,A.,.

1, # t

& ' ' .Mil

ENGLISH SEAMEN UNDER THE TUDORS.

VOL. n.

L0X1>0N. PRINTEIJ n\ \Y. rr,.-,\rr^ AM' .'¦ON.8, STA,Ml:"Or.P STREET AND CHARTICU (_ i:i iS-..

ENGLISH SEAMEN

THE TUDORS.

H. E. FOX BOURNE,
AlITHOE OF " A MEMOIK OF SIK I'HILU' SlJjXEl-," " E.NGLIiH MKKCHASIS," ETC.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOLUME II.

LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
\BubliSl)ex tn earBtnar^ tn fSjer fHajeStg.
1868.

"By ^^ 1^

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

CHAPTER XI.
QUEEN Elizabeth's navy and its eabliee -work.
[1558—1585.] PAGE
The English Navy at the time of Henry VIII.'s Death — Its De
cline under Mary aud Edward VI. — Its Revival under Elizabeth
— Her Chief Advisers and Agents ; tlie Howards and Clinton
— Cecil's Plan for Naval Improvement — Tlie Strength of the
Navy in 1578 — The Services of Sir John Hawkins and Sir
William Winter — Queen Elizabeth's Irregular War with France
and Scotland — Piracy under the Tudors — The Work of the
Navy in Checking it  1

CHAPTER XII.
THE EARLIER EXPLOITS OF SIR JOHN HAWKINS AND SIB FRANCIS DRAKE IN
THE SPANISH MAIN.
[1562-1576.]
" Old William Hawkins " and Ms Voyages to Brazil — John Haw
kins's Training and First Employments — His First West Indian
Voyage — His Quai-rel with Spain thereupon — His Second West

vi Conte-nis.

PAG-E

Indian Voyage— Negro-Hunting in Guinea — Negro-Selling in
the Spanish Main — Hawkins's Exploits at Barbarotta, at Cura^oa,
and at Rio de la Haoha — His Visit to Florida and Return to
England— Queen Elizabeth's Favour and King Philip's Anger
— TJie Early History of Sir Francis Drake — Hawkins's Third
West Indian Voyage — His Insult to Spain in Plymouth Har
bour — His Further Adventures on the African Coast and in the
Spanish Main — His Visit to San JuandeUlloa, and Great Fight
witli the Spaniards there — His Defeat and its Results — The Suf
ferings of his Comrades in Mexico — The Troubles of his Home
ward Voyage — Drake's Two First Voyages to tlie Spanish Main
— His Third Expedition — His Raid on Nombre de Dios — His
Piracies near Cartagena — His Land Expedition towards Panama
— The Fruits of his Piratical Work — The Unfortunate Voyage
of Andrew Barker  22

CHAPTER XIII.
THE VOYAGES OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND THOMAS CAVENDISH TO THE
SOUTHERN SEA AND BOUND THE WORLD.
[1575—1593.]
Drake's Employments in Ireland and England— John Oxenham's
Expedition to the South Sea — Drake's Voyage round the World
— His Ships and their Outfit — His Passage to the African
Coast, and thence to Patagonia — Troubles at Port Saint Julian
— The Execution of Thomas Doughty — The Passage of Ma
gellan's Strait — A Seven Weeks' Storm and its Work— Drake's
Discovery of Cape Horn — His Piracies off Chili and Peru — His
Capture of the Cacafaego — His Passage to California, and
Attempt to find the North West Route — His Kingdom of New
Albion — His Crossing of the Pacific Ocean and Visit to Ternate
— First English Intercoiu-se with the Moluccas — Drake's Escape

Contents. vii

FACE

from Shipwreck near Celebes — Hia Homeward Voyage and his
Reception in England — The Results of his Voyage round the
World — Enterprises consequent upon it — Edward Fenton's Un
fortunate Expedition towards the South Sea — Thomas Caven
dish's Voyage round the World — ^His Passage by way of Africa
to the Strait of Magellan — The Story of a Spanish Colonizing
Project under Diego Florez de Valdez and Pedro Sarmiento —
Cavendish's Discovery of its Ruins — His Passage of Magellan's
Strait — ^His Piracies along the Western Coast of America from
Chili to California — His Capture of the Santa Aima — His Visit
to the Indian Archipelago — His Stay at the Philippine
Islands and at Java — His Return to England — His Second Ex
pedition to the South Sea in company with John Davis — His
Troubles at Magellan's Strait and off Brazil — His Death on the
Way Home — Davis's Passage of Magellan's Strait, and Subse
quent Troubles — Davis's Last Work and Death . . .76

CHAPTER XIV.
THE PRELUDE TO THE GREAT ARMADA FIGHT.
[1585—1587.]
The Origin and Progress of England's Quarrel with Spain — Queen
Elizabeth's League with the Netherlands, and open War with
Philip II. — ^Lord Charles Howard of EfBngham — Sir Francis
Drake's and Sir Philip Sidney's Project against Spain — Drake's
Expedition to the West Indies — His Visit to the Coast of
Galicia and Cape de Verde Islands — His Capture of San Do
mingo and Cartagena — His Plans for Further Warfare against
Philip— His First Expedition to Spain — His Destruction of
Spanish Shipping and Spanish Ports at Cadiz and elsewhere
along the Coast — His Capture of the San Felipe — The Effect.
of his Work  148

Contents.

