their two small vessels, they set out on their homeward voyage, which was accomplished in three-and-twenty days. He arrived in Plymouth on Sunday the 9th of August 1573. It appears "when the news of his arrival reached the church, there remained few or no people with the preacher, the congregation broke up to welcome him." A relation of this voyage was published by his nephew, and revised by himself.

Drake's thoughts were now directed to the best means of realising his dream of ploughing the Pacific Ocean with English keels. While gathering help and enlisting supporters, he served with the Earl of Essex in an Irish campaign; and his tactics and brilliant valour secured him the patronage of Queen Elizabeth. He was thus enabled, towards the close of 1577, to sail from Plymouth, with five vessels, the largest of which was 100 and the smallest 15 tons. This was destined to prove his great voyage of circumnavigation, which occupied about two years and ten months. The execution of Thomas Doughty in the course of this voyage has been regarded as one of the most doubtful acts in Drake's life, although he is represented as being perfectly honest and straightforward in the act, regretting Doughty's death, but looking upon it as necessary for the safety of the expedition. A probable supposition about Doughty's guilt has been that he intended making off with one of the ships, and trying his own fortune.

Looked at as a mere commercial speculation it may be regarded as exceedingly profitable, those who invested any money in it being repaid at the rate of £47 for every £1 ventured,1 although much of the treasure brought home had been previously sequestered and restored to its rightful owners, at the instance of the Spanish Ambassador.

Of the benefits accruing to England from this voyage, and the manner in which it was accomplished, Mr W. D. Cooley remarks:2 "Drake was the first Englishman who passed the Straits of Magellan, or who sailed under English colours in the Pacific Ocean. It is remarkable that he should attempt, with so weak a fleet, to achieve a navigation long since abandoned by 1 Barrow's "Life of Drake," p. 177.

.

"Maritime and Inland Discovery," pp. 258-261.

the Spaniards on account of its extreme difficulty and danger. He arrived at the tempestuous regions of the Magellanic Straits in the winter season, and yet he effected his passage through them in the short space of seventeen days. ... Perfect in his seamanship, relying implicitly on his own resources, and possessing that high courage which is unacquainted even with the bodings of fear, he was, in all seasons and latitudes, perfectly at home on the ocean. In the ease and certainty with which he shaped his course through unknown seas, he bears a resemblance to his celebrated countryman Captain Cook. . . . England was at that time awakening to a sense of its internal strength, and rising rapidly to that maritime superiority which it has since so proudly maintained. The pursuit of fame, and love of chivalrous exploits, suited with the temper of the court in the reign of Elizabeth. Men of fortune and of education hurried into every path of enterprise which promised them honour and distinction. Not a few followed the track of Sir Francis Drake; and such was the ardour resulting from the success of his voyage, that in the course of sixteen years the English sent no fewer than six expeditions to the South Seas."

Drake had the honour of receiving the Queen on board his ship, April the 4th, 1581, and after dinner Elizabeth bestowed the honour of knighthood on her famous subject. She also gave orders that the Golden Hind should be preserved as a monument of the national glory, and of her great captain's enterprise; and so for long years it was kept in Deptford dockyard until it fell into decay, when all that remained sound in her timber was converted into a chair for the Oxford University, and Cowley the poet addressed to it the following lines:

"To this great ship, which round the world has run,
And matched in race the chariot of the sun,

This Pythagorean ship (for it may claim,
Without presumption, so deserved a name,
By knowledge once, and transformation now),

In her new shape, this sacred port allow.

Drake and his ship could not have wished from Fate

A more blessed station, or more blessed estate,

For, lo a seat of endless rest is given

To her in Oxford, and to him in heaven."

Drake was next employed as commander-in-chief of the great fleet despatched in September 1585 against the Spanish West Indies. They made a successful attack on San Domingo, and, after a desperate struggle, carried Carthagena. Then, after doing infinite damage, and securing immense booty, Drake brought back his fleet to England in perfect safety.

At this time he is said to have visited Virginia, and it is stated by Camden with regard to this voyage, that he was the first to bring tobacco to England, though Raleigh was the first to make its use popular. On the same authority it is stated that from the books, papers, and charts which were taken from an East India ship which he captured off the coast of Spain in 1587, originated the first suggestion for undertaking our East Indian trade, and suggested an application to the Queen for liberty to establish an East India Company.1

It is aside from our present purpose to enter minutely into the story of the defeat of the "Invincible Armada" of Spain, in which Drake played such a high and honourable part. We may, however, be excused giving an extract from one of Drake's letters written to Lord Walsingham, 31st July 1588, during the heat of the fight, and which with little verbal alteration resolves itself into blank verse. It may be taken as an example of a mind when under strong emotion expressing itself poetically.

