[Illustration: DRAKE OVERHAULING A SPANISH GALLEON.]
On this run he paused long enough to overhaul and loot a brigantine, taking out of her eighty pounds’ weight of gold, a gold crucifix studded with emeralds, and some cordage which would come in handy on his ship. Drake promised his men that whichever should first sight the “Cacafuego” should be rewarded with the gold chain he wore. It fortuned that his brother John, “going up into the top,” spied her at three o’clock one afternoon, and so won the chain. By six she was reached and ordered to stand. Three pieces of ordnance were shot off at her and struck down her mizzen. She was then boarded and easily possessed. Her treasure comprised jewels, precious stones, eighty pounds of gold, and twenty-six tons of silver. Among some plate were two gilded silver bowls which belonged to her pilot, Francisco by name. These particularly took Drake’s fancy. So with suavity he observed to their owner, “Senor Pilot, you have here two silver cups, but I must have one of them.” The “Senor Pilot” responded as affably, and, “because he could not otherwise chuse,” handed over one to the general and bestowed the other upon the steward of the “Golden Hind.” As he departed his boy, a lad with a clever wit, spoke up to Drake, "Captain, our ship shall be called no more the ‘Cacafuego’ but the ‘Cacaplata,’ and your ship shall be called the ‘Cacafuego.’" “Which prettie speech of the Pilot’s boy,” the chronicler records, “ministered matter of laughter to us, both then and long after.”
The point where this prize was taken is given as some one hundred and fifty leagues below Panama. She was sailed out into the sea beyond the sight of land, and there rifled. When this was done Drake cast her off and continued on his course up the coast, standing out to the westward to avoid Panama, where he was too well known. On an early April day, another fine ship was met with. She was taken without resistance. She was a merchant ship from Acapulco, in Mexico, rich laden with linen cloth, China silks, and porcelain ware. Her owner was on board, a Spanish gentleman, Don Francisco de Carate. Drake treated him with great courtesy, and evidently won his admiration, for we read that he gave his captor a handsomely wrought falcon of gold with a great emerald set in the breast. Drake in return gave him a hanger and silver brazier. He released the merchant after three days when, having finished his business with the captured ship, he suffered her to continue on her voyage. The pilot, however, was retained for his service. Afterward Carate gave a careful account of his experience with Drake in a letter to the viceroy of New Spain, and to this letter we are indebted for an engaging description of Drake’s outfit, his characteristics, and his person.