Toledo prepared elaborate, but judicious, instructions, and entrusted Sarmiento with the command of the expedition. No better man could have been found. He was a scientific seaman, devoted to his duties, and true as steel. He made a careful survey of the channels leading from the Gulf of Trinidad, and of the Strait of Magellan; and he then proceeded to Spain and strongly recommended that the narrow channel near the eastern entrance should be fortified, and that a colony should be established to raise provisions, in connection with the garrisons. His plan was approved by King Philip II., a large fleet was fitted out, and colonists were put on board. But the business was shamefully mismanaged, owing to the command being given to an incapable and jealous officer, while Sarmiento was to be kept without power until he actually landed on the shore of the strait. At length, however, Sarmiento was put on shore, with the survivors of the colonists and with a small remnant of the supplies intended for them. Two towns were founded; but food ran short, and Sarmiento returned to Brazil for help. His subsequent efforts were all thwarted, until at length he was taken prisoner by a ship belonging to Sir Walter Ralegh, and brought to England. No succour was sent to the colonists, who perished of starvation and misery. These events were the direct consequences of Drake's appearance in the South Sea.
While the viceroy Toledo was elaborating these defensive schemes, which were destined to terminate so tragically, Drake was pursuing his successful career. He crossed the line on the 28th of February, 1579, sighted the chase off Cape San Francisco, on the coast of the province of Quito, and soon came to close quarters. A defence was attempted by the Cacafuego; but one of her masts was shot away, and she was captured by boarding. The prize yielded eighty pounds' weight of gold, thirteen chests of coined silver, and a quantity of bar silver and precious stones, the whole value being £90,000. A few days afterwards another Spanish ship laden with linen, silks, and china dishes, was overhauled. Drake made prize of the cargo, but not of the private property of the owner, Don Francisco de Zarate, who was himself on board. He did not, as is asserted in Barrow's 'Life of Drake,' rob from the owner's person a golden ornament in the shape of a falcon, with a large emerald set in its breast. A most interesting letter has quite recently been found at Seville, from this very Don Francisco de Zarate to the Viceroy of Mexico, giving an account of the capture