"We have the army of Spain before us,

And by God's grace shall wrestle a pull with him.
Never was anything pleased me better
Than seeing the enemy flying

With a southerly wind to the northwards.
God grant you have a good eye on Parma,

By God's grace, if we live, we'll so handle
This Duke of Sidonia, he'll wish himself back
To St Mary's, safe 'mid his orange trees."

A childish rhyme of the period which has thus been translated, testifies how far the dislike and terror of his name had entered into the Spanish mind:

"My brother Don John

To England is gone,

1 "Life of Sir Francis Drake," reprinted from "Biographia Britannica," pp. 49, 50.

INTRODUCTION.

To kill the Drake,

And the Queen to take,

And the heretics all to destroy."

21

This dislike attended even on his memory, for it is said when the news of his death reached Panama, two days of religious festivities were celebrated in honour of his death and damnation.

In April 1589 he took the command of the naval portion of a joint expedition against Spain. Corunna was captured, but owing to disease appearing among the land forces, little else was done or attempted, and Drake returned to England. For some time he addressed himself to civil pursuits, and in 1592-3 sat in Parliament as the representative of Plymouth. In 1594 he was again called to active service, Queen Elizabeth's government having determined on a new expedition against the Spanish colonies. It consisted of six royal and twenty private ships, and Drake and Hawkins were associated in the command.

The narrative of this ill-fated expedition, written by Thomas Maynarde, is given at page 98 of the present work. When they had taken and plundered in succession Rio de la Hacha, Santa Martha, and Nombre de Dios, it became evident that Drake's career was nearly ended. He was seized with a severe illness, which, acting fatally on an already weakened frame, terminated in his death on the 20th December 1596. His body was placed in a leaden coffin, the solemn service of the Church was read over it, and then it was lowered into the deep. A contemporary epitaph very fitly says—

"Where Drake first found there last he lost his name,
And for a tomb left nothing but his fame.

His body's buried under some great wave;

The sea, that was his glory, is his grave;
On whom an epitaph none can truly make,
For who can say, Here lies Sir Francis Drake."

With regard to the character and personal appearance of Sir Francis Drake we would close with the language of contemporary evidence. The first is from Stowe's Annals as quoted in Barrow's "Life of Drake," and the second from Fuller's "Worthies of England."

"He was low of stature, of strong limbs, broad breasted, rounde headed, broune hayre, full bearded; his eyes round, large, and clear, well favoured, fayre, and of a cheerfull countenance. His name was a terror to the French, Spaniard, Portugal, and Indians. Many princes of Italy, Germany, and other, as well enemies as friends, in his lifetime desired his picture. He was the second that ever went through the Straights of Magellanes, and the first that ever went rounde aboute the worlde. He was lawfully married unto two wives, both young, yet he himself and two of his brethren died without issue. He made his brother Thomas his heire, who was with him in most and chiefest of his imployments. In briefe, he was as famous in Europe and America as Tamberlayne in Asia and Affrica."

"He was of stature low, but set and strong grown; a very religious man towards God and His houses, generally sparing the churches wherever he came; chaste in his life, just in his dealings, true of his word, merciful to those that were under him, and hating nothing so much as idleness."

The incursions of the buccaneers on the Spanish settlements in the South Seas, though undertaken in the first place for gain and plunder, helped to familiarise our English seamen with the geography of the South American coast, and the other islands in the South Seas. The derivation of the word "buccaneer" is ascribed to the method which prevailed in Cuba at that time of killing, and curing the flesh of the cattle, according to the Carib method, on hurdles raised a few feet above the fire. This apparatus, the meat, and also the method of preparing it, the Indians called boocan, and hence those sailors who were engaged in supplying it to the cruisers and others were called buccaneers. Many of these adventurers were Englishmen, carrying on a smuggling trade both by sea and land. They all, without exception, plundered the Spaniards, and under this bond and unity of aim, they were sometimes called the brethren of the coast. Those who did their plundering on shore were called freebooters, and those who mainly cruised against the Spaniard were called buccaneers. If, in the case of a war with Spain, a commission could be obtained, these buccaneers became