The march had not far progressed when the wounded French captain was obliged to drop out and seek rest in the woods, hoping soon to regain his strength. He was never again seen by his companions, though repeatedly sought, and it was afterward learned that he fell into the hands of the Spaniards. Later on the march another of the Frenchmen was missed. His fate, also ascertained subsequently, was not so tragic as his captain’s, though hard and with sorry results to the band in that through it they lost much of the treasure which they had hidden. While rifling the teams he had drunk much wine, and overloading himself with pillage, had started ahead of the rest and become lost in the woods. He, too, was captured by the Spaniards, and under torture he revealed the places of the buried plunder. Rio Francesco was reached after two days of marching and here no pinnaces were met. Instead they saw a fleet of seven Spanish pinnaces cruising off the coast. They “mightily suspected” that these Spaniards had taken or spoiled their boats. In this emergency Drake determined to reach his ships at all hazard. From trees that had been brought down a river by a recent storm he had his men construct a raft. For a sail a biscuit sack was utilized, and a young tree was stripped for an oar to serve instead of a rudder. Upon this rude craft he embarked with a few volunteers, and as he pushed off he comforted the company left behind with the assurance that “if it pleased God he should put his foot in safety aboard his frigate he would, God willing, by one means or other get them all aboard despite of all the Spaniards in the Indies.” He had thus sailed out into the sea some three leagues, under a parching sun and for about six hours all the while sitting up to the waist in water and at nearly every surge to the armpits, when two pinnaces were descried coming inward under a spanking breeze. As they neared they were seen to be his own pinnaces. At the sight the half-drowned raftsmen set up a shout. But they were evidently not seen by those on the pinnaces, for the boats shifted and ran into a cove beyond a point of land. Since they did not come out again Drake concluded that they were to anchor there for the night. Thereupon he piloted his shaky craft ashore, and leaping off, ran around the point and so came upon them, to the great astonishment of their occupants and his greater relief. Their masters accounted for their delay in reaching the rendezvous in telling how they had been beaten back by a heavy storm, and had been obliged to stand off to avoid the Spanish pinnaces. Drake’s companions of the raft were first succoured; and then he himself, not stopping for rest, that evening rowed to Rio Francesco, where the remainder of the company and the treasure were taken off and brought to the pinnaces. At dawn next morning all set sail back again to the frigate, and thence directly to the ships at Fort Diego. Upon the