Cape Horn or Pactolus Bank or somewhere in between, the Elizabethides offered no inducements to linger, and on 30 October the Golden Hinde sailed ‘right Northwest, to coast alongst the parts of Peru’, as these were shown on the ‘generall mappes', in search of the rendezvous in 30°; the great Chilean bulge on these maps (Figure Plate XVI, “DRAKE'S PACIFIC: ORTELIUS 1570. ”) was not due (as Fletcher asserted with much moral unction) to deliberate Spanish distortions, but to mistakes of compilation, as is shown by the 1577 rutter itself.^[64] Realising that the maps were in error, Drake changed course and by 25 November was off Mocha Island (38° 25′S), about half-way between Valdivia and Concepcion and in that debatable land where warfare with the Araucanians was endemic. After an initial welcome by the Indians, a small watering party was attacked, two being captured and the rest, including Drake, wounded: a very close call, since had not ‘one of the simplest of the company’ cut the painter, all might have been lost. Naturally enough the English assumed, and it has been generally accepted, that they had been mistaken for hated Spaniards, and hence Drake refused to take revenge by bombardment. But not all Indians were freedom fighters, and this group had in fact been incited to attack by two local Spaniards; other Indians had in fact reported to Valdivia the passage of ships with black sails, but the local- 251 -commander had refused to divert troops from the Araucanian front, since there was little truth in these Indians.^[65]

Just north of Valparaiso Drake learnt from an Indian fisherman of that harbour and of a large ship lying there; he turned back, reaching it on 5 December. Valparaiso was as yet a wretched place, some nine households and a little church; but the ship was no less than Mendaña's capitana on the Solomons voyage. The eleven men aboard innocently invited the newcomers to drinks; the guests came aboard with a shout of ‘Abaxo Perro, that is in English, Goe downe dogge.’ The loot of the ‘town’ was not much—trifles of church silver (duly handed to Fletcher), wine, cedar boards for fuel—but the ship herself had a cargo of wine, at least 25,000 pesos in gold, and at this stage perhaps the most precious booty of all, an experienced pilot: Juan Griego, possibly that Juan de Fuca whose Strait is the last relic of Anian.^[66] With this guide, Drake took a leisurely way north, twelve days, sailing with wind and current, to cover the roughly 330km between Valparaiso and La Herradura, just south of Coquimbo. This was only some 15km from La Serena, which had been warned: women and children were sent inland, and Drake's watering party was attacked by some scores of Spanish horsemen, plus Indians; he sheered off. Nearly a month was spent in careening and assembling a pinnace in Salada Bay, near Copiapo; perhaps Drake was still hoping for the Elizabeth to rejoin and give sufficient strength to attack Panama, though obviously this delay increased the risk of warnings reaching the north. That no alarm was in fact raised beyond La Serena was due to a bureaucratic ineptitude on which he could not reasonably have reckoned: the gamble came off because the local treasury, alleging strict orders, refused to advance the Santiago Cabildo 400 pesos for a fast boat, and nothing could be done until the Governor returned from the frontier wars. Then on 14 January 1579, seven weeks after the sack of Valparaiso, a message was sent: it reached Callao on 26 February, thirteen days after Drake.^[67]

On 19 January Drake sailed north, still ahead of any warning; so complete was the surprise that at Tarapaca he snapped up thirteen bars of silver whose owner was asleep, and at Arica (5 February) over fifty bars, perhaps half a tonne of silver, were taken from two or three unguarded ships: there is a sportive note in the Hakluyt account of these doings, and that night Arica's score or so of households were in a manner serenaded by the Golden Hinde’s musicians. However, messengers were sent out from Arica, and near Arequipa a much more valuable cargo, 500 bars, was unloaded only two hours before the corsair's arrival. But a few leagues south of Callao a coaster was taken, and this had great news: two ships were taking on really large quantities of bullion at that port, while a third, San Juan de Anton's Nuestra Señora de la Concepcion (or Cacafuego) had just left for Panama and intermediate ports. Taking a couple of local pilots, Drake entered Callao harbour on the night of 13–14 February.

