It was found in the end that the Governor’s plea of impossibility was more real than was at first believed.  The gold and silver had been really carried off.  All else that was valuable had been burnt or taken by the English.  The destruction of a city so solidly built was tedious and difficult.  Nearly half of it was blown up.  The cathedral was spared, perhaps as the resting-place of Columbus.  Drake had other work before him.  After staying a month in undisturbed occupation he agreed to accept 25,000 ducats as a ransom for what was left and sailed away.

It was now February.  The hot season was coming on, when the climate would be dangerous.  There was still much to do and the time was running short.  Panama had to be left for another opportunity.  Drake’s object was to deal blows which would shake the faith of Europe in the Spanish power.  Carthagena stood next to St. Domingo among the Spanish West Indian fortresses.  The situation was strong.  In 1740 Carthagena was able to beat off Vernon and a great English fleet.  But Drake’s crews were in high health and spirits, and he determined to see what he could do with it.  Surprise was no longer to be hoped for.  The alarm had spread over the Caribbean Sea.  But in their present humour they were ready to go anywhere and dare anything, and to Carthagena they went.

Drake’s name carried terror before it.  Every non-combatant—­old men, women and children—­had been cleared out before he arrived, but the rest prepared for a smart defence.  The harbour at Carthagena was formed, as at St. Domingo and Port Royal, by a sandspit.  The spit was long, narrow, in places not fifty yards wide, and covered with prickly bush, and along this, as before, it was necessary to advance to reach the city.  A trench had been cut across at the neck, and a stiff barricade built and armed with heavy guns; behind this were several hundred musketeers, while the bush was full of Indians with poisoned arrows.  Pointed stakes—­poisoned also—­had been driven into the ground along the approaches, on which to step was death.  Two large galleys, full of men, patrolled inside the bank on the harbour edge, and with these preparations the inhabitants hoped to keep the dreadful Drake from reaching them.  Carlile, as before, was to do the land fighting.  He was set on shore three miles down the spit.  The tide is slight in those seas, but he waited till it was out, and advanced along the outer shore at low-water mark.  He was thus covered by the bank from the harbour galleys, and their shots passed over him.  Two squadrons of horse came out, but could do nothing to him on the broken ground.  The English pushed on to the wall, scarcely losing a man.  They charged, scaled the parapets, and drove the Spanish infantry back at point of pike.  Carlile killed their commander with his own hand.  The rest fled after a short struggle, and Drake was master of Carthagena.  Here for six weeks he remained.  The Spaniards withdrew out of the city, and there were