If human muscles could have urged on the _Golden Hind_ at a greater speed than she was going, the men would have exerted their strength until they had dropped. They could do nothing, however, but stand on deck or cling to the masts and shrouds, looking at the distant sail with still more eagerness than before. Gradually the topsails of the stranger rose above the horizon, then her courses or lower sails, then the hull itself came into view. As they examined her from the trucks to the water's edge, they were more and more convinced that she was the argosy of which they had been so long in chase. What was their astonishment, at length, to see her clew up her sails and heave to! "Is she so strongly armed that she can venture to stop and fight us?" was the question. No one had anticipated that she earned guns. Such had not been the practice of the Spaniards in those seas, for they had been fully convinced that no enemies could venture through the straits to wrest their ill-gotten treasures from their hands. Hitherto they had enjoyed the monopoly of tyrannising over the Indians, and of all the profitable commerce carried on along the coast. Drake had aroused them from their sleep of security. The _Golden Hind_ got nearer and nearer to the stranger. John Drake felt convinced that he had won the Admiral's chain. Presently the ship ahead was seen to put her helm up and make all sail, endeavouring to escape; but it was too late,--already she was within range of the guns of the _Golden Hind_, which forthwith began pouring forth their shot, aimed not at her hull--that was too precious to be injured--but at her masts and spars. The English were rejoiced to see the efforts made by the Spanish captain to escape, for this convinced them that his cargo was a valuable one, or he would not have run the risk of losing his life or the lives of his men from the iron shot which came rattling on board. Another shout, triumphant and jubilant, rose from the deck of the _Golden Hind_. The mast of the chase was shot away, and the adventurers, soon getting up to her, made fast alongside. She was indeed the _Cacafuego_. The captors eagerly pressed on board, the Spanish captain and his crew having no heart to oppose them. He confessed that, when he hove to, he had taken the _Golden Hind_ for a Spanish ship, sent by the Viceroy with some special message for him to convey to Panama, and great had been his astonishment when he discovered her real character. The Admiral, setting all sail, carried his prize away from the land, out of the track of passing vessels or of the Spanish squadron sent in chase of him, that he might at his leisure transfer her cargo to the hold of the _Golden Hind_.