But the village was found deserted. The Spaniards had
gone to the mountains, where it was useless to follow them, and were too
proud to bargain with a pirate chief. Sant Iago was a beautifully built
city, and Drake would perhaps have spared it; but a ship-boy who had
strayed was found murdered and barbarously mutilated. The order was
given to burn. Houses, magazines, churches, public buildings were turned
to ashes, and the work being finished Drake went on, as Santa Cruz
expected, for the Spanish West Indies. The Spaniards were magnificent in
all that they did and touched. They built their cities in their new
possessions on the most splendid models of the Old World. St. Domingo
and Carthagena had their castles and cathedrals, palaces, squares, and
streets, grand and solid as those at Cadiz and Seville, and raised as
enduring monuments of the power and greatness of the Castilian monarchs.
To these Drake meant to pay a visit. Beyond them was the Isthmus, where
he had made his first fame and fortune, with Panama behind, the depot of
the Indian treasure. So far all had gone well with him. He had taken
what he wanted out of Vigo; he had destroyed Sant Iago and had not lost
a man.
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