20 The Beginning of British Honduras
70 tons with 47 men and boys, also his brother John on the
"Swan" of 25 tons with 26 men and boys, for Nomibre de
Dios, richly furnished with victuals and apparel for a whole
year and all manner of munition, artillery, tools, and three
pinnaces, made in Plymouth and taken asunder and stowed
away to be set up as occasion required.
 On July 13, they met at Nombre de Dios an English bark
of the Isle of Wight, under James Rawnse, with some of the
men who had been here the year before with Drake. This
ship now joined them with another English ship under John
Garrett of Plymouth, who, like Rawnse, was a former master
under Hawkins, and was prowling about this area. A French
man-of-war under Captain Guillaume Le Tetu of Le Havre
also met Drake in this Nombre de Dios area in 1573, and
Drake accepted this French aid for a time partly because his
own men had been considerably lessened by fever. This
Huguenot captain gave him a scimitar which had belonged
tu Admiral Coligny, and also brought him the first news of
the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. Guillaume Le Tetu was
one of the most expert pilots of his time and had made an
excellent atlas for the Ministry of War, for he had been sent
to reconnoitre the Caribbean in view of a great expedition
against the Spaniards. Already in 1550 Guillaume Le Tetu
wanted to establish a base in Hispaniola to command the
areas he had surveyed there and on the opposite mainland.
Later he was interested in the Lamanay-Cockscomb and
Mosquito Coasts for a re-establishment of the destroyed
French colony in Florida, which plan did not mature on ac-
count of the murder of Admiral Cologny who was backing
him. I e Tetu was killed at night fighting in the bush to help
his friend Drake hide fifteen tons of silver stolen from the
Spaniards who were pursuing them in the Chagres area. The
well known Diego Flores de Valdes, who was one of the lead-
ers of the Spanish Armada, then commanded in the Nombre
de Dios area.
 Drake also used the Cimarrones or runaway slaves to aid