Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts | Page 5

town, that many of
them jumped from their beds, and without stopping to dress, fled away
to the mountains. But all the citizens were not such cowards, and
fourteen or fifteen of them armed themselves and went out to defend
their town from the unknown invaders.
Beginners in any trade or profession, whether it be the playing of the
piano, the painting of pictures, or the pursuit of piracy, are often timid
and distrustful of themselves; so it happened on this occasion with
Francis Drake and his men, who were merely amateur pirates, and
showed very plainly that they did not yet understand their business.
When the fifteen Spanish citizens came into the market-place and
found there the little body of armed Englishmen, they immediately
fired upon them, not knowing or caring who they were. This brave
resistance seems to have frightened Drake and his men almost as much
as their trumpets and guns had frightened the citizens, and the English
immediately retreated from the town. When they reached the place
where they had left the rest of their party, they found that these had
already run away, and taken to the boats. Consequently Drake and his
brave men were obliged to take off some of their clothes and to wade
out to the little ships. The Englishmen secured no booty whatever, and
killed only one Spaniard, who was a man who had been looking out of
a window to see what was the matter.
Whether or not Drake's conscience had anything to do with the
bungling manner in which he made this first attempt at piracy, we
cannot say, but he soon gave his conscience a holiday, and undertook
some very successful robbing enterprises. He received information

from some natives, that a train of mules was coming across the Isthmus
of Panama loaded with gold and silver bullion, and guarded only by
their drivers; for the merchants who owned all this treasure had no idea
that there was any one in that part of the world who would commit a
robbery upon them. But Drake and his men soon proved that they could
hold up a train of mules as easily as some of the masked robbers in our
western country hold up a train of cars. All the gold was taken, but the
silver was too heavy for the amateur pirates to carry.
Two days after that, Drake and his men came to a place called "The
House of Crosses," where they killed five or six peaceable merchants,
but were greatly disappointed to find no gold, although the house was
full of rich merchandise of various kinds. As his men had no means of
carrying away heavy goods, he burned up the house and all its contents
and went to his ships, and sailed away with the treasure he had already
obtained.
Whatever this gallant ex-chaplain now thought of himself, he was
considered by the Spaniards as an out-and-out pirate, and in this
opinion they were quite correct. During his great voyage around the
world, which he began in 1577, he came down upon the
Spanish-American settlements like a storm from the sea. He attacked
towns, carried off treasure, captured merchant-vessels,--and in fact
showed himself to be a thoroughbred and accomplished pirate of the
first class.
It was in consequence of the rich plunder with which his ships were
now loaded, that he made his voyage around the world. He was afraid
to go back the way he came, for fear of capture, and so, having passed
the Straits of Magellan, and having failed to find a way out of the
Pacific in the neighborhood of California, he doubled the Cape of Good
Hope, and sailed along the western coast of Africa to European waters.
This grand piratical expedition excited great indignation in Spain,
which country was still at peace with England, and even in England
there were influential people who counselled the Queen that it would be
wise and prudent to disavow Drake's actions, and compel him to restore
to Spain the booty he had taken from his subjects. But Queen Elizabeth

was not the woman to do that sort of thing. She liked brave men and
brave deeds, and she was proud of Drake. Therefore, instead of
punishing him, she honored him, and went to take dinner with him on
board his ship, which lay at Deptford.
So Columbus does not stand alone as a grand master of piracy. The
famous Sir Francis Drake, who became vice-admiral of the fleet which
defeated the Spanish Armada, was a worthy companion of the great
Genoese.
These notable instances have been mentioned because it would be
unjust to take up the history of those resolute traders who sailed from
England, France, and Holland, to the distant waters of the western
world