in Hakluyt. It is also mentioned (but
very curtly) in Herrera's History, in Dampier's Voyages, and in the
account left by Champlain after his short visit to Panama. I know of
no plan or picture of the place. The drawing reproduced here, from
Schenk's "Hecatompolis," is purely imaginary, however pretty. For my
remarks on "Cruces," or Venta Cruz, I am indebted to friends who
have lived many years in Panama, and to an interesting article in
_The Geographical Journal_ (December-July 1903, p. 325), by Colonel
G. E. Church, M. Am. Soc. C.E.

CHAPTER II

THE ATTACK ON NOMBRE DE DIOS

The treasure of the Indies--The Bastimentos--A Spanish herald

It may now have been ten o'clock at night, and we may reckon that the
boats were still four or five miles from the town, the lights of which,
if any burned, must have been plainly visible to the south and
south-south-west. To many of those who rocked there in the bay the
coming tussle was to be the first engagement. The night wind may have
seemed a little chilly, and the night and the strange town full of
terrors. The men fell to talking in whispers, and the constraint and
strangeness of it all, the noise of the clucking water, the cold of the
night, and the thought of what the negro lumbermen had said, began to
get upon their nerves. They talked of the strength of the town (and
indeed, although it was an open bay, without good water, it had at that
time much of the importance of Porto Bello, in the following century).
They talked "especially" of the reported troop of soldiers from Panama,
for Spanish infantry were the finest in the world, and the presence of a
company in addition to the garrison would be enough to beat off the
little band in the boats. Drake heard these conversations, and saw his
young men getting out of hand, and "thought it best to put these
conceits out of their heads." As the moon rose he persuaded them "that
it was the day dawning"--a fiction made the more easy by the
intervention of the high land between the watchers and the horizon. By
the growing light the boats stole farther in, arriving "at the towne, a
large hower sooner than first was purposed. For wee arrived there by
three of the clock after midnight." It happened that a "ship of
_Spaine_, of sixtie Tunnes, laden with Canary wines and other
commodities" had but newly arrived in the bay, "and had not yet furld
her sprit-saile." It was the custom for ships to