Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/147

 1578.] VOYAGE OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 131 silver bars lay piled at the Tarapaca pier ; by their side the weary labourers who had brought them from the mines were peacefully sleeping, or if they heard the clash of the moving metal supposed that their comrades had arrived for their lading. There was no gratuitous cruelty in Brake ; he was come for the treasure of Peru, and beyond seizing his plunder he did not care to injure the people. As the last bars were being stowed away in his boats a train of llamas appeared bringing from the hills a second freight as rich as the first. This too was transferred to the Pelican. Four hundred thousand ducats' worth of silver were taken in one afternoon. , Arica came nexjX-Arica, the port of Potosi, where fifty-seven blocks of the same precious metal were added to the store ; and from thence they made haste to Lima, where the largest booty was looked for. They found that they had just missed^it. Twelve ships lay at anchor in the port without arms, without crews, and with their sails on shore. In all of these they dis- covered but a few chests of reals and some bales of silk and linen. A thirteenth, called by the seamen the Cacafuego, but christened in her baptism ' Our Lady of the Conception/ had sailed for the Isthmus a few days before, taking with her all the bullion which the mines had yielded for the season. She had been literally ballasted with silver, and carried also several precious boxes of gold and jewels. Not a moment was lost. The cables of I579 the ships at Lima were cut, and they were Januai 7- left to drive on shore to prevent pursuit; and then