er XXXI.

IN THE BAY OF SAN JOSEPH.

The appearance of an English vessel in any harbour of Spanish America
was the reverse of pleasing to the Spanish authorities. The Spaniards
who commanded in the smaller stations were not of the best type of
Castilian chivalry. Soldados of fortune, needy and unscrupulous
adventurers, or intriguing favourites of some colonial governor, they
had all the greed and arrogance of the noble Dons without their proud
reserve and sense of chivalry and honour. In a hurry to get rich, they
ground down the hapless natives into the dust. They robbed and
ill-treated their timid dependants without fear or remorse, and exacted
a cringing obedience that hid smouldering fires of hate and revenge.
The Spanish troops were as lawless as their leaders, and black ink
would turn red were one to attempt to tell the true tale of Spanish
misrule and terrorism in the rich islands of the West. The Don looked
upon the poor Indian as a chattel given over to him to do with
according to his lordly will, and he usually acted in harmony with the
extremest measure of his belief. And therein he differed wholly from
those freebooting, audacious, devil-may-care sons of Devon and the west
who followed in the Spanish wake across the Western Main. To the
English mariner the gentle, heathen Indian was an object of compassion.
God had given him a glorious land in which to dwell, and had heaped
upon him riches that he could neither appreciate nor value; but in the
higher characteristics of manhood, and in the blessings of religious
revelation, He had denied him much, and so we find Drake, Hawkins,
Raleigh, Gilbert, Oxenham, Whiddon, and a score of other bold captains
on all occasions treating the natives with civility and even kindness.
The poor, brown-skinned fellows soon learned to know friend from foe,
and everywhere they came forth to welcome the blue-eyed sons of Albion,
whilst they ran and hid themselves from the darker-hued children of
Spain.

The commandant of San Joseph quickly learned that an English vessel had
anchored in the bay, and he resolved to extend no courtesies whatsoever
to the unwelcome visitors. On finding that the ship was a small one
and without consorts, his resolution to treat her captain with disdain
was strengthened. John Drake fired a gun to announce his arrival; the
echoes boomed round the bay, but brought no answer from the fort.
Another signal was fired, with a similar lack of result.