Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/153

 1 5 79-1 VOYAGE OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 137 hundred men, picked Spanish sailors, and a consort had joined them from Panama. They went in chase, and the Pelican being under easy sail they came up with her, but though three to one their courage failed when within gunshot. The indifference with which Drake allowed them to approach frightened them. They turned about and ' returned for more aid.' The Viceroy, furious at their cowardice, put the officers under arrest and sent the ships in pursuit once more with peremptory orders to fight. A special mes- senger was despatched across the Atlantic to Philip, and couriers carried the alarm along the coast of the Isthmus. The third route which Drake had hinted at was guessed to be no sea route at all. It was thought that he meant to leave his ship and transport his plunder over the mountains, and either build some vessel in Honduras to carry him to England, or find a consort which had been sent out to meet him. 1 Drake's own views were more original. He imagined, like most other English seamen, that there was a pas- sage to the north corresponding to Magellan's Straits, 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 another superb emerald. Then needing fresh water he Relacion de lo que se sabe del Corsario Ingles : MSS. Simancas,