CHAPTER XV.
THE GREAT AKMADA FIGHT.
[1588.] FAGK
Philip II.'s Preparations for the Invasion of England— English
Preparations for Resisting it — The Arguments and Plans of Lord
Admiral Howard, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir John Hawkins —
Queen Elizabeth's Backwardness — The Voyage of the English
Fleet to anticipate the Aimada — The Size and Composition of
the Armada — ^The Size and Composition of the English Fleet —
The Voyage of the Armada to Plymouth— The First Day's Fight
ing off Plymouth— Howard's Folio-wing of the Armada on its Way
to Calais— The Hostile Fleets at Bay— Sir William Winter's Fire-
Ships and their Work — The Great Battle off Gravelines — The Re
treat and Ruin of the Armada — The Troubles of the English . 201

CHAPTER XVI.
THE SEQUEL TO THE GREAT AKMADA FIGHT.
[1588—1603.]
The Consequences of the Overthrow of the Spanish Armada —
Schemes for the Further Troubling of Spain — Projects of the
Earl of Cumberland and Sir Walter Raleigh — The Great Expedi
tion of Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norris, in Aid of Don
Antonio, against Spain — Their Siege of Corunna — Their Fight
¦with the Spaniards at Puente de Burgo — Robert, Earl of Essex —
The End of Drake's and Norris's Expedition — The Earl of
Cumberland's First Privateering Voyage — A Fight between
English Merchantmen and Spanish Galleys off Gibraltar — Sir
John Hawkins's Expedition in Search of Spanish Prizes — The
Earl of Cumberland's Second Privateering Voyage— Lord Thomas

Contents, ix
VAGE
Howard's Expedition in Search of Prizes— Sir Richard Gren-
ville's Valiant Fight in the Revenge — Sir Walter Raleigh's Share
in the War with Spain — His and the Earl of Cumberland's
Privateering Expeditions in 1592 — The Capture of the Madre de
Dios — The Progress of Privateering— The War in Brittany —
Sir Martin Frobisher's Death — Sir Richard Hawkins's Expedi
tion to the South Sea — His Great Fight with the Spaniards, and
Defeat by them off the Coast of Peru — Sir John Hawkins's Last
Work at Home — His Expedition to Panama in Company with Sir
Francis Drake — The Death of Hawkins — The Death of Drake —
Sir Walter Raleigh and his El Dorado Project — Philip II.'s Plans
against England — The Great Expedition to Spain under the
Earl of Essex and Lord Admiral Howard — Their Fighting in
Cadiz Harbotir, and Taking of Cadiz — The Last Phase of Tudor
Seamanship — Conclusion  246

VOL. II.

ENGLISH PIRACY, PRIVATEERING AND
OPEN WARFARE
UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH.

ENGLISH SEAMEN UNDER THE TUDORS.

CHAPTER XL
Queen Elizabeth's Na-vy and its Earlier Work.
[1558—1585.]
The great achievements, under Queen Elizabeth, of the
seamen who, following the lead of the Cabots, went
out in small and ill-constructed vessels to contend
with Arctic ice and fog in their search for a north
western passage to Cathay, and who, when they were
worsted in that battle, turned aside to begin the colo
nization of America and the conquest of India, werfe
wholly the result of private enterprise and of prowess
which, though sanctioned by the Crown, looked for no
reward that it could not win for itself. Private enter
prise and prowess unaided by State authority, also, were
motives to the famous series of sea-fights and naval
expeditions by which England for the first time acquired
a right to her proud title of mistress of the sea. The
greatest heroes of Elizabeth's great navy, the men who
made it possible for her, when the insolence of Catholic
VOL. II. B

2 Henry VIII.'s Navy. fC'"'-- -^'¦
Spain was at its height, to assure the stability of 'her
own kingdom and the liberty of Protestant Europe by
vanquishing the Invincible Armada, were private gentle
men and uncommissioned sailors, whose training had
been in ways of which the State took no cognizance, or
which it recognized chiefly to condemn.
During the thirty years preceding the Great Armada
Eight, however. Queen Elizabeth's navy, though its
work was insignificant in comparison with the work of
men who iiad no rank in it, made steady progress. The
progress resulted from the zeal with which were de
veloped the principles of naval rule that had been
adopted by King Henry VIII.
Henry, throughout his reign, had held the French
and their allies the Scots at bay. Not satisfied with
his possession of Calais, and with the opportunities it
afforded for the annoyance of his great enemy, he had
taken Boulogne in 1546, and had steadily defended his
own realm from the designs of all invaders. But
during the ten years following his death there was per
sistent squandering of the naval reputation that he had
won for England. ' In the brief and unfortunate period
of Edward VI.'s reign the royal navy was reduced to
half its previous size; and under Mary's shorter and
more disastrous sway its fame and influence were yet
further diminished.
At the time of Henry's death the royal navy con
sisted of fifty-three vessels, large and small, with an
aggregate burthen of 6,255 tons, and adapted for the
employment of 5,136 sailors, 759 gunners, and 1,885

