came off to trade; and
Drake, as usual, made friends with them at once. He had already been
attacked by other Indians on both coasts. But this was because the
unknown English had been mistaken for the hated Spaniards.

As he neared Lima, Drake quickened his pace lest the great annual
treasure ship of 1579 should get wind of what was wrong. A minor
treasure ship was found to have been cleared of all her silver just in
time to balk him. So he set every stitch of canvas she possessed and
left her driving out to sea with two other empty prizes. Then he stole
into Lima after dark and came to anchor surrounded by Spanish vessels
not one of which had set a watch. They were found nearly empty. But a
ship from Panama looked promising; so the pinnace started after her, but
was fired on and an Englishman was killed. Drake then followed her,
after cutting every cable in the harbor, which soon became a pandemonium
of vessels gone adrift. The Panama ship had nothing of great value
except her news, which was that the great treasure ship _Nuestra Senora
de la Concepcion_, 'the chiefest glory of the whole South Sea,' was on
her way to Panama.

She had a very long start; and, as ill luck would have it, Drake got
becalmed outside Callao, where the bells rang out in wild alarm. The
news had spread inland and the Viceroy of Peru came hurrying down with
all the troops that he could muster. Finding from some arrows that the
strangers were Englishmen, he put four hundred soldiers into the only
two vessels that had escaped the general wreck produced by Drake's
cutting of the cables. When Drake saw the two pursuing craft, he took
back his prize crew from the Panama vessel, into which he put his
prisoners. Meanwhile a breeze sprang up and he soon drew far ahead. The
Spanish soldiers overhauled the Panama prize and gladly gave up the
pursuit. They had no guns of any size with which to; fight the _Golden
Hind_, and most of them were so sea-sick from the heaving ground-swell
that they couldn't have boarded her in any case.

Three more prizes were then taken by the swift _Golden Hind_. Each one
had news which showed that Drake was closing on the chase. Another week
passed with every stitch of canvas set. A fourth prize, taken off Cape
San Francisco, said that the treasure ship was only one day ahead. But
she was getting near to Panama; so every nerve was strained anew.
Presently Jack Drake, the Captain's page, yelled out _Sail-ho!_ and
scrambled d