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The Cacafuego had no thought that the solitary ship which was seen approaching was that of Captain Drake; but taking her for a Spaniard, made no effort to fly. When, upon her coming close and hailing her to surrender, they discovered their mistake, the captain made a bold fight.
Then he told them of the expedition up the west coast, and of the towns they sacked; and the opulent names rolled oddly off his tongue, and seemed to bring a whiff of southern scent into this panelled English room, Valparaiso, Tarapaca, and Arica ; and of the capture of the Cacafuego off Quibdo; and of the enormous treasure they took, the great golden crucifix with emeralds of the size of pigeon's eggs, and the chests of pearls, and the twenty-six tons of silver, and the wedges of pure gold from the Peruvian galleon, and of the golden falcon from the Chinese trader that they captured south of Guatulco.
When our General had done what he would with this Cacafuego, he cast her off, and we went on our course still towards the west; and not long after met with a ship laden with linen cloth and fine China dishes of white earth, and great store of China silks, of all which things we took as we listed.
After a long pursuit, and the capture of more minor prizes which he let go, after taking what he wanted, leaving intact the private property of those on board he overtook the Cacafuego, securing an immense treasure and some exceedingly useful charts.
When this pilot departed from us, his boy said thus unto our General: Captain, our ship shall be called no more the Cacafuego, but the Cacaplata, and your ship shall be called the Cacafuego. Which pretty speech of the pilot's boy ministered matter of laughter to us, both then and long after.
Whereupon we stayed no longer here, but, cutting all the cables of the ships in the haven, we let them drive wither they would, either to sea or to the shore; and with all speed we followed the Cacafuego toward Payta, thinking there to have found her.
Here the admiral got notice of a very rich ship, called the Cacafuego, which had sailed for Paita, in lat. 5° 10' S. Pursuing her thither, they learnt, before arriving at Paita, that she had sailed for Panama.
Onward pressed the Golden Hind, her crew eager to overtake the richly-laden Cacafuego, or the Spitfire, as we will translate her name. Drake considered that she was likely to touch at other ports to take in more cargo, and, trusting to that circumstance and to her being occasionally becalmed, he confidently hoped to overtake her before she could reach Panama and land her cargo.
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.
After ballasting his ship with silver from the rich Potosi mines, and rifling even the churches, he hastened onward in pursuit of a richly laden galleon nicknamed Cacafuego a name discreetly translated Spitfire, but which, to repeat a joke that greatly amused Drake's men at the time, it was proposed to change to Spitsilver, for when overtaken and captured the vessel yielded 26 tons of silver, 13 chests of pieces of eight, and gold and jewels sufficient to swell the booty to half a million pounds sterling.
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