i54(>-i553.] Edward VI.'s Navy. ° 3
soldiers or strictly fighting-men, making a total, with
about 200 officers, of nearly 8,000 men of all sorts.
The largest of these was the Henri Grace a, Dieu, of
1,000 tons' burthen. Two others, the Peter and the
Matthe-w, were of 600 tons each ; two were of 500 tons,
four of 450, and three of 400. The rest were of smaller
size, some being mere boats, bearing no more than
15 tons apiece.* The governors of Edward VL, in
heriting this shipping, put it to a little use in aiding the
land attack upon Scotland, which resulted in the battle
of Pinkie. In 1547 Leith and most of the Scottish sea
ports were damaged ; the Scottish fleet was routed, and
great numbers of merchantmen and other small craft
were destroyed.! But in 1548 the English fleet was
not able to overthrow the shipping that awaited its
return to Scottish waters ; and after peace had been
made with Scotland and France nothing more of any
note was done during Edward's brief reign. At its
close the royal ships had been reduced in number from
fifty-three to forty-five, and of these only twenty-four
were in condition for actual service. Ten, including
the Peter and the Matthe-w, were in need of thorough
repair, and the other eleven were only fit to be broken
up and sold for old wood.J
The sound ships were allowed to fall into decay, and
'* Charnook, History of Marine Architecture, vol. ii., pp. 49, 50. The
Henri Grace d Dieu was evidently the same, built in 1514, wliich is
described in vol. i., p. 70, and there shown to have been 'of 1,500 tons
bm-then. I am unable to explain the discrepancy.
t Hollinshed, vol. ii., pp. 990 — 995.
t British Museum MSS., Harleian, No. 354, fols. 906, 91.

4 Queen, Mary's Navy. [chap.xi.
the unsound ones to become perfectly useless during
the unworthy reign of Queen Mary. Almost at its
commencement, on the 26th of August, 1553, the
Henri Grace a Dieu, which had been called the Ed-ward
under Edward VL, and had been re-christened by its
older name on Mary's accession, was burnt at Wool
wich, " by the negligence of the mariners ;"* and, for
any good use to whicli they were put, the others might
also have been burnt. In 1557 Sir John Clere, Vice-
Admiral of England, being sent with a fleet of twelve
sail to annoy the Scots, was utterly defeated by them ;t
and in 1558 Lord Clinton, though his own fleet con
sisted of all the English fighting-ships that could be
brought together, and of thirty Spanish vessels as well,
was unable to do any serious injury to the French
whom he was ordered to attack upon the coast of Brit-
tany.l The only valorous act of this reign was done
four years before by Lord High Admiral Howard, on
the occasion of his being sent with twenty-eight ships
to escort Philip of Spain on his coming to England to
be made Mary's husband. Philip was attended by a
hundred and sixty Spanish sail, with a Spanish flag
floating from the topmast of their admiral's ship. At
this Howard was so annoyed that he fired at it, and
insisted upon the English colours being substituted
before he would pay his respects to Philip, and conduct
him into Southampton Harbour.§ That perhaps was
¦* HoLLmsHED, vol. ii., p. 1090. f Stgype, vol. iii., p. 429.
} Record Office MSS., Domestic, Mary, vol. xii., No. 23; vol. xiii..
No. 64 ; Grafton, p. 1364.
§ Hollinshed, vol. ii., p. 1118.

1553-155S.] The I-nheritance of Queen Elizabeth, 5
the first token of the English jealousy of Spain, which
was to issue in very memorable consequences during
the next fifty years.
Four years of civil misgovernment and of religious
persecution suflSced to make the jealousy strong in the
mind of every patriotic Englishman. Elizabeth on her
accession found her people heartily disposed but quite
unable to exercise it with good effect. Inheriting a
kingdom wrecked and wasted in all its parts, the waste
and wreck were nowhere more apparent than in her
navy. The fate of the Great Harry, destroyed " by the
negligence of the mariners," had been shared, with
differences in the ignoble manner of destruction, by
most of the best vessels that should have been preserved
for the maintenance of English dignity upon the sea.
Through a quarter of a century, harassed by show of
friendship with Spain, and by more or less open feud
with France and Scotland, Elizabeth had laboriously to
bring back the naval strength of England to the con
dition in which it had been left by Henry VIII. This,
and more, she did by prudent exercise of her own
abilities, and by yet more prudent use of the abilities
of counsellors and agents wiser than herself.
The counsellors in whom most she trusted, and who
perhaps best merited her trust, were William and
Charles Howard, son and grandson of Lord Thomas
Howard, brother and successor, as Chief Admiral of
England, of the excellent Sir Edward Howard, and
Edward Clinton, afterwards Earl of Lincoln.
Lord WilUam Howard had been a special favourite

Queen Elizabeth's Navy.

