Spaniards, he ordered his men to fire upon them after some
friendly intercourse had previously taken place ; and in this
unprovoked attack many were killed. He entered the South
Sea on the 24th of February, with a favourable wind ; and in
the middle of March a party landed on the Isle of Mocha,
near the coast of Chili, "where the Indians attacked them
with bows and arrows, but were marvellous wary of the
calivers ". The English supposed these to be Araucans,
whose heroic efforts in defence of their country the Spaniards
themselves had rendered famous ; recording at the same time
the magnanimity of their enemies and their own atrocious
cruelty. Cavendish landed next on the Island of St. Maria
with seventy men, where they were mistaken for Spaniards,
submissively received, and "plentifully supplied with wheat
and barley ready threshed, as fair, as clean, and every way as
good as any in England ; and with potato roots very good to
eat," all stored in vessels, and lodged in storehouses, as tribute
for the Spaniards, who had erected a church there. In addi-
tion to these welcome supplies, the Indians brought them
hogs, fowls, maize, and dried dog fish ; and Cavendish, in
return, entertained some of the chief people on board, and
made them merry with wine.*
Missing Valparaiso, where he meant to have stopped,
Cavendish anchored about seven leagues N. of that port, in
Puerto de Quintero. A herdsman who was sleeping on the
brow of the hill at this time awoke ; and seeing three ships,
was observed to catch a horse that was grazing near, and to
ride away as fast as he could. The general landed with
thirty men: before he had been an hour on shore, three
horsemen came galloping toward them sword in hand ; but
stopped short at respectful distance. He sent two of his
people with Hernandez toward them : they made signs that
* Hakluyt, 808.
THOMAS CAVENDISH 373
only one should approach, and without arms. Hernandez
went ; and after much talk returned, telling Cavendish that
he had parleyed with them concerning provisions, and had
been promised as much as might be wanted. He was sent
back to complete the negotiation, and a man with him ; but,
as before, the Spaniards made signs that they would not hold
parley with two persons ; Hemandez was again trusted ; and
being at some distance from the English, after a few words
he leaped up behind one of his countrymen, and rode off;
" for all his deep and damnable oaths which he had made,"
says Pretty, " continually to our general and all his company,
never to forsake him, but to die on his side before he would
be false. Our general, seeing how he was dealt withal,
filled water all that day with good watch, and carried it
aboard ; and night being come, he determined next day to
send into the country to find their town, and take the spoil
of it, and fire it if it could be found." In this he failed; the
party which was ordered upon the service discovering nothing
but great store of cattle which were " wonderful wild, and of
horse which were unhandled," and of dogs as wild as the
cattle, on which they fed. They returned after a whole day's
march, without loss, though without success in their search
for the town. But on the morrow, as they were carelessly
watering about a quarter of a mile from the shore, a strong
party of horsemen, who had been too cautious to attack them
when they were on their guard the preceding day, surprised
them, and twelve * of the English were cut off ; of these
* Pretty states the loss at twelve, and gives the names of all and of
the ships to which they belonged. He says the prisoners were rescued,
and that some twenty-four Spaniards were killed in the skirmish, which
continued an hour. Hernandez says no Spaniard was hurt, twelve
English were killed, and nine taken ; and he mentions the execution of
six of these ; the others, perhaps, called themselves Roman Catholics.
Admiral Burney thinks this may have been an act of vengeance for the
Spaniards in the strait, whom Cavendish, when he might so easily have
374 ENGLISH SEAMEN
three appear to have been slain, and six of the prisoners
were hanged at Santiago.
