ks were cleared by a shower of arrows, with one of which he was
himself wounded. In a few minutes more he was a prisoner, and his ship
and all that it contained was in the hands of the English. The wreck
was cut away, the ship cleared, and her head turned to the sea; by
daybreak even the line of the Andes had become invisible, and at
leisure, in the open ocean, the work of rifling began. The full value of
the plunder taken in this ship was never actually confessed. It remained
a secret between Drake and the Queen. In a schedule afterwards
published, he acknowledged to have found in the Cacafuego alone
twenty-six tons of silver bullion, thirteen chests of coined silver, and
almost a hundredweight of gold. But this was only so much as the
Spaniards could prove to have been on board.

Drake imagined, like most other English seamen, that there was a passage
to the north corresponding to Magellan's Strait, of which Frobisher
conceived that he had found the eastern entrance. He went on therefore
at his leisure towards the coast of Mexico, intending to follow the
shore till he found it. Another ship coming from China crossed him on
his way loaded with silks and porcelain. He took the best of the freight
with a golden falcon and a superb emerald. Then needing fresh water he
touched at the Spanish settlement of Guatulco.

The work of plunder was nearly over. Again sailing north, the Pelican
fell in with a Spanish nobleman who was going out as Governor to the
Philippines. He was detained a few hours and relieved of his finery, and
then, says one of the party: "Our general, thinking himself both in
respect of his private injuries received from the Spaniards, as also
their contempt and indignities offered to our country and prince in
general, sufficiently satisfied and revenged, and supposing her Majesty
would rest contented with this service, began to consider the best way
for his country."

The first necessity was a complete repair of the Pelican's hull. Before
the days of copper sheathing, the ships' bottoms grew foul with weed;
the great barnacles formed in clusters and stopped their speed, and the
sea-worms bored holes into the planking. Twenty thousand miles of
unknown water lay between Drake and Plymouth Sound, and he was not a man
to run idle risks. Running on till he had left the furthest Spanish
station far to the south, he put into the Bay of Canoa in Lower
California. There he laid his ship on shore, set up forge and