[Chap. xi.

with Henry VIII. until the year 1541, when he shared
in the disgrace that befel his niece. Queen Catherine
Howard. For supposed complicity in her misconduct,
he and his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas
Gamage, of Coity, in Glamorganshire, were sentenced
to perpetual imprisonment and to be mulcted of their
personal property as well as of life interest in their
landed estates. But Henry's appreciation of Howard's
past services soon led to a remission of this punishment,
and under the rule of Henry's three children Howard
rose to great distinction. His early zeal in naval affairs
appears in his encouragement of the famous enterprise
by which Willoughby and Chancelor attempted, in 1553,
to find a north-eastern passage to Cathay. He was one
of the Company of Merchant Adventurers who fitted out
that expedition, and after the expedition had failed, he
continued to be a leading member of the Company.
Very soon after Queen Mary's accession, on the 11th of
March, 1554, he was made a peer of the realm as Lord
Howard of EfSngham; and on the 20th of the same
month he was appointed High Admiral of England and
Wales, Ireland, Gascony, and Aquitaine. On the
8th of April following, " m consideration of his fidelity,
prudence, valour, and industry," Queen Mary made
him "her lieutenant-general and chief commander of
her whole fleet and royal army going to sea for the
defence of her friends." He had not much to do, either
for the defence of friends or for the punishment of foes,
under Mary ; but the temper in which he applied him
self to his work appears in his reception of Phihp, in

1558-1586.] Her Chief Advisers ; the Howards and OU-nton. 7
July, 1554, which has already been noticed. Yet he
did all that he could, and, with the better opportunities
that came on the accession of Elizabeth, he did better
service until his death, on the 12th of January, 1572.*
His service, however, was only such as could be
rendered by a vice-admiral, with great influence at
Court and with a disposition to use his influence wisely.
In the post of High Admiral he had been superseded in
April, 1558, by Lord Edward Clinton,t who continued
in office until his death, in 1585. It was then conferred
upon Lord Charles Howard, and held by him for nearly
forty years.
Lord Edward Clinton, who became Earl of Notting
ham on the 4th of May, 1572,J was Queen Elizabeth's
chief official adviser on naval matters during the flrst
half of her reign ; but Cecil and all her great statesmen,
Gresham and all her great merchants, shared in the
advice, and, amid some blunders and follies, helped to
make of the English navy a greater power than it had
ever been before.
When Ehzabeth became Queen, her navy was not
considered strong enough to protect the narrow seas
against the French, with whom she found herself at
war. She had only been three days crowned when, on
the 21st of November, 1558, she issued instructions for
the bringing together and putting in order of all avail
able ships, and, in order that there might be no lack of
* Collins, Peerage (1812), vol. iv., pp. 264—267; Record Office
MSS., Domestic, passirn.
t Record Office MSS., Domestic, Mary, vol. xii., No. 69.
X Ibid., Mizaheth, vol. Ixxxvi, No. 35.

8 Queen Elizabeth's Navy. m^^- ^'¦
mariners, for preventing any one from leaving the king
dom without a license ; and these orders were so strictly
enforced, that a message had before long to be sent to
the Warden of the Cinque Ports, reminding him that
the Queen did not wish to imprison all her subjects, but
only to have choice of those best fitted to serve her.*
In like manner, arrangements were at once made for the
fortifying of Dover, Portsmouth, and other defensive
standpoints;! and during the ensuing years, every
sort of care was taken for enabling the country to with
stand any attack that might be made upon it. Eliza
beth employed Sir Thomas Gresham in smuggling from
Antwerp and other continental towns great quantities
of the arms and ammunition in which England was very
deficient, and did better in encouraging their manu
facture at home. "Very many pieces of great ordnance
of brass and iron she cast," says the oldest historian of
her reign ; " and God, as if He favoured what she under
took, discovered a most rich vein of pure and native
brass, which had been a long time neglected, near Kes
wick, in Cumberland, which abundantly sufBced for that
use. And she also was the first that procured gun
powder to be made in England, that she might not both
pray and pay for it to her neighbours."!
One curious expedient for aiding the naval improve
ment of England was adopted at the instigation of Sir
William Cecil. With the renunciation of Popery and
* Strype, Annals, vol. i., p. 6 ; Record Ofeioe MSS., Domestic, Eliza
beth, vol. iv., No. 9.
t Campbell, vol. i., p. 341. J Camden, Annals, p. 56.

1558-1585.] Measures for -its Improvement. 9
Popish fasts, had come a great falling off in the con
sumption of fish ; and, as it was chiefly from the class of
fishermen that sailors were recruited, Cecil feared that
there would soon be a scarcity of competent mariners.
" To build ships without men to man them," he said,
" was to set armour upon stakes on the sea shore ;" but,
except in " the exercise of piracy, which could not last,"
he saw no chance of obtaining enough men for the ships
unless something were done to improve the fisheries.*
Therefore, in 1563, an Act of Parliament was passed
forbidding the eating of any flesh on Fridays and Satur
days, and of more than half the usual allowance on
Wednesdays, with the provision, however, that, " lest any
person should misjudge the intent of the statute, which
was politicly meant only for the increase of fishermen
and mariners and not for any superstition for choice
of meats, whoever should preach or teach that eating of
fish or forbearing of flesh was for the saving of the soul
of man or for the service of God should be punished as
the spreader of false news."!
This law was of course inoperative. But, if fewer
sailors came to be obtained from the class of fishermen,
the deficiency was more than met in other ways. By rais
ing the wages of her seamen, Elizabeth found that she
could always obtain as many as she wanted ; and such
an ardent love of sea adventures was growing up among
all ranks of her subjects, that without any inducements
in the way of pay, she would have had plenty of recruits.
* Record Office MSS., Dornestic, Elizabeth, vol. xii., No. 58.
t Ibid., vol. xxvii., Nos. 71, 72.

