This bridge was also commanded by the
harbor fort, nor were land operations possible at any other point except
from that part of the spit which lay between the city and the Bocca
Grande. So finely, however, did this narrow down before the city could
be reached, that between the inner harbor and the sea it was but fifty
paces wide, and here the Spaniards had had time to prepare defences that
looked impregnable. From shore to shore a formidable entrenchment
completely barred the way; and not only was its front so staked and
encumbered as to render a night attack impossible, but its approaches
were swept by the guns and small-arms of a great galeas and two galleys
which lay in the inner harbor.
To a man so tender as Drake ever was for the lives of his men and the
safety of his ships, to attack such a place might well have appeared
hopeless; but the originality of the amphibious corsair at once descried
a hole which had escaped all the science of the Spanish martialists.
Instead of entering by the Bocca Grande, with consummate skill and
daring he piloted the whole fleet through the dangerous channel at the
extreme end of the lagoon. The only impression which so hazardous a
movement could create in the minds of the Spaniards was that he was
about to repeat his Santo Domingo operations, and land his troops there
to attack from the mainland.
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