The adventurers' fleet turned homewards
at the beginning of April. What men could do they had achieved. They
could not fight against the pestilence of the tropics. For many days the
yellow fever did its deadly work among them, and only slowly abated.
They were delayed by calms and unfavourable winds. Their water ran
short. They had to land again at Cape Antonio, the western point of
Cuba, and sink wells to supply themselves. Drake himself, it was
observed, worked with spade and bucket, like the meanest person in the
whole company, always foremost where toil was to be endured or honour
won, the wisest in the devising of enterprises, the calmest in danger,
the first to set an example of energy in difficulties, and, above all,
the firmest in maintaining order and discipline. The fever slackened as
they reached the cooler latitudes. They worked their way up the Bahama
Channel, going north to avoid the trades. The French Protestants had
been attempting to colonise in Florida. The Spaniards had built a
fortress on the coast, to observe their settlements and, as occasion
offered, cut Huguenot throats. As he passed by Drake paid this fortress
a visit and wiped it out. Farther north again he was in time to save the
remnant of an English settlement, rashly planted there by another
brilliant servant of Queen Elizabeth.
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