10 Queen Elizabeth's Navy. a'"-^i-- =^'-
Every year new ships were built for her ; and there
was never any trouble about manning them. " The
wealthier inhabitants of the sea coast," also, as we are
told, " in imitation of their princess, built ships of war,
striving who should exceed ; insomuch that the Queen's
navy, joined with her subjects' shipping, was in short
time so puissant, that it was able to bring forth 20,000
fighting-men for sea service."*
In 1578, however, after twenty years of steady growth.
Queen Elizabeth's navy appears to have comprised only
twenty-four ships, with officers, mariners, fighting-men
or soldiers, and gunners numbering in all about 7,000 ;
being less than half the number of ships that were
available at the end of Henry VIII.'s reign, and with
fewer officers and men by a seventh. These twenty-
four vessels were the Triumph, of 1,000 tons' burthen;
the Elizabeth and the White Bear, each of 900 tons ;
the Victory and the Primrose, each of 800 tons ; the
Mary Rose, the Hope, the Bonaventure, the Philip and
Mary, and the Lion, each of 600 tons; the Dread
nought and the Swiftsure, each of 400 tons ; the
Swallow, the Antelope, and the Jeanet, each of 350 tons ;
the Foresight, of 300 tons ; the Aid, of 240 tons ; the
Bull and the Tiger, of 160 tons ; the Falcon, of about
100 tons ; the Achates and the Handmaid, of 80 tons ;
the Barh of Boulogne and the George, of 60 tons.!
* Camden, p. 56.
t Campbell, vol. i., pp. 355 — 358. Numerous documents, showing
the gradual growth of the navy, are among the Record Office MSS.
By vol. iii.. No. 44 of that series, it appears that in March, 1559, Elizar
beth had twenty-one fighting vessels ; but many of these were mere

1568-1585.] Its Increase and Improvement, \ 11
But the changes wrought in the English navy under
Queen Elizabeth are only faintly indicated by statistics.
Scientific shipbuilding was still in its infancy ; but,
during this reign, the previous methods were very much
improved upon. "Whoever were the inventors," said
Sir Walter Raleigh, " we find that every age has added
somewhat to ships ; and in my time the shape of our
English ships has been greatly bettered. It is not long
since the striking of the topmasts, a wonderful ease to
great ships, both at sea and in the harbour, hath been
devised, together with the chain-pump, which taketh up
twice as much water as the ordinary one did. We have
lately added the bonnet and the drabler to the courses ;
we have added studding-sails, and the weighing anchor
by the capstan. We have fallen into consideration of
the length of cables, and by it we resist the malice of
the greatest winds that can blow. For true it is, that
the length of the cable is the life of the ship in all
extremities ; and the reason is, that it makes so many
bendings and waves, as the ship riding at that length
is not able to stretch it, and nothing breaks that is not
stretched."* These and other improvements appear to have been
adopted chiefly at the instigation of Sir John Hawkins,
who succeeded his father-in-law, Benjamin Gonson, as

boats, and the five largest were respectively of but 800, 700, 600, 500, and
400 tons burthen. Against that aggregate of 3,000 tons for five ships
must be set the aggregate of 8,200 tons for the twelve ships of 400 tons
or over in 1578.
* Cited in Bell's continuation of Southet, British Admirals, vol. v.,
p. 203.

12 Queen Elizabeth's Navy, [chap.xi.
Treasurer or Comptroller of the Navy. Gonson held
that office from 1557 till his death in 1578, when it was
entrusted to Hawkins, who was perhaps, by reason of
his great slirewdness and great experience, the flttest
man in all England to be employed as overseer and
reformer in all aflairs of shipping.* " He was the first,"
we are told, " that invented the cunning stratagem of
false nettings for ships to fight in ; and also, in the first
year of the Queen, in the wars of France, he devised the
chain-pumps for ships, and perfected many defects in
the Navy Royal."! The share taken by Hawkins, in con
junction with Sir Francis Drake, in founding the Chest
at Chatham, a fund formed of voluntary contributions
from prosperous seamen on behalf of their less fortu
nate brethren,! gives evidence of his interest in the
welfare of the mariners ; and he was no less zealous
in seeing that mariners and their captains honestly
served their employers, whether those employers were
the Queen's ministers, gentlemen-adventurers, or mer
chants.! As Treasurer or Comptroller, Sir John Hawkins had
to see to the building of new ships, the repairing of old
ones, and the fitting out, victualling, and manning of
both old and new ; in fact, to do everything that was
necessary for the preservation and improvement of the
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, Mary, vol. x.. No. 2 ; Elizabeth,
vol. cxxvii.. No. 33.
t Stow, AnndU (1616), p. 806.
X Campbell, vol. i., p. 421.
§ Sir Richard Hawkins, Observations in his 'Voyage into the South
Sea in 1593 (Hakluyt Society, 1847), p. 167.

