And so, on the 28th of August, 1595, twenty-five hundred men in twenty-seven vessels sailed out, bound for New Spain.  Surprise was essential; for New Spain, taught by repeated experience, was well armed; and twenty-five hundred men were less formidable now than five hundred twenty years before.  Arrived at the Canaries, Las Palmas was found too strong to carry by immediate assault; and Drake had no time to attack it in form.  He was two months late already; so he determined to push on to the West Indies.

When Drake reached Porto Rico, he found the Spanish in a measure forewarned and forearmed.  Though he astonished the garrison by standing boldly into the harbor and dropping anchor close to a masked battery, the real surprise was now against him.  The Spanish gunners got the range to an inch, brought down the flagship’s mizzen, knocked Drake’s chair from under him, killed two senior officers beside him, and wounded many more.  In the meantime Hawkins, worn out by his exertions, had died.  This reception, added to the previous failures and the astonishing strength of Porto Rico, produced a most depressing effect.  Drake weighed anchor and went out.  He was soon back in a new place, cleverly shielded from the Spanish guns by a couple of islands.  After some more manoeuvres he attacked the Spanish fleet with fire-balls and by boarding.  When a burning frigate lit up the whole wild scene, the Spanish gunners and musketeers poured into the English ships such a concentrated fire that Drake was compelled to retreat.  He next tried the daring plan of running straight into the harbor, where there might still be a chance.  But the Spaniards sank four of their own valuable vessels in the harbor mouth—­guns, stores, and all—­just in the nick of time, and thus completely barred the way.

Foiled again, Drake dashed for the mainland, seized La Hacha, burnt it, ravaged the surrounding country, and got away with a successful haul of treasure; then he seized Santa Marta and Nombre de Dios, both of which were found nearly empty.  The whole of New Spain was taking the alarm—­The Dragon’s back again! Meanwhile a fleet of more than twice Drake’s strength was coming out from Spain to attack him in the rear.  Nor was this all, for Baskerville and his soldiers, who had landed at Nombre de Dios and started overland, were in full retreat along the road from Panama, having found an impregnable Spanish position on the way.  It was a sad beginning for 1596, the centennial year of England’s first connection with America.

’Since our return from Panama he never carried mirth nor joy in his face,’ wrote one of Baskerville’s officers who was constantly near Drake.  A council of war was called and Drake, making the best of it, asked which they would have, Truxillo, the port of Honduras, or the ‘golden towns’ round about Lake Nicaragua.  ‘Both,’ answered Baskerville, ‘one after the other.’  So the course was laid for San Juan on the Nicaragua