the enemy ; and while they fired in the darkness, Carleill
advanced along the lowest ground, close to the water's edge,
where the tide, too, had somewhat fallen. He had ordered
his men not to fire till they should come to the wall-side ; so,
" with pikes roundly together," they approached, and finding

* Hakluyt, 541.



300 ENGLISH SEAMEN

the barricade of barrels, strongly as it was manned, the best
place where to make their assault, they assailed it. " Down
went the butts of earth, and pell-mell came our swords and
pikes together, after our shot had given their first volley, even
at the enemy's nose." The English pikes were somewhat
longer than theirs, and the English were also better armed, for
very few of the Spaniards wore any defensive armour : this
want, and the disadvantage of their pikes, was felt when it
came thus to the push. Their standard-bearer, fighting man-
fully to the last, fell by Carleill's hands : they gave way ; and
the assailants, giving them no time to breathe, followed them
into the town. At every street's end they had raised bar-
ricadoes of earth-work, with trenches in front, which were
better made than defended ; the little resistance which they
attempted there being soon overcome, with trifling loss.
They had stationed many Indian archers " in corners of ad-
vantage, with their arrows most villainously empoisoned ; so
that if they did but break the skin, the party so touched,
unless it were by great marvel, died ". Some were likewise
" mischieved to death by small sticks, sharply pointed, of a
foot and a half long, fixed in the ground, with the points
poisoned, right in the way from the place where they landed
toward the town ; but by keeping the shore, the invaders
escaped the greater part of these ". The chief commander
of the Spaniards was wounded and taken by Captain Goring ;
and when the English had established themselves in the
market-place no farther opposition was attempted, the
Spaniards retiring into the interior, whither they had previ-
ously removed their families and their treasure. They had
been warned of their danger twenty days before, and had
employed the time diligently in preparing both for defence
and for the consequences of defeat. *

Having taken the city, the adventurers pursued the same
course as at St. Domingo ; and though, " upon discontent-

* Hakluyt, 542, 545.



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 301

ments, and for want of agreeing in the first negotiations for
a ransom, they touched the town in its outparts, and con-
sumed much with fire/' yet some of the humanities of war
were observed here. " There passed divers courtesies/' says
Gates, " between us and the Spaniards, as feasting and using
them with all kindness and favour " ; so that the governor
and the bishop, and divers other gentlemen of the better sort,
came to visit the general. One day the sentinel on the
church tower descried two small barques standing in for the
harbour ; upon which Captains Moon and Varney embarked,
with a party of sailors, in two pinnaces, thinking to take
them before they came so near the shore as to be apprised,
by signals, that the town was in possession of an enemy.
The alarm, however, was given in time ; the barques ran
ashore ; the men hid themselves among the bushes, where
they were presently joined by those who had made signals to
them, and from thence fired upon the English, who, without
any regard of danger, had boarded the vessels, and were
" standing all open in them ". Varney was killed by this
discharge, and some five or six others mortally wounded,
Captain Moon among them, who was the same person that
struck the first blow at a Spaniard in the South Sea.*

This was the only loss which the English sustained from
the enemy while they occupied Carthagena ; but the disease
which they had brought with them from the Cape de Verds
still continued ; and, though its ravages were not so great as
at the first, it reduced their numbers, and, in a still greater
degree, their strength ; few or none of those who escaped
with life remaining fit for service, t In consequence of this

* Hakluyt, 544.

t " Yea, many of them were much decayed in their memory ; insomuch
that it was common, when one was heard to speak foolishly, to say he had
been sick of the calenture. The original cause thereof is imputed to the
evening, or first night air, which they term la serena ; wherein they say,
and hold very firm opinion, that whoso is then abroad in the open air shall



302 ENGLISH SEAMEN

mortality, Drake consulted his land captains what course they
thought most expedient now to be undertaken. The first
question proposed to them was touching the keeping of the
town against the present force of the enemy, or that which
might come out from Spain. Upon this their opinion was,
that, though they had not above 700 men who could answer
present service, the residue (some 150) being altogether un-
able to stand them in any stead ; yet, being victualled and
munitioned, they might well keep the town. But it was for
the sea captains, they said, to give their resolution how they
would undertake the safety and service of the ships upon the
arrival of any Spanish fleet.

