by
telling Drake that the great ship was only two days ahead, and loaded
to the water-line with wealth untold. Drake crowded sail, had muskets
{7} and swords furbished and thirty cannon loaded, and called on his
crew to quit themselves like men. And when the wind went down he
ordered small boats out to tow the _Golden Hind_. For five days the
hunt lasted, never slackening by day or by night; and when, at three in
the afternoon of a day in March, Drake's brother shouted from the
cross-trees, 'Sail ho!' every man aboard went mad with impatience to
crowd on the last inch of canvas and overtake the rich prize. The
Englishmen saw that the Spanish ship was so heavily laden that she was
making but slow progress; and so unconscious was the Spanish captain of
danger, that when he discerned a ship approaching he actually lowered
canvas and awaited what he thought might be fresh orders from the
viceroy. The _Golden Hind_ sped on till she was almost alongside the
Spaniard; then Drake let go full blast all thirty cannon, as fast as he
could shift and veer for the cannoneers to take aim. Yards, sails,
masts fell shattered and torn from the splendid Spanish ship. The
English clapped their grappling-hooks to her sides, and naked swords
did the rest. To save their lives, the Spanish crew, after a feeble
resistance, surrendered, and bullion to the value in {8} modern money
of almost a million dollars fell into the hands of the men of the
_Golden Hind_.

Drake's vessel was now loaded deep with treasure, and preparations were
made to sail homeward, but her commander realized that it would be
dangerous to attempt to return to England by way of the Spanish Main
with a ship so heavily laden that she must sail slowly. It was then
that legends of a North-East Passage came into his mind. He would sail
northward in search of the strait that was supposed to lead through the
continent to the Atlantic--the mythical strait of Anian. As the world
knows, there was no such passage; but how far north did Drake sail
seeking it? Some accounts say as far as Oregon; others, as far as the
northern coast of California; but, at all events, as he advanced
farther north he found that the coast sheered farther and farther west.
So he gave over his attempt to find the strait of the legends, and
turned back and anchored in 'a faire and good bay,' which is now known
as Drake's Bay, a short distance north of San Francisco; and, naming
the region New Albi