1658-1586.] Ship-gear and Artillery, 13
navy.* An annual allowance of 5,714Z. 2s. 2d, was
assigned for all these services ; but this amount appears
to have been every year greatly exceeded, sometimes
more than doubled.
With the armament of the navy, Sir John Hawkins
had not much to do. This important business was
performed, through the greater part of Queen Elizabeth's
reign, by Sir William Winter, who was the last Master
of the Ordnance of the Navy, the oversight of ships'
artillery being afterwards combined with supervision of
land ordnance.! The business was certainly as com
plicated as it was important. About two dozen different
kinds of fighting implements were employed in Queen
Elizabeth's ships. The cannon generally measui-ed
twelve feet, and weighed four tons. The demi-cannon
was about a foot longer and a ton lighter. The culve-
rin and demi-culverin were nearly as long, but very
much lighter, being adapted for discharging smaller
shot. These four were the great ordnance. Sakers,
minions, falcons, and falconets were much smaller ; and
the smallest pieces of ordnance were the fowlers and
murthering pieces, generally mounted on the forecastle.
Then there were hand-guns ; the harquebus, which was
generally placed on a rest before aim was taken ; the
musket, lighter and shorter than the harquebus ; and the
caliver, which was still less. With these twelve
weapons, powder and shot were used. Of more than a
dozen miscellaneous and more old-fashioned instru-
* See Monson's Naval Tracts, book iii.
t Continuation of Southey, vol. v., pp. 207, 208.

14 Queen Elizabeth's Navy, [chap. xr.
ments, the principal were of course swords and bucklers,
bills, pikes, and spears. The musket-arrow, thought
much of by Sir John Hawkins, was a very short dart,
discharged by a sort of catapult ; and fire-arrows were
discharged in the same manner. There were also several
appliances for shooting "brass balls of artificial fire,"
which seem to have been miniature bombs, Greek fire,
and the like.*
For nearly thirty years Queen Elizabeth's navy, in
its relations with foreign powers, at any rate, was chiefly
passive. It was absolutely necessary that England
should have sufficient force upon the sea to be able to
withstand the attacks that were always threatening
from France and Spain. But Elizabeth and her wise
counseUors abstained as much as possible from actual
war. With a few exceptions, the fighting ships, previous
to the coming of the Spanish Armada, were occupied
chiefly in guarding the coasts and in punishing pirates.
The first exception was in the second year of Eliza
beth's reign. Peace with France had been declared in
April, 1559 ; but it was a declaration that deceived no
one in England and caused no cessation to French mis
chief-making in Scotland. An army in disguise was
straightway organised in France to be employed in
pimishing Scottish Protestantism and strengthening the
House of Valois in its government of the House of
Stuart. Therefore, late in December, a fleet of four
teen ships, the largest that could be brought together,
was sent from Gillingham, under Admiral William
* RuNDALL, Narratives of Voyages to the ^^rth-West, pp. 229—231.

1559-1560.] The First Trial of its Strength, 15
Winter, with orders to proceed first to Berwick and
then to the Frith of Forth, there to intercept the French
convoys and cause them as much damage as possible.
" The principal point in his service," as defined in the in
structions issued to Winter, was " to impeach the access
of any more succour from France into Scotland, and to
facilitate any departure thence towards France." If he
found himself strong enough and with any fair chance
of success, " war or no war, attacked or not attacked,"
he was to assail any armed French ships that he could
meet with. He was to provoke a quarrel if he did not
find one. He was to challenge the right of the French
commanders to carry English arms, and to tell them
that, as an Englishman, he would not endure it. But
all this he was to do ostensibly on his own authority :
his commission from Queen Elizabeth was to be a
secret.* Winter obeyed his orders. A storm, which did serious
damage to the French fleet under D'Elboeuf, detained
him at Lowestoft for a fortnight ; but he entered the
Forth on the 23rd of January, 1560, to find that a part
of the French force had preceded him, but in time to
anticipate the rest. Without an hour's delay, he sailed
up to two vessels, lying in the harbour, with the French
flag at their topmast. Winter showed no flag, and, whe
the French admiral sent to ask who he was, he refused
an answer. Thereby he gained his object. The angry
Frenchmen discharged a shot, and so began the fight.
Winter quickly ended it. A well-directed broadside
•* RECORD "Office MSS., Dovie, \ic, vol. vii., Nos. 65, 66

