should make the attempt.  Carleill gave the signal.  Goring’s musketeers sprang forward and fired into the Spaniards’ faces.  Then Sampson’s pikemen charged through and a desperate hand-to-hand fight ensued.  Finally the Spaniards broke after Carleill had killed their standard-bearer and Goring had wounded and taken their commander.  The enemies ran pell-mell through the town together till the English reformed in the Plaza.  Next day Drake moved in to attack the harbor fort; whereupon it was abandoned and the whole place fell.

But again there was a dearth of booty.  The Spaniards were getting shy of keeping too many valuables where they could be taken.  So negotiations, emphasized by piecemeal destruction, went on till sickness and the lateness of the season put the English in a sorry fix.  The sack of the city had yielded much less than that of San Domingo; and the men, who were all volunteers, to be paid out of plunder, began to grumble at their ill-success.  Many had been wounded, several killed—­big, faithful Tom Moone among them.  A hundred died.  More were ill.  Two councils of war were held, one naval, the other military.  The military officers agreed to give up all their own shares to the men.  But the naval officers, who were poorer and who were also responsible for the expenses of their vessels, could not concur.  Finally 110,000 ducats (equivalent in purchasing power to nearly three millions of dollars) were accepted.

It was now impossible to complete the programme or even to take Havana, in view of the renewed sickness, the losses, and the advance of the season.  A further disappointment was experienced when Drake just missed the treasure fleet by only half a day, though through no fault of his own.  Then, with constantly diminishing numbers of effective men, the course was shaped for the Spanish ‘plantation’ of St. Augustine in Florida.  This place was utterly destroyed and some guns and money were taken from it.  Then the fleet stood north again till, on the 9th of June, it found Raleigh’s colony of Roanoke.

Ralph Lane, the governor, was in his fort on the island ready to brave it out.  Drake offered a free passage home to all the colonists.  But Lane preferred staying and going on with his surveys and ‘plantation.’  Drake then filled up a store ship to leave behind with Lane.  But a terrific three-day storm wrecked the store ship and damped the colonists’ enthusiasm so much that they persuaded Lane to change his mind.  The colonists embarked and the fleet then bore away for home.  Though balked of much it had expected in the way of booty, reduced in strength by losses, and therefore unable to garrison any strategic point which would threaten the life of New Spain, its purely naval work was a true and glorious success.  When he arrived at Plymouth, Drake wrote immediately to Burleigh:  ’My very good Lord, there is now a very great gap opened, very little to the liking of the King of Spain.’