The second point was, " whether it were meet to go
presently homeward, or make farther trial of their fortune,
thereby to seek after that bountiful mass of treasure, for
recompense of their travails, which was generally expected
at their coming forth from England ". To this they replied,
" that it was well known how they, both officers and soldiers,
had entered into this action as voluntary men, without any
imprest or gage from her majesty, or anybody else ; and
that, hitherto, they had discharged the parts of honest men ;
for, by the great blessing and favour of their good God, they
had taken three notable towns, wherein all men thought
very great treasures would have been found : for Santiago
was the chief city of all the islands and traffic thereabouts ;
St. Domingo was the chief city of Hispaniola, and the head
government not only of that island, but of Cuba, and all the
islands about it, and all such inhabitations of the firm land
as were next unto it, a place, too, magnificently built, and
which entertained great trade of merchandise : lastly, this
city of Carthagena, which could not be denied to be one of
the chief places of most especial importance to the Spaniards

certainly be infected to the death, not being of the Indian or natural race
of that country. Our men were thus subjected to the infectious air "
(Hakluyt, 543).



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 303

of all on this side the West India. All these cities, with the
goods and prisoners taken in them, and the ransoms of them
all put together, were found far short to satisfy the expecta-
tions which, by the generality of the enterprisers, were first
conceived. They considered the slenderness of the strength
to which they were reduced ; as well in respect of the small
number of able bodies, as not a little in regard of the slack
disposition of the greater part of those which remained, very
many of the better minds and men being either consumed by
death or weakened by sickness and hurts. And, lastly, see-
ing that no enterprise was laid down convenient to be under-
taken with their reduced strength, and withal of such
certain likelihood as might, with God's good success, which
it might please Him to bestow, promise to yield them any
sufficient contentment, they concluded that it was better to
hold sure the honour already gotten, and return with it to
their gracious sovereign and country, from whence," said
they, "if it shall please her majesty to set us forth again,
with her orderly means and entertainment, we are most ready
and willing to go through anything that the uttermost of our
strength and endeavour shall be able to reach unto : but,
therewithal, we do advise and protest, that it is far from
our thoughts either to refuse, or so much as seem to be
weary of anything which for the present shall be farther
required or directed to be done by us from our general." *

Being thus convinced that, in all prudence, they must give
over the intended enterprise against Nombre de Dios, and
so overland to Panama, where they " should have stricken
the stroke for the treasure and full recompense of their
tedious travails," they took into consideration the third and
last point, which was touching the ransom of the city. Their
demand had been 100,000/. : an offer had been made of
27,000/. or 28,000/., and they thought it better to accept this
than to break off by standing upon the first demand, " which,"

* Hakluyt, 543, 544.



304 ENGLISH SEAMEN

said they, " seems a matter impossible for the present to be
performed by them ; and, to say truth, we may now, with
much honour and reputation, better be satisfied with that
sum offered by them at first (if they will now be contented
to give it) than we might at that time with a great deal
more, inasmuch as we have taken our full pleasure, both in
the uttermost sacking and spoiling of all their household
goods and merchandise, as also, in that we have consumed
and ruined a great part of their town with fire ". Farther,
they considered that there were in that voyage a great many
poor men who had ventured their lives, and divers of them
spent their apparel and such other little provision as their
small means enabled them to prepare ; " which being done
upon such good and allowable intention as this action carried
with it against the Spaniard, our greatest and most dangerous
enemy, so (said they) we cannot but have an inward regard
to help toward the satisfaction of this their expectation, and
by procuring them some little benefit to encourage them, and
to nourish their ready and willing disposition both in them
and in others by their example, against any other time of like
occasion. But because it may be supposed that herein we
forget not the private benefit of ourselves, and are thereby
the rather moved to incline ourselves to this composition,
we declare hereby, that what part or portion soever it be of
this ransom for Carthagena, which should come unto us, we
do freely give and bestow the same wholly upon the poor
men who have remained with us in the voyage, meaning as
well the sailor as the soldier, and wishing with all our hearts
it were such, or so much, as might seem a sufficient reward
for their painful endeavour." *

This paper was signed by Carleill as lieutenant-general,
and by all the land captains ; and conformably to their
opinion, a ransom of 110,000 ducats was accepted. Cartha-
gena, though not half the size of St. Domingo, yielded so

* Hakluyt, 544.