16 Queen Elizabeth's Navy, [ohap.xi.
from each of his men-of-war compelled the Frenchmen
to surrender. The two fighting ships were captured,
and the attendant transports were burnt after the provi
sions stored in them had been handed jOver to the
people.* After that, Winter kept the Forth from any
fresh arrival of Frenchmen, and did good service in
Scottish waters until a second and more hopeful peace
was signed in July.
It was soon broken ; but nothing else of importance
was done in the way of avowed sea-fighting with the
French. The old breach between England and France
was not really healed up during any part of Eliza
beth's reign; but the greater hatred of Spain that
steadily grew in both nations gradually made them
seeming friends. On that account they both, in various
degrees, aided the brave Netherlanders in the struggle
for independence with which the monarchical prin
ciples both of France and of ^England were in no sort
of harmony. The English aid was heartier than the
French, because, while the Huguenots who sided with the
Netherlanders were proscribed and disgraced, English
men in high places, with Elizabeth at their head, as
well as common folk, were bound to the sturdy patriots
of Holland and Flanders by the strong tie of Protest
antism. Hence arose a double, triple, or quadruple
course of action, producing an unparalleled confusion
in European politics, taxing greatly the abilities of
statesmen, and occasioning strange embarrassments in
* Record Office MSS., Scotland, Elizabeth, vol. ii., Nos. 15, 24,
28—31.

1558-1583.] Piracy and its Causes, 17
the minds of honest men who had little liking for the
tortuous ways of sixteenth-century statecraft. Added
to all, were serious difficulties that grew out of the
indomitable genius for seamanship and love of bold
maritime adventure, with which was joined a hearty
love of the gains that were most easily to be acquired by
daring exploits on the sea, that characterized every
nation not wholly land-locked, and characterized sea
girt England most of all. The product of all these
various and confusing factors that here most concerns us
was a wonderful development of piracy, which moralists
are bound to condemn, and for which abstract rules of
justice afford no warrant, but which, practised most of
all perhaps by Englishmen, must be recognized as a
powerful agent in the well-being of Tudor England.
Piracy was a venerable institution which Christian
morality had not yet learnt to reprobate. The annals
of mediaeval England abound in illustrations of the
depredations wrought by the galleys of the Cinque
Ports upon the traders of Yarmouth and other places,
and of the jealousies and reprisals consequent there
upon ; and, when these and others like these were to
some extent restrained by the growth of national feel
ing, similar depredations, causing similar reprisals, were
followed with all the more zeal upon the trading ves
sels of foreign countries. In war-time piracy was
openly sanctioned ; in peace-time it was only de
nounced when it seemed likely to issue in fresh and un
welcome war. So it was in Elizaberh's time. Under
Elizabeth, indeed, owing to the great increase of sea-
VOL. II. 0

18 Queen Elizabeth's Navy, [ohap.xi.
manship and the great increase of trade, whereby there
were always floating upon the seas rich prizes which
there were always plenty of men ready to try and make
their own in the way of sport, and in the way of busi
ness at the same time, piracy became more prevalent.
The great enterprises of such men as Hawkins, Drake,
and Cavendish, in the Spanish Main and in the Southern
Seas, which will presently have to be detailed, were
only piracies on a grand scale. Smaller piracies, in
English waters, and on the coasts of Scotland, France,
and Flanders, practised by the hundred every year,
gave occupation not only to lawless men of all sorts, but
also to honest gentlemen and honest commoners, who
found quieter employments not easy to procure or too
tame to be followed with satisfaction. At first they
were practised most frequently, and with least con
demnation by Queen and statesmen, upon the trading
ships of France and Scotland, with which England had
been at feud for generations. When the new hatred
of Spain rose up, and Protestants began to look upon
all possible punishment of Papists as a religious duty,
Spanish galleons were hunted down with special zest ;
and after the Netherlanders had cast off their allegiance
to Spain, the English sea-rovers did not trouble to
discriminate between the merchant fleets of Antwerp
and the merchant fleets of .Cadiz. Of course the
English were not the only offenders. If they worried
the peaceable traders of Scotland, France, Spain, and
Flanders, the peaceable traders of England were quite
as much worried by Scottish, French, Spanish, and

1558-1685.] Piracy in the Sixteenth Century. 19
Flemish marauders; and the sporfewas keenest when
the pirates of one nation met the pirates of another, and
fought with fierce earnestness for the mastery.
Thus, while England was at 'seeming peace with all
the world, many of its most adventurous subjects were
at actual war with the subjects of nearly every Euro
pean state. It is not, however, necessary to bring
together instances of these little wars, as they hardly
differed in character from the greater exploits that will
be detailed in later pages. All we have here to do is to
note the occurrence every year of scores of depreda
tions, fightings, and massacres upon the sea, and, how
ever much we may denounce them upon theoretical
grounds, to remember that they were the rough exer
cises fand the tough experiences by which Englishmen
were, to a large extent, taught to become great seamen,
and to make their mother-country the greatest mari
time nation in the world.
Many embarrassments to English statesmen grew
out of these piracies, and the chief occupation of Queen
Elizabeth's navy, during five-and-twenty years, was in
attempting to suppress them. Neither Elizabeth nor
Cecil, probably, wholly disapproved of the condemned
practices, and more than half the courtiers and states
men, if not actually sharers in them, participated in the
spoils. But there was tolerable piracy and there was in
tolerable piracy ; and that which was intolerable to all
honest and honourable men was checked and punished
as far as lay within the power of Queen Elizabeth and
her deputies. A few instances of this will suffice. In

