ind in the woods with two
of his men, "in hope that some rest would recover his better strength."
Ere long another Frenchman was missed, and investigation discovered
that he had "drunk much wine," and doubtless desired to sleep it off.

Reaching Rio Francisco, Drake was dismayed to find his pinnaces gone,
and his party stranded. The vessels were recovered after delay and
perilous adventure, whereupon Drake hastened to prepare another
expedition "to get intelligence in what case the country stood, and if
might be, recover Monsieur Tetu, the French captain, and leastwise
bring away the buried silver." The party was just about to start
inland when on the beach appeared one of the two men who had stayed
behind with the French captain. At sight of Drake he "fell down on his
knees, blessing God for the time that ever our Captain was born, who
now beyond all his hope, was become his deliverer."

He related that soon after they had been left behind in the forest, the
Spaniards had captured Captain Tetu and the other man. He himself had
escaped by throwing down his treasure and taking to his heels.
Concerning the buried silver, he had lamentable tidings to impart. The
Spanish had got wind of it, and he "thought there had been near two
thousand Spaniards and Negroes there to dig and search for it."
However, the expedition pushed forward, and the news was confirmed.
"The earth every way a mile distant had been digged and turned up in
every place of any likelihood to have anything hidden in it." It was
learned that the general location of the silver had been divulged to
the Spaniards by that rascally Frenchman who had got drunk and deserted
during the march to the coast. He had been caught while asleep, and
the soldiers from Nombre-de-Dios tortured him until he told all that he
knew about the treasure.

The Englishmen poked around and quickly found "thirteen bars of silver
and some few quoits of gold," with which they posted back to Rio
Francisco, not daring to linger in the neighborhood of an overwhelming
force of the enemy. It was their belief that the Spanish recovered by
no means all of those precious tons of silver bullion, and Drake made
sail very reluctantly. It may well be that a handsome hoard still
awaits the search of some modern argonauts, or that the steam shovels
of the workmen of the Panama canal may sometime swing aloft a burden of
"bars of silver and quoits of gold" in their mighty buckets. Certain
it