Cardenal, Ernesto: Drake in the Southern Sea (Drake en la mar del sud in English)

Realejo, 16 de abril de 1578

Salí del puerto de Acapulco el 23 de Marzo

y vine navegando hasta el sábado 4 de Abril

y media hora antes que amaneciera

vimos con la luna un navio junto al nuestro

con las velas y la proa que parecían de plata

y el que iba en el timón les gritó que se apartaran

y ello no respondían como si estuvieran dormidos.

Otra vez les gritaron: ¡QUE DE DONDE VENIA EL NAVIO!

y dijeron que del Perú, y que era Miguel Angel

y entonces oímos trompetas y disparos de arcabuces

y me ordenaron que bajara a su batel

y fuera adonde estaba el Capitán.

Lo hallé paseando en el puente

y me acerqué a él y besé las manos, y me dijo

¿Qué plata u oro tre este navío?

Y yo le dije: „Ninguno.

Ninguno señor, sino mis platos y mis copas.”

Me preguntó después si conocía al Virrey,

y le dije que sí. Y yo le pregunté al Capitán:

¿Si él era el mismo capitán Drake o no?

Y el Capitán:

Que él el mismo Drake que yo decía.

Estuvimos hablando mucho rato hasta que fue la hora de comer

y me mandó que me sentara a su lado.

Sus platos y copas son de plata con los bordes de oro

y en ellos trae sus Armas.

Tiene muchos perfumes y aguas de olores en cristales

que decía que se los había dado la Reina.

Come y cena siempre con música de vigolones,

y también lleva pintores que le van pintando

toda la costa.

Es un hombre de unos veinticuatro años, pequeño, barbirrubio,

él es sobrino de Juan Aquinas*, el pirata

y es uno de los mayores marineros que hay en el mar.

Al día siguiente que fue domingo se vistió con un gran lujo

y mandó izar todas las banderas

y los gallaredetes de colores en las cofas.

Y las argollas de bronce y cadenas y las barandas floridas

y faroles del Alcázar brillaban como el oro.

El navio parecía un dragón dorado entre los delfines.

Y fuimos con el paje a mi navíó a ver los cofres

y estuvo todo el día hasta la noche viendo lo que traía.

Lo que a mí me tomó no fue mucho

ciertas niñerías mías,

y me dio un alfanje y un braserillo de plata por ellas

y me dijo que lo perdonase

que por ser para su mujer las había tomado,

y que me podía ir de mañana cuando entrase la virazon

y le di las gracias por ello, y le besé las manos.

Trae en su galéon tres mil barras de plata

y tres cofres llenos de oro

y doce cofres grandes de realaes de a ocho,

y dice que van para la China

con las cartas de marear y un piloto de la China que tomaron…

*Juan Aquinas = John Hawkins

Realejo, April 16, 1578

I set out from the Port of Acapulco on the twenty-third of March

And kept a steady course until Saturday, the fourth of April, when

A half hour before dawn, we saw by the light of the moon

That a ship had come alongside

With sails and a bow that seemed to be of silver.

Our helmsman cried out to them to stand off

But no one answered, as though they were all asleep.

Again we called out: “WHERE DID THEIR SHIP COME FROM?”

And they said: Peru!

After which we heard trumpets, and muskets firing,

And they ordered me to come down into their longboat

To cross over to where their Captain was.

I found him walking the deck,

Went up to him, kissed his hands and he asked me:

“What silver or gold I had aboard that ship?”

I said, “None at all,

None at all, My Lord, only my dishes and cups.”

So then he asked me if I knew the Viceroy.

I said I did. And I asked the Captain,

“If he were Captain Drake himself and no other?”

The Captain replied that

“He was the very Drake I spoke of.”

We spoke together a long time, until the hour of dinner,

And he commanded that I sit by his side.

His dishes and cups are of silver, bordered with gold

With his crest upon them.

He has with him many perfumes and scented waters in crystal vials

Which, he said, the Queen had given him.

He dines and sups always with music of violins

And also takes with him everywhere painters who keep painting

All the coast for him.

He is a man of some twenty-four years, small, with a reddish beard.

He is a nephew of Juan Aquinas,* the pirate.

And is one of the greatest mariners there are upon the sea.

The day after, which was Sunday, he clothed himself in splendid garments

And had them hoist all their flags

With pennants of divers colors at the mastheads,

The bronze rings, and chains, and the railings and

The lights on the Alcazar shining like gold.

His ship was like a gold dragon among the dolphins.

And we went, with his page, to my ship to look at the coffers.

All day long until night he spent looking at what I had.

What he took from me was not much,

A few trifles of my own,

And he gave me a cutlass and a silver brassart for them,

Asking me to forgive him

Since it was for his lady that he was taking them:

He would let me go, he said, the next morning, as soon as there was a breeze;

For this I thanked him, and kissed his hands.

He is carrying, in his galleon, three thousand bars of silver

Three coffers full of gold

Twelve great coffers of pieces of eight:

And he says he is heading for China

Following the charts and steered by a Chinese pilot whom he captured…

*Juan Aquinas = John Hawkins

This poem is based on a strictly historical account of the encounter with Drake written by a Spanish captain, in a letter to the Viceroy of New Spain, dated Realejo (Nicaragua), 1578.