At first, to be sure, they found chiefly fruit, conserves,
meal, and sugar; but before long they ferreted out cases of jewels and
precious stones, thirteen chests of silver royals, eighty pounds weight
of gold twenty-six tons of uncoined silver, not to speak of two very
beautiful silver-gilt drinking-bowls and like trifles; the whole valued
at 360,000 pesos, or somewhere like 75,000 pounds,--in these days equal
to a million of money, not taking into account the precious stones and
other booty. The bowls, with which Drake was mightily pleased, belonged
to the pilot, and when the Admiral told him he must have one of them for
a punch-bowl, to show his contempt and hatred of the English, he
presented the other to the Admiral's steward. Nearly six days were
spent in unloading the ship of her precious cargo, when she was allowed
to proceed on her way to Panama; Drake having presented to the captain,
Juan de Anton, some linen and other articles, and a letter addressed to
Captain Winter and other officers of the squadron, requesting them,
should they fall in with him, to give him double the value of anything
they might receive, and treat him well.

The _Golden Hind_ then stood off the coast, to avoid any Spanish vessels
that might be on the look-out for her. Though still searching for the
missing ships, the explorers had now very little hope of finding them.

Both officers and crew, indeed, began to pine for home, with a great
desire also to carry the enormous wealth they had obtained with them.
Drake's great object was now--having repaired and stored the ship--to go
in search of a passage round the northern end of America into the
Atlantic Ocean. That one existed he had ever believed, though he little
thought of the icy barrier which blocked it up. His hope was that he
should find it, and that then he and his companions should speedily with
joy return to their longed-for homes.

He now shaped a course for the island of Cano, off the coast of
Nicaragua. On his way he fell in with one more Spanish ship, laden with
linens, silk, and china dishes, and a falcon of finely-wrought gold, on
the breast of which was set a large emerald. Having taken only the more
valuable portions of the cargo, the vessel was dismissed, an Indian and
a pilot only being detained.

On the 16th of March they reached Cano, when they entered a fresh water
river suitable for their object. While the _Hind_ and the pinnace lay
at anchor, about a mil