THE LOSS OF THE MARY ROSE

1544

AFTER the departing of the English navy from Newhaven, the Admirall of Fraunce, called the lorde Danibalt, a man of great experience, halsed1 up his sayles, and with his whole navie came to the poynt of the Isle of Wight, called Saint Helene's poynt, and there in good order, cast their ankers, and sent XVI of his galies daily to the very haven of Portsmouth. The English navie liying in the haven made them prest2 and set out towards them, and stil the one shot at the other. (But one day above al other, the whole navie of the Englishemen made out and purposed to set on the Frenchmen, but in their settyng forward, a goodly shippe of Englande, called the Mary Rose, was by to much folly drowned in the middes of the haven; for she was laden with to much ordinaunce,

3

and the portes left open, which were very low, and the great ordinaunce unbreeched, so that when the shipp should turne, the water entered, and sodainly she sanke.) In her was Sir George Carewe Knight, capitaine of the sayde shippe, and foure hundred men, and much ordinaunce.-GRAFTON'S CHRONICLE.

1 Hoisted.

2 Made themselves ready.

3 Midst. 4 Breechings are ropes fastening the guns to the ship's side.

JOHN OXENHAM IN PANAMA

1575

THOUGH Drake had enriched himself in his expedition, success served only to excite him to a greater enterprise. But while he was "brooding privately over this new design," it was in part forestalled by one who had served under him in the various capacities of soldier, sailor, and cook. This person, whose name was John Oxenham, is said to have obtained the good opinion both of his captain and comrades in no ordinary degree. Drake, when he beheld from "that goodly and great high tree of the Maroons" the sea of which he had heard such golden reports, communicated especially to Oxenham his purpose of one day sailing upon it, "if it would please God to grant him that happiness"; and Oxenham, in reply, protested that unless Drake were to beat him from his company, “he would follow him by God's grace."

On one occasion, when a party was to be sent on shore, and the people would not consent that Drake should venture his person, John Oxenham and Thomas Sherwell were put in trust for the service, "to the great content of the whole company, who conceived greatest hope of them next to the captain, whom, by no means, they would condescend to suffer to adventure."

Oxenham "had gotten among the seamen the name of captain for his valour, and had privily scraped together good store of money"; and, having been now

some time at home, and becoming impatient of idleness, he determined no longer to wait for Drake, but to undertake, on his own account, the adventure which that enterprising commander had projected. Following, therefore, the course which his late commander had so successfully pursued, he sailed for the isthmus with one ship and seventy men, revisited his old acquaintances the Maroons, and learned from them that the treasure which he had hoped to intercept on its way from Panama was now protected by a convoy of soldiers. Disappointed in this hope, he determined upon a bolder adventure.

He drew his ship aground in a retired and woody creek, covered it with boughs, buried his provisions. and his great guns, and taking with him two small pieces of ordnance, went, with all his men and six Maroon guides, about twelve leagues into the interior, to a river which discharges itself into the South Sea. There he cut wood and built a pinnace "which was five and forty feet by the keel, " embarked in it, and secured for himself the honour (if so it may be called, under such circumstances) of being the first Englishman that ever entered the Pacific. In this vessel he went to the Ilha de Perlas, five and twenty leagues from Panama, and there lay in wait for the appearance of a vessel from Peru. After lurking ten days, he captured a small bark bringing gold from Quito; and six days afterward, another with silver from Lima.

Not satisfied with this, he searched the islands for pearls; and having found a few, returned to his pinnace, made for the river in which he had embarked, and, when he was near the mouth, dismissed his prizes, thus incautiously allowing them to perceive where he was entering. The alarm was soon given; first by some negroes from the island, who, as soon as he had left them, hastened in a canoe to Panama. Juan de Ortega