After an unsuccessful cruise on the coast of Veragua, Drake returned once more to the Cabezas, and there fell in with a French vessel, the captain of which proposed to join him in another attempt, now being planned, to capture some of the treasure trains still passing across the Isthmus. After consultation it was agreed that twenty of the French crew should go in company with fifteen of the English, and that the former should receive half the proceeds of the raid. The expedition sailed for the Rio Francisco, and after ascending the river a short distance in pinnaces marched overland, without mishap, to a spot near Nombre de Dios, within a short distance of the high road. The fleet from Cartagena still lay off that town awaiting the last shipments of treasure, and Drake had reason to believe that several richly laden trains were then on the way from Panamá. Nor was he disappointed. On the morning after his arrival the bells of the approaching train were distinctly heard, and soon there appeared in sight three companies, two with seventy and one with fifty mules, laden with nearly thirty tons of gold and silver. The escort of Spanish soldiers, numbering forty-five men, was beaten off after the exchange of a few shots, one of which wounded the French captain severely, and the adventurers were left in possession of the prize. In two hours they had secured all the gold they could carry away, and buried the remainder, with about fifteen tons of silver, under fallen trees. Meanwhile the alarm had been given at Nombre de Dios, and a strong party of horse and foot approached them from that direction. All except the wounded officer and two of his command retired to the woods and made their way back to the river. [Sidenote: PERILOUS SITUATION.] But what had become of the pinnaces? They had been ordered to return within four days and were not even in sight. Looking seaward, Drake descried seven Spanish vessels cruising off the coast. Surely the boats had been captured and their crews forced to disclose the hiding-place of the ships that were to have carried them back home, weighed down with plunder. Of little use was now their gold, with such dismal prospects before them. The cimarrones advised them to march overland to the spot where their vessels lay, a difficult journey of sixteen days at least, through forest and across streams swollen by winter rains and with many a tall mountain lying between them and the seashore. Drake was satisfied that long before they reached the coast their ships would be taken or burnt by the Spaniards. Nevertheless he told his men to banish fear, and bid them construct a raft from the trees brought down by the stream during a recent storm. A large biscuit-sack served for a sail, and for rudder an oar rudely shaped with axe and knife.