landed on the coast to talk with
"certain of the Cimmeroons," who exchanged hostages with Drake's party,
and agreed upon a meeting-place at a little river midway between the
Cabezas, or "Headlands," and the anchorage. Drake talked with these
hostages as soon as he arrived from the seas. He found them two "very
sensible men," most ready to help him against the common enemy. They
told him that "their Nation conceited great joy of his arrivall"; for
they had heard of Nombre de Dios and of his former raids upon the coast,
and gladly welcomed the suggested alliance. Their chief and tribe, they
said, were encamped near the aforementioned little river, the Rio Diego,
to await Drake's decision. Having compared the talk of these men with
the reports he had gathered from the Indian cowherds and Spanish
prisoners, he consulted his brother (who had seen the Maroons at the Rio
Diego camp), and asked "those of best service with him" what were
fittest to be done. John Drake advised that the ships should proceed to
the westward, to the Rio Diego, for near the mouth of that stream he had
discovered a choice hiding-place. It could be reached by many channels,
but only by the most careful pilotage, for the channels were full of
rocks and shoals. The channels twisted sluggishly among a multitude of
islands, which were gorgeous with rhododendron shrubs, and alive with
butterflies, blue and scarlet, that sunned themselves, in blots of
colour, upon the heavy green leaves. Among the blossomed branches there
were parrots screaming, and the little hummingbirds, like flying jewels,
darting from flower to flower. Up above them the great trees towered,
shutting out the sight of the sea, so that a dozen ships might have lain
in that place without being observed from the open water. The
description of this hiding-place moved Drake to proceed thither at once
with his two pinnaces, the two Maroons, and his brother John, giving
orders for the ship to follow the next morning. The pinnaces arrived
there the next day, and found the Cimmeroons encamped there, some of
them at the river's mouth, the others "in a wood by the river's side." A
solemn feast was prepared, at which the Maroons gave "good testimonies
of their joy and good will" towards the adventurers. After the feast,
the tribe marched away to the Rio Guana, intending to meet with another
tribe, at that time camped among the hills. The pinnaces returned from
Rio Diego, wondering why the ship had not