but it was intended to be an Canaries, to Cadiz. When armed guard. Spain has left us many examples of a total lack of administrative commonsense, and none of them is more wonderful than the amazing patchwork of her navy till the eighteenth century. Every squadron was a separate affair, paid for by special resources, and commanded by its own officers. The armada de galeones was supported by a five per cent levy on all goods carried in the trade with the New World, and had no connection with the galleys in the Mediterranean or the squadron of Cantabria, except that they all served the same king. It was first established to protect the home-coming trade between the Canaries and the coast of Spain against the Barbary pirates of Salee and other ports of Morocco. When the French adventurers and their followers, the Elizabethan seamen, began to haunt not only the islands of the Atlantic but the West Indies, the armada de galeones became the regular armed convoy of the trade. Its round of service was uniform. It sailed with, or shortly after, the second flota in September or October. Then it went along the coast of South America to Carthagena of the Indies. Thence it worked north, collecting the trading ships as it went, at Rio de la Hacha, Porto Bello, and so on-till it reached the west end of Cuba and Havannah. There it was joined by the ships from Mexico, and the whole came back together, through the Florida Straits, by the Azores or they reached the Atlantic islands all canvas partitions erected to make cabins were pulled down and the ships cleared for action, for the belt of danger began there and extended to Cadiz Bay. Though, or rather because, they were warships, the galleons of the convoy carried the bullion both for the king and for private traders. When the flotas did not sail for fear of enemies or because of bad trade, a few armed galleons were sent for the treasure. Yet they were forbidden to carry ordinary cargo coming or going; but as corruption or disorder increased, the galleons of the armada came to be laden with merchandise for their officers, and were in fact as much trading ships as the vessels of the flotas. The trade of the Pacific was another matter, and does not belong to this subject except in one point. The Viceroy of Peru was bound to see that the bullion from Potosi was at Panama by the month of March, so that it might be carried over the isthmus and shipped in the galleons in time to allow the whole of the home trade to meet at Havannah, and clear the Straits of Florida before the beginning of the hurricane months-that is to say, by July. Though the galleon was, as we see, only the large sailingship of the time, so much so, indeed, that the Spaniards used the name for our greater warships, and for the Dutch, to us and to the Hollanders it was emphatically the carrier of the bullion and the em eralds. Other parts of the cargoes of the homewardbound flotas (the outward bound, as has been said already, would barely repay capture) the cochineal, the chocolate, and cocoa, still more the hides, might be spoilt or find a poor sale; but bars of silver and bags of precious stones could not fail of a good market. In spite of the ostrich - like efforts of the Spaniards to guard the secrets of the Indies, their enemies soon found out where the booty was to be met with. It came by a long sea-route, which began at Carthagena "of the Indies" in "The New Kingdom of Granada "-men call it now the Republic of Colombia. From the town named after the Carthaginian colony in south-eastern Spain, "Cartagena de Levante," and founded by the Arragonese, Pedro de Heredia, ancestor of the author of 'Les Trophées,' and of the other José Maria de Heredia, Cuban poet and insurgent, who died disillusioned, broken-hearted, and starving in Mexico, the route of the galleons went west across the Gulf of Darien to Nombre de Dios and Porto Bello on the isthmus of Panama. Pestiferous holes as they were, they were the sites of the "fair,' at which the bullion of Peru was exchanged for the manufactures of Europe. Then it ran north to the Yucatan Channel, round the west end of Cuba, through the Florida Straits, and so to Cadiz by the 40th parallel and the Azores, while Spain held Portugal, but farther to the south and by the Canaries when she did not. There were fixed points on the road where the enemy, who chose his time well, could be sure of meeting the booty. The nearest and, subject to certain conditions, the best, was the landfall of the flota, Cadiz. But he who would take the treasure-ships must first be sure that his fleet was too strong for the Spanish navy, and then trust the King of Spain did not find means to warn his officers at the Azores or the Canaries to take the northern route and bring the silver to Vigo or Corunna, Corcubion or Ferrol. The expedition sent by Charles I. in 1625 might have had both Cadiz and the treasure-ships if it had not been beaten by its own weakness. It sailed away too soon and the galleons came in safe, to the heartfelt relief of the court of Philip IV., which had given them up for lost. Blake did indeed capture treasure outside Cadiz, in the Commonwealth days, and the silver he took was carried in Portsmouth waggons to the Tower, to the great glory and advantage of the Lord Protector Oliver, and withal to the patriotic joy of his enemies the Cavaliers. But as the flota was not absolutely compelled to come to Cadiz, this cruisingground was not as a rule rich. Next for proximity and convenience came the Azores and Canaries, where the flota must call for orders, and also for fresh water and provisions. Yet these points rendered little profit. Blake did great injury to French Huguenot colony in Florida could have been carried out, the settlers would have had the homeward route of the treasure-ships at their mercy. Coligny's