ABSTRACT
The success of Francis Drake induced John Oxnam, of Plymouth, to undertake a similar expedition: he proceeded, in a vessel of 140 tons, with seventy men, to the same place where Drake had landed, and being joined by the natives, he hauled his vessel on shore, covered her with boughs, and buried his great guns, taking only two smaller ones with him. After marching twelve leagues inland, guided by the Negroes, they got to a river that ran into the South Sea. Here Oxnam built a pinnace of forty-five feet keel; and taking six Negroes with him, went down the river to the Island of Pearls, twenty-five leagues from Panama. After concealing themselves ten days, they captured a bark from Quito, with provisions, and 60,000 pesos of gold on board. Not content with this, he staid six days longer, and captured another bark from Lima, with 100,000 pesos in silver on board. In one of these vessels was a table of massy gold set with emeralds, intended as a present for the King, and a very beautiful Spanish lady, with whom Oxnam fell desperately in love, at whose request he liberated all his prisoners, one of whom was either her son or nephew, and let them go to Panama, from whence they soon returned With a superior force in search of the English.