After this loss Cavendish remained in the road four days,
and watered in despite of the Spaniards, with good watch and
ward. On the 23rd he took a small barque coming out from
Arica, which he kept, and named the George. The crew
took to their boat, and were pursued by the admiral's pinnace
into Arica road : they got ashore, and the pinnace laid aboard
a great ship of 100 tons, in which, however, neither men nor
goods were found. The admiral and the Hugh Gallant fol-
lowed into the road, but the Content was out of sight, other-
wise Cavendish " would resolutely have landed to take the
town, whatsoever had come of it ". The Content had been
more pleasantly employed than in attacking a town which
was likely to be well defended : she had found at a place
where some Spaniards had landed a whole ship's lading of
Spanish wine, and tarried to take on board as much as she
could conveniently carry, then in the course of the same day
joined the squadron. By that time Cavendish perceived that
Arica was well prepared for defence, found reason for believ-
ing that the treasure had been carried away and secured
upon the alarm of his approach, and saw that there was no
landing without the loss of many men ; " wherefore he gave
over that enterprise ". However, he fetched out another
barque, in spite of their forts, and then sent a flag of truce to
ask if they would redeem their ship. He did this in hope
that he might recover some of his men who had been
captured, otherwise he would have made no offer of parley ;
but their answer was that they had received special orders
neither to buy any ship nor ransom any man on pain of
saved them, had left to perish there. There could be no plea for putting
them to death as pirates, because Spain and England were then at open
war. But the law of nations was as little regarded by the one people
as the other, when there happened to be both inclination and opportunity
to violate it.
THOMAS CAVENDISH 375
death : upon this he burnt the ship, sunk the barque, and so
departed, having been three days in the road. *
On the 27th they took a small barque sent from a place
near Quintero, where Cavendish had lost his men, with de-
spatches concerning him to Lima. There were on board three
Spaniards, an old Fleming, and one George a Greek, who was
" a reasonable pilot for all the coast of Chili ". In obedience
to their orders, and to an oath which had been administered
to them by some friars before they set sail, these men, as
soon as they saw themselves in danger, threw the despatches
overboard ; but Cavendish " wrought so with them/' that
they confessed their errand : " But he was fain," says his
journalist, "to cause them to be tormented with their thumbs
in a winch, and to continue them at several times with
extreme pain. Also he made the old Fleming believe that
he would hang him ; and the rope being about his neck, he
was pulled up a little from the hatches ; and yet he would
not confess, choosing rather to die than be perjured. In the
end it was confessed by one of the Spaniards ; whereupon
we burnt the barque, and carried the men with us." This
cruelty was a work of supererogation, for which there was
no such pretext as in those days was thought to justify such
actions. After plundering two little settlements, the ships
were all separated for awhile, during which time the Hugh
Gallant, with sixteen hands, captured, after half an hour's
fight, a ship of 300 tons with a crew of twenty-four men.
They took from her her foresails, and left her, " seven
leagues from land, very leaky and ready to sink " : it is to
be hoped the men were taken out. On the 17th of May the
fleet was again collected ; two other prizes meantime had
been captured, of which one " would have been worth
20,000/. in England, or in any other place of Christendom,
where it might have been sold ". They took out as much as
* Hakluyt, 809, 810. Burney, 82.
376 ENGLISH SEAMEN
they could stow, and burnt the rest with the ship. The men
and women, " who were not killed," were set on shore. *
The next enterprise was at Paita. Cavendish anchored
in the road, landed with sixty or seventy men, and drove the
inhabitants out of the town, " which was very well built, and
marvellous clean kept in every street, with a town-house in
the midst, and to the number of 200 houses at the least ".
This flourishing place he burnt to the ground, he and his
people deriving no other advantage from this exploit than
twenty-five pounds' weight of silver among them, and the
satisfaction of reflecting upon the mischief they had clone.
Thence they went to the Island of Puna, where most of the
cables used in the South Sea were made : there they sunk a
ship " with all her furniture/' which was lying ready to be
hauled ashore, being in " a special good place for that pur-
pose ". It was learnt from an Indian, whom they took at
sea, that the lord of the island, with most of the inhabitants,
had fled to the mainland, seeing his fleet, when (luckily for
them) it was becalmed ; and that they had taken with them
treasure to the amount of 100,000 crowns. This lord was an
Indian cacique, who, " by reason of his pleasant habitation,
and of his great wealth, had got a beautiful Spanish woman
for his wife ". His " sumptuous house," which stood by the
water-side, was " marvellous well contrived, with very many
singular good rooms and chambers ; and out of every chamber
was framed a gallery, with a stately prospect to the sea on
one side, and into the island on the other, with a marvellous
great hall below, and a very great storehouse at one end,
filled with jars of pitch, and bass for making cables. On one
side was a fair garden, in which were fig trees, that bore
continually, pompions, melons, cucumbers, radishes, rosemary,
and thyme, with many other herbs and fruits. There was a
well in this garden, and a cotton plantation round it. On
* Hakluyt, 810, 8n. Burney, 83.