colony was stamped out by Pedro Melendez de Avilés. All the world has heard of Richard heard of the execution of Ribault and his men, of the sufferings of Laudonnière, and of M. De Gourgues' alleged revenge. The Spanish officer was ferocious, without doubt— as ferocious as Elizabeth's officers were to the Spaniards and Italians at Smerwick, to the shipwrecked men of the Armada, of whom many were butchered in Irish prisons after they had been received quarter. The age was cruel, and it must in justice be allowed that the Spaniards could hardly be expected to distinguish between the Huguenots whom they found invading their master's territory in Florida, and the other Frenchmen who had just burnt Havannah after massacring the inhabitants. The Huguenots and the pirates were indeed hand in glove. When we think how weak the Spaniards were, we have to remember that their enemies were also weak at sea, if we are to understand why so many years passed before a serious attack was made on them in the West Indies. Poetry, romance, national partiality, to The best course was attack the treasure-ships at their ports of departure in the Main and the West Indies. But then the assailants were themselves far from home, and it was long before they were able to cruise in force. The French came first, and as early as 1560 they sacked Havannah, still a very small place. If Coligny's scheme to plant a natural confusion between their achievements and the greater things done in later times, have combined to give a fictitious splendour to the voyages of Hawkins and Drake. Hawkins went as a smuggler disease or starvation, and of negroes, and in co-operation with Spanish smugglers, on voyages which were the beginning of a curious chapter in the history of the slave trade. He was not averse to piracy, as he showed when he joined forces with the French pirates at Borburata, and sailed to San Juan de Ulloa, where he and they were destroyed by the flota of New Spain. Drake hung about solitary places on the coast, was beaten off at Nombre de Dios, and captured a small convoy of treasure on the isthmus, with the help Frenchman, who was wounded by the Spaniards and left in the lurch by the Devonshire Sea Rover. The expedition of 1585 plundered small places, for San Domingo and Carthagena were then nothing more, won small booty, and lost half its men by disease. The final expedition of Hawkins and Drake, with Baskerville, in 1595, ended in disaster. It was designed to seize the isthmus, but Baskerville was beaten on shore, and the ships returned leaving Drake and Hawkins to their long sleep at the bottom of the sea. To seize the isthmus would have been the most effectual of all ways of intercepting the King of Spain's treasure. But none of the attempts made to do it succeeded, not even the victorious raid of Morgan and his Buccaneers. It is true that Morgan took and burnt Panama, yet the treasure had been removed before he reached the place. Little booty was taken. Most of the Buccaneers died of Morgan, who was roundly accused of corrupt connivance with the Spaniards and of cheating his followers, was hooted in the streets when he reached Jamaica. The odd story of the Scots Darien Company has a place in the strange history of West-Indian lawlessness, but it was a thing apart. Neither the Elizabethan adventurers nor the Buccaneers made direct attacks on the flotas and the armada de galeones. The first heavy blow they received, which the Spaniards count the first great disaster they suffered in the West Indies, was delivered in 1628, and by the Dutchman, Piet Hein. Piet is the Benbow of Dutch naval history-the thorough tarpaulin and regular bred seaman. He fought his way up from before the mast through many adventures, including a period of servitude at the oar in Spanish galleys. He became an admiral in the service of the Dutch West India Company, and in 1628 captured a whole treasure - fleet and millions of ducats at Matanzas. As a feat of war it was no great matter, for he had the larger fleet, and the Spanish admiral Benavides had corruptly loaded his war galleons with merchandise. Benavides was executed for it, and perhaps justly, though when we read how his judge in Spain declared that even if he were blameless, he ought to be put to death as a sacrifice for so great a disaster, doubts arise as to the justice. Piet took his glories calmly. They destroyed at Vigo by Rooke received him at Rotterdam and Ormonde. But the treawith triumphal arches, foun- sure was landed, sent up tains of wine, and schoolmasters spouting Latin. He chewed his quid and said nothing, till in a pause in the eloquence he turned to the Director of the West India Company, who was chairman of the meeting, and said: "They are making a great hullabaloo now because I have brought them a hatful of money. I have been in greater peril for them before and they didn't care a stiver if my head was blown off.” After 1628 things went ever worse for Spain, and she grew ever less wise. After 1700 she had to ask the French to help her to bring the treasure home, and King Lewis XIV. schemed to get it into his own hands. He meant to do so in the case of the treasure-fleet which was country, and largely pillaged by the Galician carters and muleteers. The last conspicuous appearance of the armada de galeones was in 1708, when the three ships composing it, vessels of 66 and 44 guns, were attacked by Sir Charles Wager, near Carthagena "of the Indies," with the Expedition 70, the Kingston 60, and the Portland 50. One Spanish ship blew up, one was taken, and the third escaped. She too, it was thought, might have been taken, if Captain Bridges of the Kingston and Captain Windsor of the Portland had shown more zeal. After that date the name galleon died out, and Spanish ways of conducting the trade were altered. DAVID HANNAY. |