tacked another recua. This last
scheme was flouted by many as unnecessary. They had food enough, they
said, and what they lacked the country would supply, but the treasure,
the comfortable dew of heaven, for which they had come so far, was the
main thing, and to get that they were ready to venture on the galleons,
soldiers or no soldiers. At this point the Maroons were called in to
give their opinion. Most of them had served the Spaniards as slaves in
one town or another of the Main. Several of them had worked under the
whip of a wealthy Spaniard in Veragua, a creature of the name of Pezoro,
who was "bad and cruel, not only to his slaves, but unto all men." This
gentleman lived in a strong stone house at a little distance from the
town. He had amassed a vast quantity of treasure, for he owned a gold
mine, which he worked with 100 slaves. He lived with a guard of
soldiers, but the Maroons felt confident that by attacking from the
shore side of the house they could easily break in upon him. His gold
was stored in his house "in certain great chests." If they succeeded in
surprising the house, it would be an easy matter to make a spoil of the
whole. Drake did not care for the scheme, as it involved a long march
through the woods. He hesitated to put his men to so much labour, for he
had now seen something of this woodland marching, and knew how desperate
a toil it was. He thought that they would be better employed in
gathering victuals and looking out for treasure transports. They might
practise both crafts at the same time by separating into two companies.
John Oxenham, in the _Bear_ frigate, could sail "Eastwards towards Tolu,
to see what store of victuals would come athwart his halse." In the
meanwhile he would take the _Minion_ pinnace to the west, to "lie off
and on the Cabezas" in order to intercept any treasure transports coming
from Veragua or Nicaragua to Nombre de Dios. Those of the Maroons who
cared to stay aboard the _Pascha_ were free to do so. The rest were
dismissed "most courteously" with "gifts and favours" of the sorts most
pleasing to them, such as knives, iron, coloured ribbons and cloth.

The companies were picked; the pinnaces received their stores; sails
were bent and set, and the two boats sailed away to their stations. Off
the Cabezas the _Minion_ fell in with a frigate from Nicaragua "in which
was some gold and a Genoese pilot." Drake treated this pilot in his
usual liberal manner till he won him ov