Lima, Panama, and Nombre de Dios were in wild commotion at the news; and every sailor and soldier that the Spaniards had was going to and fro, uncertain whether to attack or to defend, and still more distracted as to the most elusive English whereabouts.  One good Spanish captain, Don Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, was all for going north, his instinct telling him that Drake would not come back among the angry bees after stealing all the honey.  But, by the time the Captain-General of New Spain had made up his mind to take one of the many wrong directions he had been thinking of, Drake was already far on his way north to found New Albion.

Drake’s triumph over all difficulties had won the hearts of his men more than ever before, while the capture of the treasure ship had done nothing to loosen the bonds of discipline.  Don Francisco de Zarate wrote a very intimate account of his experience as a prisoner on board the Golden Hind. ’The English captain is one of the greatest mariners at sea, alike from his skill and his powers of command.  His ship is a very fast sailer and her men are all skilled hands of warlike age and so well trained that they might be old soldiers of the Italian tertias,’ the crack corps of the age in Spanish eyes.  ’He is served with much plate and has all possible kinds of delicacies and scents, many of which he says the Queen of England gave him.  None of the gentlemen sit or cover in his presence without first being ordered to do so.  They dine and sup to the music of violins.  His galleon carries about thirty guns and a great deal of ammunition.’  This was in marked contrast to the common Spanish practice, even on the Atlantic side.  The greedy exploiters of New Spain grudged every ton of armament and every well-trained fighting sailor, both on account of the expense and because this form of protection took up room they wished to fill with merchandise.  The result was, of course, that they lost more by capture than they gained by evading the regulation about the proper armament.  ’His ship is not only of the very latest type but sheathed.’  Before copper sheathing was invented some generations later, the Teredo worm used to honeycomb unprotected hulls in the most dangerous way.  John Hawkins invented the sheathing used by Drake:  a good thick tar-and-hair sheeting clamped on with elm.

Northwest to Coronado, then to Aguatulco, then fifteen hundred miles due west, brought Drake about that distance west-by-south of the modern San Francisco.  Here he turned east-north-east and, giving the land a wide berth, went on to perhaps the latitude of Vancouver Island, always looking for the reverse way through America by the fabled Northwest Passage.  Either there was the most extraordinary June ever known in California and Oregon, or else the narratives of those on board have all been hopelessly confused, for freezing rain is said to have fallen on the night of June the 3d in the latitude of 42 deg..  In 48 deg. ’there