at he had to be carried off the field. And the whole attack ended
in failure, and dead loss.

The game seemed up. Rance and his men withdrew, and Drake was left
with less than fifty. But he was determined to be revenged on Spain
for the treachery to Hawkins at Ulua (the modern Vera Cruz); and
equally determined to get some Spanish treasure. So, keeping out of
sight for the next five months, till the rainy season was over and the
next treasure train was ready, he went wide of Nombre de Dios and made
for Panama (the Pacific end of the trail across the Isthmus). He had
nineteen picked Englishmen and thirty-one Maroons, who, being the
offspring of Negro slaves and Indians, hated Spaniards like poison and
knew the country to a foot.

On the 7th of February, 1573, from the top of a gigantic tree that
stood on the Divide, Drake first saw the Pacific. Vowing to sail an
English ship across the great South Sea he pushed on eagerly. Three
days later his fifty men were lying in wait for the mule train bringing
gold from Panama. All had their shirts on over their coats, so as to
know one another in the night attack. Presently the tinkle of mule
bells told of the Spanish approach. When the whole line of mules had
walked into his trap Drake's whistle blew one long shrill blast and his
men set on with glee. Their two years of toil and failure seemed to
have come to an end: for they easily mastered the train. But then, to
their intense disgust, they found that the Spaniards had fooled them by
sending the silver train this way and the gold one somewhere else.

Without losing a moment Drake marched back to the Atlantic, where he
met Tetu, a very gallant Frenchman, who, with his own seventy men,
gladly joined company; for Spain hated to see the French there quite as
much as she hated to see the English. The new friends then struck
inland to a lonely spot which another Spanish train of gold and jewels
had to pass on its way to Nombre de Dios. This time there was no
mistake. When Drake's whistle blew, and the leading mules were
stopped, the others lay down, as mule trains will. Then the guard was
quickly killed or put to flight, and all the gold and jewels were
safely seized and carried to the coast. Here again disaster stared
Drake in the face; for all his boats were gone, and not one of the men
left with them was in sight. But once more Drake got through, this
time by setting up an empty biscuit bag as a sail on a raft