Here I leave them for the moment. We shall presently hear of them again
in a very singular connection. The _Minion_ and _Judith_ meanwhile
pursued their melancholy way. They parted company. The _Judith_, being
the better sailer, arrived first, and reached Plymouth in December, torn
and tattered. Drake rode off post immediately to carry the bad news to
London. The _Minion's_ fate was worse. She made her course through the
Bahama Channel, her crew dying as if struck with a pestilence, till at
last there were hardly men enough left to handle the sails. They fell
too far south for England, and at length had to put into Vigo, where
their probable fate would be a Spanish prison. Happily they found other
English vessels in the roads there. Fresh hands were put on board, and
fresh provisions. With these supplies Hawkins reached Mount's Bay a
month later than the _Judith_, in January 1569.
Drake had told the story, and all England was ringing with it.
Englishmen always think their own countrymen are in the right. The
Spaniards, already in evil odour with the seagoing population, were
accused of abominable treachery. The splendid fight which Hawkins had
made raised him into a national idol, and though he had suffered
financially, his loss was made up in reputation and authority.
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