* 5 8

1 57 2 *

Me lakes agreat Num-ber ofPrizes ;

Eliz. Naval Expeditions, die. of the English,' Book ll'

it no longer safe to continue on theCoasts, now that they were discovered,was for departing. Drake was as wil-ling to dismiss him ; But, for his ownPart, he was so sorely vexed at theDisappointment he had met with, thathe resolved, at all Adventures, to at-tempt some other Exploit, which hehoped would prove more successful.

On the seventh of August, CaptainRawj'e took his Leave ; And the sameDay, Drake's Brother, with Ellis Hixon,whom he had sent to the Westward,to discover the River Chagro , where hehad been the Year before, and of whichhe was willing to have farther Notice,returned with the Account he wanted.He now departed, with his two Shipsand three Pinnaces, for Carthagena ,where he arrived the thirteenth : And,the fame Day, took two Spanijh Ships,one of which was of two Hundred andforty Tuns. The next Morning, hetook two Frigats more, out of allwhich he took what he thought neces-sary. The fifteenth, he thought fit toburn one of his own Ships, the Swan,that he might have the more Men tospare, to man his Pinnaces. The nextMorning, he resolved to seek out someproper Place, in the Sound of Darien,where he might safely leave his Ship atAnchor, not discoverable by the Ene-my, that they might imagine he wasepite departed from the Coast.

The twenty-first of August , theyfound a Harbour, for their Purpose,where they lay concealed for fifteenDap. We have, in the Treatise cal-led, Sir Francis Drake revived, a veryparticular Account of their Adventures,from this Time, to the Month of April,in which Time they took a great Num-ber of Spanijh Ships at Sea, and richBooties on Shoar, a particular Relationof which would carry me too far; I shall,therefore only observe, that Drake gotIntelligence from some fugitive Blacks,called Symerons, who had left theirMasters at Panama and Nombre de Dios,that there was a great Quantity of Goldand Silver coming on Mules from Pana-ma. Taking these Negroes for his Guides,he way-laid them with a Hundred Men,and of three Rocoes, or Companies ofthese Mules, carrying thirty Tuns ofSilver, besides Gold, he seized two.They were travelling in all Security,with only five and forty Guards,and theirDrivers. So far were the Spaniards, atthat Time, from mistrusting anyOpposi-

tion in those Seas. Of the Gold, theytook as much as they could well carryto their Ships: But the Silver, beingnot so portable over the Mountains,they left Part of it in the Road, and bu- ;ried the Rest of the Gold, with aboutfifteen Tuns of theSilver, under Ground,and in the Sand of a shallow River.

Some Time after, they came to a rich ^ n(ll)Ur n$ *Storehouse of Merchandize, upon the s- c g gtod'River Chagro, called Vent a de Cruz, or house.the House of Crosses, where they foundneither Gold nor Silver; But there weregreat Quantities of Merchandize, whichthey could not carry off, so they havingkilled six or seven Merchants, let Fireto the House, and destroyed to the Va-lue of two Hundred Thousand Duckets,in Goods, and then departed to theirShips. Drake had hardly been half anHour on Board, when the Spaniards,being alarmed, came down to the Shoar,to the Number of three Hundred Men,armed, within Sight of his Ships; Buthe was out of their Reach, and depart-ed undisturbed with his Treasure.

I t would be endless, to relate all the Some f ar jCircumstances of this extraordinary Ex- therCidpedition, one of the boldest, that pQ?-ft ance 'haps was ever undertaken in those Seas;tho’ but little taken Notice of by ourHistorians. To come at this Treasure,

Drake marched twice, with a Handfulof Men, many Days Journey withinLand, in unknown Ways, in the Midstof the Enemies Country, who were ex-asperated against him to the utmost, andwere in Search of him by Land and Sea.

He entrusted himself and his Companyto the Fidelity of the Symeron Negroes,who were, indeed, Enemies to theSpaniards ; But might, for aught heknew, be Enemies to all Europeans, ingeneral: And who, while they wereleading him thro' hidden Pasiages, overthe Mountains, to way-lay the Spani-ards, might as well have led him intoAmbuihes of their own People, and toinevitable Destruction. I must not omitone extraordinary Instance of this greatMan’s Resolution and Intrepidity,whichis hardly to be paralleled.

.WHEN he marched into the Country,to intercept the Spanijh Treasure, heordered his Pinnaces to meet him at RioFrancisco ; But when he, and his Com-pany, came thither, loaded with Spoil,to their great Mortification, they saw noPinnaces, but instead of them a Num-ber of Spanijh Shallops, who they sup-posed had overpowered their Men, and,

having