22 The Beginning of British Honduras
had sailed from the province of Nicaragua and were bound
to Nombre de Dios to sell poultry, maize, and such like. On
Maundy Thursday, in the afternoon, these same English with
a frigate, a pinnace, and a skiff arrived at Guanaja, an island
close to the city of Trujillo. They were guided by Antonio
Vaez, Portuguese. From Trujillo, forty soldiers were sent out
in a small ship in search of these Englishmen. They say they
did not find them, and that they had sailed, steering a north-
erly course. I had written to the town council to be on the
alert and to attack these English if they called, and I warned
Puerto Caballos to be ready, advising that I understood these
people were going to do damage to that place. Similarly they
intended to enter the Golfo Dulce and pillage certain Span-
ish establishments which are at the landing place where there
is a quantity of wine and merchandise." In Hakluyt's de-
scription of this voyage he mentions this Portuguese pilot of
Elves, calling him Lopez Vaz. On this expedition Drake re-
turned home by way of the Yucatan Channel, Florida, and
Newfoundland, on the excellent Spanish frigate he captured,
having abandoned the "Pasha" and the "Swan."
 In 1564 Hawkins was in the Yucatan channel and the Isle
of Pines, in 1565 he visited the French Huguenot colony in
Florida, in 1568 he was at San Juan de Ulua, near Vera Cruz,
and Drake was then serving with him as a young man. The
Norman pirate captain Paul Blondel lost his ship the "Don
de Dieu" helping Hawkins in this fight at San Juan de Ulua.
Often the English and French pirates who were hand in glove
formed joint expeditions which as readily broke up once their
purpose was achieved or defeated. Drake, Hawkins, John
Oxenham, and John Lovell knew the Cockscomb Mountains
as a landmark and had called on its coast for food and water.
The highways and byways of the Caribbean were to the
Armada heroes what the playing fields of Eton were to those
of Waterloo. In 1586 Drake took Santiago, Santo Domingo,
Cartagena, and St. Augustine with a fleet of 25 ships and