ir mortification and perplexity, when they found only two
mules laden with silver, the rest having no other burden than
provisions.

The driver was brought immediately to the captain, and informed him
that the horseman, whom he had observed pass by with so much
precipitation, had informed the treasurer of what he had observed, and
advised him to send back the mules that carried his gold and jewels,
and suffer only the rest to proceed, that he might, by that cheap
experiment, discover whether there was any ambush on the way.

That Drake was not less disgusted than his followers at the
disappointment, cannot be doubted; but there was now no time to be
spent in complaints. The whole country was alarmed, and all the force
of the Spaniards was summoned to overwhelm him. He had no fortress to
retire to; every man was his enemy; and every retreat better known to
the Spaniards than to himself.

This was an occasion that demanded all the qualities of an hero, an
intrepidity never to be shaken, and a judgment never to be perplexed.
He immediately considered all the circumstances of his present
situation, and found that it afforded him only the choice of marching
back the same way through which he came, or of forcing his passage to
Venta Cruz.

To march back, was to confess the superiority of his enemies, and to
animate them to the pursuit; the woods would afford opportunities of
ambush, and his followers must often disperse themselves in search of
provisions, who would become an easy prey, dispirited by their
disappointment, and fatigued by their march. On the way to Venta Cruz,
he should have nothing to fear but from open attacks, and expected
enemies.

Determining, therefore, to pass forward to Venta Cruz, he asked Pedro,
the leader of the Symerons, whether he was resolved to follow him;
and, having received from him the strongest assurances that nothing
should separate them, commanded his men to refresh themselves, and
prepare to set forward.

When they came within a mile of the town, they dismissed the mules,
which they had made use of for their more easy and speedy passage, and
continued their march along a road cut through thick woods, in which a
company of soldiers, who were quartered in the place to defend it
against the Symerons, had posted themselves, together with a convent
of friars headed by one of their brethren, whose zeal against the
northern heresy had incited him to hazard his person, and assume the
pro