THOMAS CAVENDISH 377
the other side was an orchard, stocked with oranges, sweet
and sour, lemons, limes, and pomegranates. Hard by was a
very large and great church, with five bells. There were at
least 200 houses in the town, near the palace, and as many in
one or two towns more upon the island, which is almost as
big as the Isle of Wight/' *
" This great cacique," says Pretty, " doth make all the
Indians upon the island to work and to drudge for him."
But if the description be not overcharged, he had brought
his island to a degree of civilisation which had not then been
exceeded in any part of Spanish America, if it has since.
" The Spanish woman, his wife," he continues, " is honoured
as a queen, and never goeth on the ground upon her feet ;
holding it too base a thing for her. But when her pleasure
is to take the air, or to go abroad, she is always carried, in a
conveyance, like unto a horse-litter, upon four men's shoulders,
with a veil or canopy over her, for the sun or the wind ;
having her gentlewomen still attending about her, with a
great troop of the best men of the island." Cavendish had
been told by an Indian prisoner that he might easily take
the cacique, and the treasure which he had carried off, for
the place to which he had retreated consisted of only three
or four houses, without any means of defence. Relying
upon this, he crossed over to the mainland ; and on reaching
the place where he designed to land, found there four or five
large balsas, which had newly arrived, laden with provisions.
Marvelling " what they were and what they meant," Caven-
dish commanded the Indian to speak the truth, as he valued
his life. The poor wretch was bound fast, for torture or for
execution he might well suppose, or both : he answered,
" being very much abashed," says Pretty, " as well as our
company were, that he neither knew whence they came, nor
who they might be ; for there was never a man in any one
*Hakluyt, 811-813.
378 ENGLISH SEAMEN
of the balsas ; but he supposed they might have brought
threescore soldiers, who he had heard were to go to Guayquil
(six leagues from the island), and reinforce the garrison of
100 men, for the better protection of some king's ships then
on the stocks there. Not discouraged at this, Cavendish
animated his company to the exploit, and marched by night,
" along a most desert path in the woods," till he reached the
place of which the Indian had truly informed him. * But
the cacique had kept a good look-out ; the people and the
treasure were gone. It would have been rash to pursue the
one, and hopeless to search for the other in the woods and in
the darkness; and the adventurers were fain to console them-
selves for their disappointment by regaling upon the food,
which they found at the fire, prepared for the cacique's
supper.
So little did Cavendish apprehend any activity on the part
of the Spaniards, notwithstanding they had received this
reinforcement, that he laid the admiral aground at Puna, to
examine and clean her bottom ; keeping, however, continual
watch and ward on the cacique's great house night and day.
In an adjacent island he discovered a great quantity of stores
which had been removed thither for concealment, with all
the cacique's " household stuff, and his chamber-hangings,
which were of Cordovan leather, all gilded over, and painted
very fair and rich ". A Spanish wife had inspired him with
a taste for the refinements and luxuries of Spanish civilisation ;
and he seems to have inspired the Spaniards with more
promptitude and resolution than at this time they were wont
to display. The English had got their ship into the water
again ; when, early one morning, every one of the watch
being gone abroad marauding, " some one way, some another,
some for hens, some for sheep, some for goats," about 100
Spaniards, who had landed during the night, with all the
* Hakluyt, 812.
