178 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS his goodness to give him life and leave to sayle once in an English ship in that sea." We quote from a tract entitled " Sir Francis Drake Revived," written by some of Drake's companions, corrected, it is said, by himself, and published by his nephew in 1626, which contains a full and interesting account of this adven- turous expedition. Drake's present object was to intercept a convoy of treasure on the way from Panama to Nombre de Dios. By this route the treasures of Peru and Chili, as well as Mexico, were brought to Europe, for the passage round Cape Horn was then unknown, and no ship but Magellan's had yet accomplished the passage round the world to Europe. Guided by the Symerons, the English approached Panama, learned that a valuable treasure was expected to pass, and beset the lonely forest road which it had to travel. But the haste of one drunken man gave a premature alarm, in consequence of which the march of the caravan was stopped ; and Drake with his party, their golden hopes being thus defeated, forced their way through Venta Cruz, and returned by a shorter route to their encampment, after a toilsome and fruitless journey of three weeks. It was not till April ist, that the long-desired opportunity presented itself, on which day they took a caravan of mules laden with silver and a small quantity of gold. They carried off part of the spoil, and buried about fifteen tons of silver ; but on re- turning for it, they found that it had been recovered by the Spaniards. Drake returned to England, August 9, 1573. In dividing the treasure he showed the strictest honor, and even generosity ; yet his share was large enough to pay for fitting out three ships, with yhich he served as a volunteer in Ireland, under the Earl of Essex, and " did excellent service both by sea and land in the winning of divers strong forts." In 1577, he obtained a commission from Queen Elizabeth to conduct a squadron into the South Seas. What was the purport of the commission we do not find ; it appears from subsequent passages that it gave to Drake the power of life and death over his followers ; but it would seem from the queen's hesitation in approving his proceedings, that it was not intended to authorize (at least formally) his depradations on Spanish prop- erty. With five ships, the largest the Pelican, of one hundred tons burden, the smallest a pinnace of fifteen tons, manned in all with only 164 men, Drake sailed from Plymouth, November 15, 1577, to visit seas where no English vessel had ever sailed. Without serious loss, or adventure worthy of notice, the fleet arrived at Port St. Julian, on the coast of Patagonia, June 20, 1578. Here the discoverer Magellan had tried and executed his second in command on the charge of mutiny, and the same spot did Drake select to perform a similar trag- edy. He accused the officer next to himself, Thomas Doughty, of plots to de- feat the expedition and take his life ; plots undertaken, he said, before they had left England. " Proofs were required and alleged, so many and so evident, that the gentleman himself, stricken with remorse, acknowledged himself to have de- served death ; " and of three things presented to him, either immediate execu- tion, or to be set on shore on the main, or to be sent home to answer for his conduct, he chose the former ; and having at his own request received the sacra-
