h upon Panama.

The new day was heralded by the sudden appearance of a fleet of some
seventy or eighty fishing-boats and canoes coming out of the harbour and
hastening toward the fishing grounds in the offing. Several of these
small craft passed quite close to the galleon, and the sight of them
inspired George with an idea. Making his way from the poop down into
the grand saloon, he rummaged about until he found writing materials,
when he sat down at the table and after some consideration penned the
following letter:

"On board the galleon _Cristobal Colon_.

"August 19th, in the year of Our Lord 1569.

"To his Excellency Don Silvio Hermoso Maria Picador

"Calderon,

"Governor of the City of Panama, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

"Illustrious Senor.

"On the fourth day of this present month I arrived at the city of Nombre
de Dios upon a mission the purpose of which was to secure the release of
seventeen Englishmen who were last year made prisoners in the course of
a treacherous and unjustifiable attack upon the fleet of Admiral Hawkins
while, in pursuance of an agreement between himself and His Excellency
Don Martin Enriquez, the Viceroy of Mexico, he was refitting his ships.

"I have traced those seventeen prisoners in the first instance from San
Juan de Ulua to Nombre de Dios; and upon my arrival at Nombre I was
informed by His Excellency Don Sebastian de Albareda, the Governor of
the city, that they had been dispatched to Panama. Whereupon, at my
request, Don Sebastian was so obliging as to address a letter to Your
Excellency, informing you of the purpose of my visit, and requesting you
to take whatever steps might be necessary to secure the immediate
release of those seventeen Englishmen and their surrender to me.

"In due course Don Sebastian received your reply to his letter, and that
reply he permitted me to read. From it I regretfully learned that Your
Excellency categorically refused to accede to Don Sebastian's most
reasonable request, notwithstanding the fact that the city of Nombre was
then in my hands and at my mercy, and that, for all you knew to the
contrary, your refusal would involve it in all the horrors of sack and
destruction.

"Your Excellency, I am not so inhumane as to punish the innocent for the
faults of the guilty, therefore since Don Sebastian had obviously done
everything in his power to further the success of my mission, and had
failed, not through his own fault but because