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 305

much larger a sum, because its harbour and its position
rendered it a most important place, and it was inhabited by
rich merchants ; whereas St. Domingo was chiefly inhabited
by lawyers and " brave gentlemen/' being the seat of that
coui't before which all appeals were brought from the islands
and from the neighbouring main. The officers had dealt
generously towards their own people in the affair of this
ransom ; but in their subsequent conduct toward the Span-
iards they cannot be held free from reproach : for after they
had received the money, and evacuated the town, they
stationed some of their soldiers in the convent of St. Fran-
cisco, which was a little way off on the harbour side, and told
the Spaniards that neither that building nor a block-house at
the mouth of the inner harbour was included in the com-
position : thus they extorted from the convent another thousand
crowns, and demanded as much more for the block-house ;
the townsmen declared that they were not able to pay them,
" having stretched themselves to the utmost of their power ;
and Drake, therefore, undermined the fort, and blew it
up ".*

They sailed from Carthagena on the last of March, and
after two or three days put back ; a great ship which they
had taken at St. Domingo, and laden with ordnance, hides,
and other spoil, having sprung so great a leak, that she was
hardly kept from foundering. Several days were spent in
distributing the cargo of this vessel among the other ships :
then they departed once more ; and on the 27th of April
reached Cape St. Antonio, the westernmost part of Cuba.
Failing to find fresh water there, they made for Matanzas,
which is to the east of the Havannah. But in the course of
a fortnight, through lack of favourable weather, they were
brought again to Cape St. Antonio. By this time their want
of water was such, that they made more careful search, and
found in sufficient quantity what they supposed to be rain water

* Hakluyt, 545.
20



306 ENGLISH SEAMEN

newly fallen and collected in pits made in marshy ground, some
300 paces from the shore. " Here/' says Gates, " 1 do wrong
if I should forget the good example of the general, who, to
encourage others, and to hasten the getting water aboard,
took no less pains himself than the meanest. Throughout
the expedition, indeed, he had everywhere shown so vigilant
a care and foresight in the good ordering of his fleet, ac-
companied with such wonderful travail of body, that, doubt-
less, had he been the meanest person, as he was the chiefest,
he had deserved the first place of honour. And no less
happy do we account him for being associated with Master
Carleill his lieutenant-general, by whose experience, prudent
counsel, and gallant performance, he achieved so many and
happy enterprises, and by whom also he was very greatly
assisted in setting down the needful orders, laws, and course
of justice, and the due administration of the same upon all
occasions." No difference of any kind, indeed, seems to have
occurred between Drake and any of his officers during this
expedition. From thence they made for the coast of Florida,
not touching anywhere, but keeping the shore in sight, till
on 28th of May they descried a scaffold raised upon four high
masts, for a lookout to the seaward. Upon this Drake
manned the pinnaces and landed, " to see what place the
enemy held there, no one in the armament having any know-
ledge of it". *

Having marched about a mile up the river St. Augustine,
they saw the Fort of San Juan de Pinos on the opposite side,
newly erected by the Spaniards, and not yet completed.
Carleill would fain have crossed with four companies, and in-
trenched himself so near the fort as to play upon it with his
muskets, till a battery could be planted ; but, because the
sailors were not at hand to make trenches at this time, the
intention was abandoned. Not to be inactive, however, he
crossed during the night with a few chosen men in a small

