daloupe and Dominica, and, on July 6th, saw the highland of Santa
Martha; then continuing their course, after having been becalmed for
some time, they arrived at port Pheasant, so named by Drake, in a
former voyage to the east of Nombre de Dios. Here he proposed to build
his pinnaces, which he had brought in pieces ready framed from
Plymouth, and was going ashore, with a few men unarmed, but,
discovering a smoke at a distance, ordered the other boat to follow
him with a greater force.

Then marching towards the fire, which was in the top of a high tree,
he found a plate of lead nailed to another tree, with an inscription
engraved upon it by one Garret, an Englishman, who had left that place
but five days before, and had taken this method of informing him, that
the Spaniards had been advertised of his intention to anchor at that
place, and that it, therefore, would be prudent to make a very short
stay there.

But Drake, knowing how convenient this place was for his designs, and
considering that the hazard and waste of time, which could not be
avoided, in seeking another station, was equivalent to any other
danger which was to be apprehended from the Spaniards, determined to
follow his first resolution; only, for his greater security, he
ordered a kind of palisade, or fortification, to be made, by felling
large trees, and laying the trunks and branches, one upon another, by
the side of the river.

On July 20th, having built their pinnaces, and being joined by one
captain Rause, who happened to touch at the same place, with a bark of
fifty men, they set sail towards Nombre de Dios, and, taking two
frigates at the island of Pines, were informed by the negroes, which
they found in them, that the inhabitants of that place were in
expectation of some soldiers, which the governour of Panama had
promised, to defend them from the Symerons, or fugitive negroes, who,
having escaped from the tyranny of their masters, in great numbers,
had settled themselves under two kings, or leaders, on each side of
the way between Nombre de Dios and Panama, and not only asserted their
natural right to liberty and independence, but endeavoured to revenge
the cruelties they had suffered, and had lately put the inhabitants of
Nombre de Dios into the utmost consternation.

These negroes the captain set on shore on the mainland, so that they
might, by joining the Symerons, recover their liberty, or, at least,
might not have it in their power to g