Every one else looked on the convoys as doomed. For Drake,
having assured himself that Santa Cruz could not stir, and that England
was safe for a year at least, resolved to make for the Azores and wait
for the prey that had so narrowly escaped him the year before.
On the third day of his stay off the Tagus he took advantage of a
northerly gale to run for the anchorage at St. Vincent, which he had
made his own, and where he intended to water and refresh for the voyage.
There, huddled under the lee of the cape, was found a fresh crowd of
store-ships, which he seized. For nine days he lay there, rummaging the
ships, taking in water, and sending the men ashore in batches to shake
off the sickness with which, as usual, the fleet was attacked. Every day
new prizes fell into his hands, and ere he sailed he had taken and
destroyed forty more vessels and a hundred small craft. On May 22d he
put to sea, and, as the news spread, a panic seized every commercial
centre in the Spanish dominions. Half the merchants in Philip's empire
saw ruin before them: the whole year's produce both of the East and West
Indian trade was at Drake's mercy; and no one knew how Spain, with its
resources already strained to the utmost, would survive the shock.
Whatever might have been the result had these fears been realized,
destiny seemed to have decided that in the Channel should be played the
last great scene.
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