* Hakluyt, 546,



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 307

skiff, to espy what guard the enemy kept, and to explore the
ground. Though he did this as covertly as might be, the
Spaniards took the alarm ; and supposing that the whole
force was approaching to the assault fired off some of their
pieces, and then with all speed abandoned the work, and
made the best of their way to the city (so called) of St.
Augustine, where there was a garrison of 1.50 men. Carleill
returned, knowing nothing of their flight. He was presently
followed by a French fifer, who, having been prisoner in the
fort, gladly seized the opportunity to escape, and came over
the river in a small boat, playing " the tune of the Prince of
Orange's song ". When the guard called out to him, he told
them who he was and what had happened, and offered either
to remain in the hands of the English, or return to the fort
with those who chose to believe him and go thither. There
was no reason to doubt his tale : both Drake and Carleill
crossed forthwith with as many boats as were at hand, leaving
orders for the rest to follow. A few Spaniards, " bolder than
the rest," had remained after their companions, and fired two
guns at them ; but on shore the English went, and entered
the place without finding any man there. When the day
appeared, they saw that it was built entirely of timber, " the
walls being none other than whole masts or bodies of trees
set upright, and close together in manner of a pale ". " The
ditch had not yet been made, nor was the work in other
respects finished ; so as to say the truth, the Spaniards had
no reason to keep it, being subject both to fire and easy assault.
There were fourteen great pieces of brass ordnance planted
on a platform, which was constructed of large pine trees, laid
across, one on another, and some little earth between. The
garrison, who were 150 in number, had retired in such haste,
that they left behind them the treasure chest containing
about 2000/." *

* Hakluyt. Gabriel de Cardenas, Ensaio Chronologico a la Historia
de Florida, 161, 162.



.108 ENGLISH SEAMEN

Drake, no doubt, felt some satisfaction when he learnt
from the Frenchman that the Governor of Florida, at this
time, was D. Pedro Menendez, Marquez de Aviles, nephew
of that Menendez whom he erroneously supposed to have
been the general of the fleet by which Hawkins had been so
treacherously attacked at St. Juan de Ulloa, and from which
he had at that time himself so narrowly escaped. An oppor-
tunity for taking vengeance upon one nearly related to the
imagined offender seemed now to be afforded him ; and he
would, without delay, have marched to attack the adelantado
in his capital, the city of St. Augustine, if the march had
been practicable ; but, by reason of rivers and broken ground
between the two places, it was necessary again to embark in
the pinnaces and ascend the great river. When they landed,
as it appears not far from the city, some of the Spaniards
showed themselves, fired a few shot, and presently withdrew.
They were pursued, and the sergeant-major, Anthony Powell,
leaping upon one of their horses which they had left, ad-
vanced rashly beyond his company in pursuit, over ground
which was overgrown with a species of high grass : seeing
this, a Spaniard laid wait for him, and shot him through the
head ; and before any could come to his rescue his body had
been pierced with many wounds, as if in insult and hatred. He
was much lamented, " being in very deed an honest, wise
gentleman, and a soldier of good experience, and of as great
courage as any man might be ". This was the only loss that
the English experienced in their descent. The adelantado
had prudently withdrawn in time to collect the whole of his
forces at St. Matheo, and the city was left without a single
inhabitant. It is described as being then a prosperous settle-
ment, with its council-house, church, and other edifices and
gardens all round about, all which were burnt and laid waste
by the invaders in vengeance. *

* Hakluyt, 547. Cardenas, 162.



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 309

About twelve leagues to the north, the Spaniards had
another settlement called St. Helena, with a garrison of equal
force, maintained " for no other purpose than to keep all
other nations from inhabiting any part of all that coast," a
purpose deemed as important by them as it was judged to be
arrogant and unreasonable by the English. It was resolved,
" in full assembly of captains," to attack this place also, and
from thence proceed in search of Raleigh's recently planted
colony in Virginia. But when they came opposite St. Helena,
the shoals were found too dangerous for them to attempt an
entrance without a pilot, and under unfavourable circum-
stances of wind and weather. Abandoning, therefore, this
design, they kept coasting on till, on 9th of June, " upon
sight of one special great fire," Drake sent his skiff to shore,
and found, as he had hoped, some of his countrymen there,
by whose direction he reached the place which they made
their port, and wrote from thence to their governor, Master
Ralph Lane, who was then in his fort at Roanoak. On the
morrow, Lane came with some of his company ; and Drake,
understanding the state of their affairs, liberally proposed,
with the consent of his captains, to leave them a ship, a
pinnace, boats, men, and a month's provision, for prosecuting
their discovery of the country and coasts, and as much more
provision as might suffice for their voyage home, if, at the
month's end, they thought good to return ; or, if they were
satisfied that they had already sufficiently explored the land,
he offered them all a passage, being 103 persons. They
thankfully accepted the first of these proposals, and a ship
was delivered to them ; but, before the provisions could be
put on board, a storm came, to the great danger of the whole
fleet, while some of the ships being of too great draught to
enter the harbour, were at anchor in a wild road, about two
miles from shore. Many cables parted, many anchors were
lost ; and some vessels, which had lost all, were driven out
to sea, and never again joined company till they met in



