ing incident is mentioned which is authentic. The Cimarons took
him through the forest to the watershed from which the streams flow to
both oceans. Nothing could be seen through the jungle of undergrowth;
but Drake climbed a tall tree, saw from the top of it the Pacific
glittering below him, and made a vow that one day he would himself sail
a ship in those waters.

For the present he had immediate work on hand. His guides kept their
word. They led him to the track from Panama, and he had not long to wait
before the tinkling was heard of the mule bells as they were coming up
the pass. There was no suspicion of danger, not the faintest. The mule
train had but its ordinary guard, who fled at the first surprise. The
immense booty fell all into Drake's hands--gold, jewels, silver
bars--and got with much ease, as Prince Hal said at Gadshill. The silver
they buried, as too heavy for transport. The gold, pearls, rubies,
emeralds, and diamonds they carried down straight to their ship. The
voyage home went prosperously. The spoils were shared among the
adventurers, and they had no reason to complain. They were wise enough
to hold their tongues, and Drake was in a condition to look about him
and prepare for bigger enterprises.

Rumours got abroad, spite of reticence. Imagination was high in flight
just then; rash amateurs thought they could make their fortunes in the
same way, and tried it, to their sorrow. A sort of inflation can be
traced in English sailors' minds as their work expanded. Even
Hawkins--the clear, practical Hawkins--was infected. This was not in
Drake's line. He kept to prose and fact. He studied the globe. He
examined all the charts that he could get. He became known to the Privy
Council and the Queen, and prepared for an enterprise which would make
his name and frighten Philip in earnest.

The ships which the Spaniards used on the Pacific were usually built on
the spot. But Magellan was known to have gone by the Horn, and where a
Portuguese could go an Englishman could go. Drake proposed to try. There
was a party in Elizabeth's Council against these adventures, and in
favour of peace with Spain; but Elizabeth herself was always for
enterprises of pith and moment. She was willing to help, and others of
her Council were willing too, provided their names were not to appear.
The responsibility was to be Drake's own. Again the vessels in which he
was preparing to tempt fortune seem preposterously small. The _Pelica