, being for- Rostrata,ced by his Men on Board, he was ob-liged, to his great Regret, to leave be-hind him a vast Treasure, which lay inthe King of Spain's Warehouses. ThisAccount seems more conformable toDrake's Character, than his being dis-mayed at the Incident I have just men-tioned.

These are the Accounts we have ofthis Action in general; But as I find avery particular Relation of every Cir-cumstance of it, in the Treatise called, Drake Re*Sir Francis Drake Revived, said to be vived.taken from his own Notes, and fromthose of Mr. Nichols and Mr. Fletcher,

Ministers, and of divers other Gentle-men, who were with him, in his severalVoyages, which, in some Circumstan-ces, differs from them, I fliall give theReader an Abstract of that Rela-tion.

They departed, as Thave said above, a more par-on the twentieth of July, from Port ticuiar Ac-.Pheasant, and, in three Days, came to co sJf„f tht$the Istand of Pinas. Here they foundtwo Frigats, belonging to Nombre deDios ,which were loadingPlank and Tim-ber from thence. From the Negroes,who were in these Frigats, Drake got aparticular Account of the then State ofthat City ; After which, being willingto be as favorable to them as he could,without doing Prejudice to himself, heset them on Shoar on the Continent,that either they might gain their Liber-ty, if they desired it; Or, it theysoouldchuse to return to Slavery, to Nombrede Dios, the Length and Troublesome-ness of the Way by Land might render2 R ‘ it