THOMAS CAVENDISH 379
Indians of the island, came upon them ; and of twenty
Englishmen who were ashore only eight escaped. In the
course of the day, Cavendish landed, with seventy men, to
revenge their loss, drove the enemy from the town, set fire
to it, and burned it to the ground. He burned, also, four
ships which were building on the stocks ; burned the church,
and brought away the bells, and " made havoc " of the fields,
orchards, and gardens ; then hauled the vice-admiral ashore
" to grave at the same place in despite of the Spaniards,"
and repaired his pinnace, which they had set on fire, and in
which one of his men had perished in the flames. There can
be no excuse for the negligence which allowed his people to
be a second time surprised, and little for the ferocious spirit
of revenge in which he laid waste what, when in evil hour he
landed there, was a happy and an improving island. A
hundred years * afterwards it had not recovered from the
devastation then committed, t
Having remained at Puna eleven days, Cavendish departed
on the 5th of' June, sunk the Hugh Gallant for want of men,
proceeded to the coast of New Spain, and there captured a
ship in which was one Michael Sancius, a Marseillois by birth,
who was one of the best coasters in the South Sea, and who
was, therefore, detained '' to serve their turn in watering
along the coast ". He served it another way, by giving them
news that a great ship, called the Santa Anna, was expected
* In Dampier's time there was only one Indian town in the island,
consisting of about twenty houses, and a small church. The Indians
were all seamen, and the only pilots in those seas. " The houses stand
all on posts ten or twelve feet high, with ladders on the outside to go up
into them. I did never see the like building anywhere but among the
Malayans in the East Indies. They are thatched with palmetto leaves,
and their chambers well boarded ; in which last they excel the Malayans "
(i., 151). What a contrast to the cacique's mansion, with its Cordovan
hangings, and its gardens !
t Hakluyt, 813, 814. Burney, 84.
380 ENGLISH SEAMEN
at Acapulco from the Philippines. There were six men more
in the prize, whom they took out, together with the sails,
ropes, and firewood, and then set the vessel on fire. She
was going along the coast to give the alarm ; and another
vessel, upon the same service, came to the same fate, except
that the men got to shore. Cavendish next landed at
Guatulco, a town of about 100 houses, which he plundered
and burned. In the custom house, " a very fair and large "
building, they found 600 bags of indigo, valued at forty
crowns each ; and 400 bags of cacao, each worth ten crowns.
" These cacaos go among them for meat and money : 150 of
them are in value one real of plate in ready payment. They
are very like an almond, but are nothing so pleasant in taste :
they eat them, and make drink of them.'' The Spaniards
found these nuts in use as currency among the Mexicans, and
learned from that people the preparation of chocolate, which
everywhere retains its Mexican name. *
Cavendish burned the church here as he had done at Puna.
He might have known that by burning a church he excited,
among the Spaniards, greater horror and hatred against
England than was felt there when the Spaniards burned an
Englishman ; sacrilege being a crime less frequent in the one
country than cruelty in the other, and a crime by which even
criminals were shocked. Advantage was made of this feeling
at Guatulco in another way. There was a wooden cross
there, five fathoms in height, which, the Spaniards say,
Cavendish's men pulled down, smeared it with pitch, piled
dry reeds around it, and then endeavoured to consume it by
fire. The reeds burned and the pitch, not so the cross: more
and more combustibles were thrown on ; and when the in-
vaders re-embarked after three days' tarriance, during all
which time they had continued their vain endeavours, they
left it under a heap of ashes and burning brands unconsumed.
* Hakluyt, 814,
THOMAS CAVENDISH 381
And when the Spaniards returned to their ruined dwellings,
they found it brightened and beautified by its fiery trial, and
were consoled for their own injuries by seeing that Heaven
had manifested itself in the protection of the holy rood. The
cross, before it underwent this assay, had been in good odour:
it was made of a fragrant wood which was not known to
grow within forty leagues of that place : it had been pre-
sumed that one of the Apostles had planted it there, and that
one was supposed to have been St. Andrew. Now, however,
when it had merits enough of its own, the likelier opinion
was preferred that it had been erected when Cortes built
some ships there for a voyage of discovery. The report of
its miraculous preservation spread far and wide ; and from all
parts devotees who could came to visit it, and to carry away
fragments, the smallest splinter of which, if cast into the sea,
stilled a tempest ; if thrown into a fire, quenched the flames ;
and if put in water, changed it into a sovereign medicine.
This waste of its substance was not miraculously supplied ;
and when about a fifth part only was left, the Bishop of
Antiquera removed it to his city, built a chapel for it, and
enshrined it there with all possible honours upon a holy day
appointed for the occasion. There its history continued to
be told to the reproach of the English name. *
Sailing from thence, Cavendish overshot the haven of
Acapulco ; and on the 24th of August he landed with thirty
men at Puerto de Navidad, where they surprised a man in his
bed who had been sent with letters to give the alarm along
the coast of Nueva Galicia : they took his despatches, killed
his horse, set fire to the town, burnt two ships on the stocks,
and re-embarked. In the river of Santiago his people dragged
for pearls, and took " some quantity " ; and in the Indian
town of Acatlan, from which the inhabitants fled at their
approach, they " defaced " a church, the commander being of
* Torquemada, 1. xvi., c. 28, pp. 205, 206.