310 ENGLISH SEAMEN

England : that which should have been left with the colony
was one. Drake, notwithstanding the loss which had been
thus sustained, offered them another ship, but one which,
being considerably larger, was not so well suited to their
purposes. For this reason, and because no small part of his
stores, and some of the persons on whose services most re-
liance had been placed, were in the ship of which he had
been thus deprived, Lane, and those with whom he advised,
thought the only course that remained for them was to accept
the proffered passage, as a providential deliverance, " by the
very hand of God, as it seemed, stretched out to take them
thence ". They were taken on board ; and, after a passage
of thirty days, the fleet in good safety arrived at Portsmouth. *
The booty obtained in this expedition was valued at 60,000/.,
" whereof the companies which travelled in the voyage were
to have 20,000/., the adventurers the other forty ; and of the
20,000/. it was computed that some six pounds would come
to a single share " : 240 pieces of artillery, the far greater
number brass, were part of the spoil. The loss of men in the
voyage amounted to about 750, three parts of them by sick-
ness. It is said that tobacco was first f brought into England
by the men who returned from Virginia with Drake at this
time. The expedition was more creditable to the resolution
with which it was conducted than to the councils wherein it
was concerted. Little hurt was done to the King of Spain,
who was rather awakened than weakened by it, but great
and cruel injury was inflicted upon individuals : they were
thereby made to hate the English, not as heretics only, but

* Hakluyt, 264, 548.

t Camden, 324. " Certainly," he says, " from that time forward it be-
gan to grow into great request, and to be sold at a high rate ; whilst, in
a short time, many men everywhere, some for wantonness, some for
health's sake, with insatiable desire and greediness, sucked in the stink-
ing smoke thereof through an earthen pipe, which presently they blew
out again at their nostrils ; insomuch as tobacco shops are now as ordin-
ary in most towns as tap-houses and taverns."



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 311

as a people who were the vikingar of the age ; and the
Spanish government received a lesson which taught it the
necessity of fortifying its distant ports, and increasing its
maritime strength. * Drake, however, suffered no loss of

* Monson says : " The fleet was the greatest of any nation, except the
Spaniards, that had ever been seen in those seas since the first discovery
of them; and if the action had been as well considered of before their
going from home, as it was happily performed by the valour of the under-
takers, it had more annoyed the King of Spain than all other actions that
ensued during the war " (p. 155). In his opinion, the queen had then " a
notable opportunity to annoy and weaken the Spaniards by keeping the three
towns which had been taken : she was rich in those days, and her sub-
jects no less able than willing to contribute to what she proposed, they
were so much devoted to her in their hearts " ; she might have bound the
States of Holland to any conditions she pleased against the Spaniards
at that time ; whereas, from that time till her death, " notwithstanding
%ve were drawn into the war by them, yet they traded peaceably into the
King of Spain's dominions, and never offered to annoy the Spaniards by
any act oi hostility at sea, but supplied them with ships and intelligence
against us ". He thought, also, that, in point both of reputation and
profit, the places ought to have been maintained, as a motive and mean
for prosecuting the victories thus begun (p. 240).

Monson was mistaken, both in his opinion and on the grounds upon
which he founded it. At no time during her reign was Elizabeth rich.