Rapid and doubtless forceful enquiries around the shipping showed that the silver was not yet loaded; meanwhile a customs boat sent to examine a ship just in from Panama hailed the Golden Hinde, who replied that she was Miguel- 252 -Angel's ship from Chile. But an official sent on board ‘light[ed] upon one of the great peeces’—and no Spanish ship from Acapulco to Valdivia carried heavy guns. A flight of English arrows followed on the alarm so given, and the port fell into uproar as the English cut the cables of the ships and cut or damaged the masts of the two largest. This would be an obvious precaution against pursuit, and it is difficult to believe John Drake's story that the object was to gather the ships up and use them as an exchange for Oxenham; even if Drake knew that his old comrade was held in Lima (he did know it a little later), he took no action.^[68] In any case, he had drawn a blank, but the rich Cacafuego was ahead, while despite his damage to the Callao shipping, he could not know what other military resources might be at hand, nor risk a second San Juan de Ulua.

Drake entered the port about 10 p.m.; the news reached Lima in time for the Viceroy, the great Toledo, to order candles to be set in all the waterfront windows, to simulate ranks of arquebusiers ready with lighted match.^[69] The sense of outrage must have been intense, but little could be done about it. On Toledo's orders some 300 men piled into two ships and set out after the pirate, now standing out northwest from Callao. The Panama ship had been taken, but her cargo was of little interest, and seeing two large ships coming out in pursuit, Drake abandoned his prize, together with his conscripted pilots. Everything now went wrong for Toledo's gallant three hundred: the capitana was becalmed under the lee of Isla San Lorenzo, the ships were unballasted and very crank, and by sunset on the 14th the Golden Hinde was almost out of sight. Obviously they were not going to catch Drake, and to many it seemed just as well: their fire-power was only arquebuses, quite inadequate to meet the English guns; in their haste they had not taken on food; and ‘the most imperative reason for returning seemed to be that many of the gentlemen were very seasick …’^[70] They returned to face the anger of Toledo, who promptly gave orders to fit out two ships properly, with good pilots, 120 soldiers, his own son Don Luis in command, and the redoubtable Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa on the staff. The ships were readied with despatch, and left Callao on 27 February.

Meanwhile Drake had made some minor but profitable captures, and at Paita learnt that the Cacafuego was only two days ahead: on 1 March she was sighted near the modern Esmeraldas in northern Ecuador. The Golden Hinde made all sail but put out drags astern, an old corsair's trick to disarm suspicion and yet to delay coming alongside until nightfall. The bewildered Anton had barely time to refuse to strike sail before he was shot up with bow and arquebus, lost his mizzen by a chain-shot, and was boarded; despite her name, the Cacafuego was virtually unarmed. A couple of days later, out of sight of land, she was searched: 360,000 pesos of registered treasure, perhaps as much more unregistered. The English vastly enjoyed the wry comment of one of their victims, that the Golden Hinde should be styled Cacafuego and her prize Cacaplata, ‘Shitsilver’, ‘which pretie speech of the Pilots boy ministred matter of laughter to us, both then and long after.’ The voyage was now indeed ‘made’, and Drake, naturally a generous- 253 -man, could afford to be expansive: all prisoners were released, the crew with thirty or forty pesos each, the officers and gentlemen with gifts befitting their rank. As other witnesses testified, Drake robbed with a courtly air, dining and wining his involuntary guests well (on their own stores) and making elaborate presentations; but certainly losing nothing on the exchange:

