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of the republic of Salvador, about ninety geographic miles westward from the Gulf of Fonseca.

Guanta pico; Tehuantepec at the head of the gulf of the same name. The latitude of Ventosa is 16° 12′ N. "And diuers other ports and gulphs."

Guatulco, also Agwatulca, a small bay and town on the southwest coast of Mexico, where the Golden Hinde took in water, wood and some provisions, in latitude 15 deg. 40 m. Belcher places it in 15° 44' N. Nuno da Silva was "caryed to Mexico": p. 175.

This is the last of the fifty names of places recorded in the different narratives from the Strait of Magellan along the coast of America, and the engraver of the Silver Map failed to note only Mucho and Lima, while there was plenty of space for more. He evidently was not aiming to note explicitly Drake's track; not even at Cape San Francisco, nor the Gulf of Fonseca, nor the port of Guatulco, whence the Golden Hinde started upon her remarkable voyage.

We shall refer to New Albion in its proper place.

It will be noticed that none of the narrators mention the name California. We have shown that the name was upon maps of dates before Drake's expedition.

DRAKE UPON THE COASTS OF CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO; MARCH 15TH TO APRIL 16TH 1579.

THE SEIZURE OF SPANISH DOCUMENTS AND SEA CHARTS.

Drake made diligent search along the coast of South America from latitude 30° S., the point of rendezvous for the Elizabeth which might have ridden out the long, violent storm after getting into the South Sea; which she did; but Captain Winter returned to England. He skirted the shore in the pinnace with the Golden Hinde in the offing. Thence he moved northward, plundering ships, seizing pilots, robbing towns and stealing cattle.

When he reached Callao he took the thirty Spanish vessels by surprise; relieved several of them of their specie; cut the masts of the largest two, and the cables of all, that they might drive ashore or to sea and not pursue him. Here he learned that the richly laden Cacafuego, commanded by Juan de Anton a Biscayan, had sailed for Panamá nearly two weeks before; and he quickly pressed in pursuit. He overtook the vessel off Cape San Francisco, near the Equator, took her seaward for sixty hours [six days] to avoid recapture; relieved her of "13 chests of ryals of plate, 80 lbs. weight "of gold, 26 tons of uncoined silver and a quantity of jewels and "precious stones"; valued at about a million and a quarter dollars.*

This rich prize must have largely influenced Drake's subsequent movements. The whole coast was aware of his presence, and from Callao two vessels were fitted out to pursue him, and he would not venture to make an attack upon Panamá notwithstanding his earlier prayer for vengeance.

The Golden Hinde had been a long time at sea and had become leaky; and her bottom was covered with barnacles, star fish, sea weeds, etc. Drake therefore desired to find some small bay where he would be out of the usual tracks of the Spanish traders and galleons. He not only needed wood, water and fresh provisions, but it was necessary to careen the vessel to find the leak or leaks as well as to clean the bottom.

Whatever his future course might be a sound and clean vessel well provisioned was his only hope of reaching home. He would

*Dampier says: "The Island Plata, as some report, was so named by the Spaniards, after "Sir Francis Drake took the Cacafoga, a ship chiefly laden with Plate, which they say he "brought thither, and divided it here with his men." Vol. I, page 132. Plata Island is laid down one hundred and forty-five miles southwestward from Cape San Francisco.

Cape San Francisco is found in Ptolemy of 1574 as "C. de S. Franco."

not venture the Magellan Straits because he was satisfied the Spaniards would there lie in numbers sufficient to overwhelm him. He would hardly risk a course around Cape Horn after his experience there. He had already broached the project of sailing far to the north and try to find a northeast passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. His company had acceded to this; but whether he really intended to carry it out may well be doubted. "R. M." who said he was with Hawkins and with Drake is quoted by Barrow, page 411, as writing, "Sir Francis was a willing hearer of every man's opinions, "but a follower of his own."

From Frobisher he knew that route was blocked with ice even if there was a water way. Therefore in his farther progress he avoided the Bay of Panamá and the many bays to the westward of Puntas Mala and Mariato, and passed the Gulf of Dulce.

From the western point of the peninsula of Dulce to Cape Blanco, the southwestern point of the entrance to the Gulf of Nicoya, the distance is one hundred geographic miles and the course northwest by west. Inside this chord the south coast of Costa Rica retreats thirty miles to the northward.

After Drake had sailed along the west coast of the Dulce Peninsula for thirty miles to Pta. Llorena he saw the coast turn sharply to the north by east; and must have naturally concluded this retreat would be out of the regular course of galleons and traders, who would steer between the two headlands mentioned. Following this coast for eight miles a farther retreat to the eastward of Pta. San José presented the probability of an anchorage and hiding place.

