Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
able to help themselves to coin, food, ship's supplies, trade goods
and charts - all valuable to mariners far from home in strange wa-
ters. From various prisoners, whom he took a pride in treating well
and entertaining royally, Drake also gathered information. The most
intriguing news concerned a mouth-watering potential prize. The
Nuestra Señora de la Concepcion
had recently sailed from Callao, the
port of Lima, headed for Panama with a major consignment of silver.
Drake went in pursuit. Two weeks later (1 March 1579), he
caught up with the galleon off Cape San Francisco, just above the
line. She was, as he had already discovered, well armed. So, instead
of brazening it out with her, Drake resorted to cunning. He disguised
the
Golden Hind
as a sluggish merchantman. This was done by the
simple expedient of hoisting a Spanish flag, running out several
water-filled wine jars on a stern line and then hoisting full sail. It
was an old pirate trick, intended to disarm an enemy by making
it seem that there could not possibly be anything to fear from a
craft which could make such poor speed through the water. The
stratagem worked admirably. The
Nuestra Señora
altered course and
came within hailing distance. Only at the last moment did armed
men suddenly appear above the
Golden Hind's
deck rail. One of her
cannon exploded into life and the
Nuestra Señora
's mizzen mast fell
over the stern in a tangle of rigging. While the Spaniard's deck was
still a confusion of cries, shouted orders and running feet, Drake's
pinnace slipped round to her far side with a boarding party. It was
all over in a few minutes without a shot fired from the Spanish ship
which was coarsely nicknamed by her sailors
Cacafuego
(
Shitfire
).
With the Spanish crew transferred aboard the
Golden Hind
as
his 'guests', Drake examined his haul at leisure. As the inventory was
checked off, he and his men knew that all the dangers and suffering
they had endured had been worthwhile. Thirteen hundred bars of
silver (26 tons) were ferried across to the English ship. There were
fourteen chests of coin. In addition, a search of the cabins yielded