He also gave Anton a safe conduct addressed to Winter, which would of course suggest at least one other English ship on the coast, and openly discussed possible return routes. The known routes were by ‘China’ (the Moluccas and the Cape), ‘Norway’ (the Northeast Passage), and the Straits of Magellan, which could now be discounted as liable to interception, even had the western entrance been easy and safe. A fourth route was mentioned, but its location kept secret. Hints and enquiries from Drake's company suggested to some Spaniards that this undisclosed route might be by crossing Panama or Nicaragua and seizing shipping on the Atlantic side; Corbett thought it was the new way south of Tierra del Fuego, but this seems unlikely, and probably Sarmiento was right in thinking that it was by Cape Mendocino and Labrador, that is Anian. Drake's design was to create the utmost doubt about his intentions, and although Anton (who on his release went to Panama) correctly deduced that immediately Drake would make for Nicaragua to water and careen, the Spanish authorities were indeed totally bemused by these seemingly casual but, in retrospect, carefully planted stories.^[72] Licentiate Valverde of Guatemala even built up an elaborate argument that Drake would winter in California and then return by the Straits of Magellan, gravely citing the fact that he had carried off from Guatulco the entire stock of Indian women's petticoats, obviously to use as trade goods along the coast, ‘for he was not going to wear [them], nor would [they] be of utility in England ….’^[73] Toledo's pursuing force was hamstrung by dispute between those who wished to follow up the coast to Panama, looking into every creek, and the bolder spirits who were for striking across to Nicaragua: this, the correct course if an interception was really desired, was forcibly and ably argued by Sarmiento, and his remarks when the more timid decision was taken had to be conveyed to Luis de Toledo ‘algo glosado’, somewhat toned down. The little fleet simply dithered around for over four months before returning to Callao on 12 June, by which date Drake was about to leave Nova Albion.

By whatever passage Drake was to return, at the moment he had no choice but to go north: all to the south of him was now alert and hostile, and he could not sail directly for the Moluccas without giving his ship a thorough overhaul. He might well reach New Spain ahead of any alarm, and there also he might get information on sailing courses and seasons for the Moluccas, while Anian remained a possibility, either as major objective or pis aller.

After stripping the Cacafuego, then, Drake stood out across the Gulf of Panama,- 254 -and by mid-March reached the island of Caño (Costa Rica), where he took a bark which he used to lighten the Golden Hinde for caulking. The cargo, sarsparilla and local produce, was thrown aside; the real prize was one Colchero, an experienced pilot on the Manila run.^[74] Despite strong pressure, including apparently physical maltreatment, Colchero turned down Drake's efforts to enlist him as a pilot, but his charts and sailing directions were invaluable, confirming that this was not the right time of year to make for the Moluccas: Drake must wait for some months, out of reach of Spanish power.

It seems likely that he intended his next call to be at Acapulco. A few days after leaving the island he fell in with a ship a week out of that port, and, still passing himself off as Miguel Angel, took her by surprise: she belonged to a gentleman of good family, Don Miguel de Zarate, and carried a typical Acapulco cargo, largely Chinese silks and porcelain. Drake took ‘some trifles … for his wife’, and the meeting passed off on a chivalrous note—but with touches of realism: Colchero was a prisoner on the ballast, and some of Zarate's men headed Drake off Acapulco by saying that there were ships and men already there. Instead, Drake settled for the tiny and decaying port of Guatulco. Here, in an almost farcical Easter interlude (13–16 April), Drake's people sacked a church being decorated for Easter, ostentatiously held ‘Lutheran’ services, and invited the handful of local officials to the Golden Hinde: these prudently took their dinners first, lest they should have to eat meat on Ash Wednesday. Drake loaded up with water for fifty days; and he set ashore Nuño da Silva.

Unless da Silva was a willing party to some subtle counter-intelligence scheme, this seems an inexplicable and uncharacteristically heartless action. Despite a marked reserve, da Silva had been seen by some of Drake's temporary guests in situations very compromising for a good Catholic, and even without this he would have much to explain to the secular authorities. He did in fact survive severe interrogation by the Inquisition, being sentenced to public abjuration at an auto-de-fe and to exile from the Indies; but by 1583 he was in Spain, apparently in royal favour.^[75] But in a sense this abandonment of Nuño was symbolic: the Iberian and piratical phase of the voyage was over.