Burney says: "They made the coast near a small island named "Canno, two leagues distant from the mainland, in a small bay of "which they anchored in five fathoms; close to the shore,* and "near a fresh water river. This place was chosen to refit the ship."† As some doubts have been held whether Drake was anchored at the Island of Caño or close to the main land, we refer to the map of Costa Rica by Colonel George Earl Church, which accompanies his paper read before the Royal Geographical Society, and published in the proceedings for July 1897. He places the island of Caño in latitude

*Nuno da Silva. The World Encompassed says, "We settled ourselves in a fresh water "river between the main land and the island of Caines." "Y. del Cannon"; Ptolemy, Edition 1574.

†A Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean * * by James Burney, Captain Royal Navy. * * London, 1803: 5 Parts, Part I, Chap. XIX, pages 339, 340.

8° 43', longitude 83° 52′ W; with a length of three miles and a width of half a mile. He lays down the Puerto de Coronada three miles east of Pta. San José, at the entrance of the "R. Drake"; thus recognizing the locality. He places the mouth of this river in latitude 8° 42', and longitude 83° 38′ west; the World Encompassed gives 8° N., (page 219.) The present name of the river on the maps of Central America (Costa Rica,) is Sieppe, and there is a hill of 1012 feet elevation on the left or south bank that completely sheltered and hid Drake's anchorage.

Here the Golden Hinde was hove down, breamed, and repaired. On the 20th of March, four days after her arrival a "small coasting frigate" was seen passing close to Caño Island, and the pinnace was manned, armed, and sent in pursuit. She brought in a Spanish vessel which was utilized as a storehouse for the gold and silver during the repairs, wooding and watering, which were finished on the 24th; when Drake sailed out with the Spaniard in company for two days longer; took out some of the crew as pilots, and let her go on her way.

"On April 6, a little before sun-set, they discovered a ship, that "held on her course about two leagues to seaward from the main "land." She was captured, and among the prisoners was Don Francisco Xarate who was sailing to Panamá, from which port he was bound for China with letters and patents in his possession. The capture of this ship, whose name is not given, was the turning point in the fortunes of Drake's Pacific adventure. Burney writes; (page 391,) "among the papers of this vessel, were letters "from the King of Spain to the Governor of the Philippine Islands, "and 'sea cards wherewith they should make their voyage, and "direct themselves in their course.'"

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Burney is in doubt whether these " 'sea cards" were charts" or "only cards of steering compasses." Capt. Edward Cooke in his "Voyage to the South Sea," etc., 1708-12, calls them "Manuscript Coasting-Pilots, or Waggoners," Vol. I, p. 46; and Lord Anson gives a capital specimen in the Narrative of his voyage 1741-42, between pages 384 and 385.

These sea charts afforded Drake a knowledge of the northwest coast of America already reached by some of the galleons returning from the Philippines. Hondius lays down the coast farther north than 48°, and Dudley delineates it to 49°. They also presented him

with all the Spaniards knew of the Ladrones, Philippines, Moluccas, Celebes, Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Timor; and beyond that all the sea knowledge which the Spaniards and the Portuguese knew thence to the Cape of Good Hope. They showed him the general trend of the coast hence along that of New Spain, and the peninsula of California, and farther north.

The revelations gained from the official papers, and from the secret charts of the Pacific and the Indies, proved a disaster to Spain, of which Drake could not divine the consequences.

He learned from the prisoners he took off Caño Island, and from the pilot of the last vessel captured, of the harbor of Guatulco,* New Spain. This bay is about fifty geographic miles westward of Salina Cruz, Tehuantepec, and the only safe anchorage between Ventosa and Acapulco. The geographic position is latitude 15° 44′, and longitude 96° 10' W; Acapulco lying 225 geographic miles to the west-northwest. Dampier the freebooter describes it. Of course the place was plundered and among the valuables Drake took a "Pot of about a Bushel full of Ryals of Plate they found in "the Town, with a Chain of Gold and other Jewels, which they "entreated a Spaniard who was flying away with them, to leave "behind."t

At Guatulco Drake put ashore all his Spanish prisoners as well as Nuno da Silva the pilot of the Portuguese vessel‡ he had captured at the island of Santiago of the Cape Verde Islands; concerning whom see Hakluyt, Vol. III, page 743.

Drake's visit to Guatulco was a blight to Guatulco, but in June 1587 Thomas Cavendish aggravated the misfortunes of the people. With supreme maliciousness he burned the town, customs house and the church. Other settlements shared similar vindictiveness.

Hakluyt says that when Drake was at Guatulco he considered it hazardous to return home by the Strait of Magellan; "he resolued "therefore, to auoide these hazards, to goe forward to the Islands "of the Malucos, and therehence to saile the course of the Portu"gales by the Cape of Bona Sperança."¶

*Shown in the Edition of Ptolemy, 1574: Venice.

†The English Hero, or Sir Francis Drake Reviv'd; 1739, page 115.

Named the Mary by Drake doubtless because she was from the port of Santa Maria, Portugal.

Hakluyt Society's World Encompassed page 220, Appendix V, Extracts from Hakluyt's

Voyages.

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