382 ENGLISH SEAMEN
the party. The Marseillois by this time had entered
thoroughly into the interests of his captors ; he guided a
party of them from Chaccalla Road to a settlement some two
leagues inland, " by a most villainous path through the woods
and wilderness " : there they surprised three householders,
with their wives and children, some Indians, a Portuguese,
and a Spai ..h carpenter ; all whom they bound and carried
to the seaside. The women were then ordered to fetch
" plantains, lemons, oranges, pine-apples, and other fruits,
whereof they had abundance " ; and when this was done the
rest were liberated, except the Portuguese and the carpenter.
They tarried five days at the little woody Island of St.
Andrew, where they dried and salted as many birds as they
thought fit, and killed abundance of seals and yguans, which
they describe as " a kind of serpents, with four feet and a
long sharp tail ; strange to them that have not seen them,
but very good meat ". In another week they reached the
Bay of Mazatlan : " there is a very great river within, but it
is barred at the mouth ; upon the north side of the bar withal
is good fresh water, but there is very evil filling of it, because
at low water, it is shoal half a mile off the shore ". Their
intention of watering here was disappointed, and what little
fruit they obtained was " not without danger ". *
They trimmed their ships and new built their pinnace at
an island about a league from this bay ; " and there," says
Pretty, " we found fresh water, by the assistance of God, in
that our great need, and where no water nor sign of water
was before to be perceived ; otherwise we had gone back
twenty or thirty leagues for it, which might have been
occasion that we might have missed our prey we had so long
waited for. But God raised one Flores, a Spaniard, which
was also a prisoner with us, to make a motion to dig in the
?ands. Now our general, having had experience once before
* Hakluyt, 815.
THOMAS CAVENDISH 383
of the like, commanded to put his motion in practice ; and in
digging three feet deep we found very good and fresh water :
so we watered our ships, and might have filled 1000 tons
more, if we had would." How much suffering might have
been averted, and how many lives saved, had it been gener-
ally known that filtered water may always thus easily be
obtained !
Cavendish now quitted the coast of New Spain, and sailed
for the south Cape of California. Within that cape is the bay
called Aguada Segura, into which " a fair fresh river falls ".
They watered there, and lay off and on from the 14th of
October to the 4th of November, looking out for their
expected prey, " the winds hanging still westerly ". On
that day, between seven and eight in the morning, the
admiral's trumpeter going into the top, espied a sail standing
in for the cape. The cheerful tidings were presently verified ;
and Cavendish, " who was no less glad than the cause re-
quired, ordered the whole company to put all things in readi-
ness ". That done, he gave chase some three or four hours,
standing with the best advantage, and working for the wind : in
the afternoon he came up with her, gave a broadside with his
great ordnance, and a volley of small shot, and presently
laid the enemy aboard. The size of the ship, 700 tons, made
it evident that it was the galleon for which they had been
lying in wait, the Santa Anna, from the Philippines, with the
king's treasure on board ; and, in his eagerness for such a
prize, Cavendish began the fight with more spirit than dis-
cretion. When his men, who were not more than sixty in his
own vessel, were on their ship's side ready to board, they
perceived that the Spaniards "had made fights fore and
aft, and laid their sails close to the poop, the midship, and
the forecastle," and stood close under their covering, so that
not a man was to be seen, from whence they plied their
pikes, and threw great stones upon the heads of the assailants
so fast, that they beat them off, with the loss of two killed
384 ENGLISH SEAMEN
and some four or five wounded. For all this, the English
" new trimmed their sails, and fitted every man his furniture,
and gave them a fresh encounter with the great ordnance,
and also with small shot, raking them through and through ".
The Spanish captain Don Tomas de Alzola, still, " like a
valiant man, stood stoutly to his close fights," * and this,
" second encounter " was resisted as successfully as the first ;
but Cavendish appears to have fallen off in time to avoid