ny vessels, the _Pasha_ and the _Swan_, with
seventy-three men, all told. But with these faithful few he sailed
into a secret harbour, intending to seize the whole year's treasure
chest of Spain. To his surprise the found this letter from a scout on
the coast: "Captain Drake! If you fortune to come to this port, make
haste away! For the Spaniards have betrayed the place and taken away
all that you left here." The date was fourteen days before. He soon
saw that others knew his secret harbour; for in came Rance, an
Englishman, who then joined forces. Stealing quietly along the coast,
the hundred and twenty English lay in wait off Nombre de Dios, the
place on the Atlantic coast of the Isthmus of Panama where the treasure
was put aboard for Spain. An hour before dawn Drake passed the word
along the waiting line: "Shove off!" Bounding into the bay he saw a
Spanish rowboat, which at once saw him and pulled hard-all for the
shore. The English won the desperate race, making the Spaniards sheer
off to a landing some way beyond the town. Then they landed and
tumbled the Spanish guns off their mountings on the wharf, to the
amazement of the sleepy Spanish sentry, who ran for dear life.

No time was to be lost now; for the news spread like wildfire, and the
alarm bells were ringing from every steeple in the town. So Drake made
straight for the Governor's palace, while his lieutenant, Oxenham, (the
hero of _Westward Ho_!), went by a side street to take the enemy in
flank. The Spaniards fired a volley which killed Drake's trumpeter,
who had just sounded the _Charge_! On went the English, swords
flashing, fire-pikes blazing, and all ranks cheering like mad. When
their two parties met each other the Spaniards were in full flight
through the Treasure Gate of Panama, which Drake banged to with a will.
The door of the Governor's Palace was then burst open, and there, in
solid gleaming bars, lay four hundred tons of purest silver, enough to
sink the _Pasha_ and the _Swan_ and all Drake's boats besides. But
Drake would not touch a single bar. It was only diamonds, pearls, and
gold that he had room for now; so he made for the King's great Treasure
House itself. But a deluge of rain came on. The fire-pikes and
arquebusses had to be taken under cover. The immensely strong Treasure
House defied every effort to break it in. The Spaniards, finding how
very few the English were, came on to the attack. Drake was wounded,
so th