20 Queen Elizabeth's Navy, [Ohap. si.
July, 1562, for example, on the representation of special
damage that had been done to some English merchant
vessels by Breton rovers, four ships were put to sea
under Sir William Woodhouse, with orders " to clear
the narrow seas of pirates ;"* and, this force being in
sufficient, two other ships, almost the largest in the
navy, were in September commissioned to the same
work under Captain George Boston.! In September,
1564, again, Sir Peter Carew was ordered to use two
ships in driving from the coasts of Devonshire and
Cornwall the pirates who had lately infested them;!
and in the following year special arrangements were
made for punishing the sea-robbers who troubled Nor
folk and the other eastern counties, troubling native
traders and Dutch fish-dealers alike.§ In May, 1570,
was issued a stringent proclamation for repressing
pirates and sea-rovers, and prescribing the confiscation
of their property. 1| In February, 1572, John Hawkins,
George Winter, and others were commissioned to do
their utmost in clearing the British seas of pirates and
freebooters ;51 and in November, 1575, a like com
mission was given to Captain William Holstock, two
large ships being assigned for the work.** In May,
1576, three vessels were entrusted to Captain Henry
Palmer, " for the clearing of the seas of pirates, except
ing all ships under the Prince of Orange's commis-
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. xxiii., Nos. 64—66.
t Ibid,, vol. xxiv.. No. 26. J Ibid., vol. xxxiv., No. 65.
§ Ibid,, vol. xxxvii., Nos. 47, 48. || lUd„ vol. Ixix., No. 26.
U Ibid., vol. Ixxxv., No. 57. ** Ibid,, vol. cv.. No. 68.

1568-1585.] Its Work in Checking Piracy, 21
sion."* — a curious exception, indicative of the growing
friendship between England and the Netherlanders,
whose war with Philip of Spain could still only be
carried on under the name of piracy and rebellion. Of
the same sort were many other commissions granted in
these and later years; and they all resulted in the
capture of numerous offenders, who seem to have been
treated with equal justice, whether they were English
men or foreigners.
Nobler work, however, was preparing for Queen
Elizabeth's navy, the preparation being in great part
due to the bold seamen who shared in the enterprisps
that were led by Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis
Drake. * Record Office MSS., Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. cviii., Nos. 23, 24.

22

CHAPTER XII.
The Earlier Exploits of Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake
IN the Spanish Main.
[1562—1576.]
Sir John Hawkins was born at Plymouth about the
year 1520. His grandfather, John Hawkins, of Tavi
stock, was a merchant and sea-captain in the service of
Henry VIIL between 1513 and 1518.* His father,
William Hawkins, is described as a man "for his
wisdom, valour, and experience and skill in sea causes
much esteemed and beloved by King Henry VIIL,
and one of the principal sea-captains in the west parts
of England in his time." He gave good proof of his
wisdom and valour. Having fitted out "a tall and
goodly ship of his own," the Paul of Plymouth, of 250
tons' burthen, he made in it, in 1530, 1531, and 1532,
three several voyages to Brazil, being apparently the
first Englishman, with the exception of Sebastian
Cabot, who was then in Spanish service, who visited
South America.
* Brewer, Letters and Papers of the Beign of Henry VIIL, vol. ii.,
p. 1369. In this chapter I have made use of some of the biographical
statements in Chapter VIII. of my English Merclutnts on ' The Hawkinses
of Plymouth.'

1530-1632.] The Voyages of " Old William HaivMns." 23
In each of his voyages, William Hawkins went first to
the coast of Guinea, where also he appears to have been
the first English trader ; and, having there made pro
fitable exchange of his English articles for elephants'
teeth and such other commodities as the Negroes had to
sell, he crossed the Atlantic, and made further profit by
disposing of his newly-acquired goods to the Indians
dwelling on the coast of Brazil. " He used such discre
tion, and behaved himself so wisely with those savage
people," we are told, " that he grew into great familiarity
and friendship with them." In 1531, it is added, " one
of the savage kings of the country of Brazil was con
tented to take ship -with him, and be transferred hither
into England ; whereunto Master Hawkins agreed, leav
ing behind in the country, as a pledge for his safety and
return again, one Martin Cockeram, of Plymouth." The
native chief was brought to London, presented to Henry
VIIL, and made much of as the first of his race ever
seen in England. In 1532 he started to return to his
own country with Hawkins ; but he died of sea-sickness
on the way, and Hawkins expected to get into trouble
on account of the disaster. " Nevertheless," says the
chronicler, " the savages being fully persuaded of the
honest dealing of our men with their prince, restored
again the pledge, without any harm to him or any
man of the company."*
All we know of old William Hawkins is told in the
brief history of those memorable voyages. He had two
famous sons, John and William, who, in different moods,
* Hakluyt, vol. iii., pp. 700, 701.

24 John Hawkins's First Work. [chap. xu.
inherited his seafaring and commercial zeal. William
became a great merchant and shipowner in Plymouth
and London. John also was a shipowner and merchant,
though these callings came to be insignificant in compa
rison with the other ways in which he served his country.
He was bred a sailor. During his youth and early
manhood, we are told, " he made divers voyages to the
Isles of the Canaries, and there, by his good and up
right dealing, being grown in honour of the people, in
formed himself of the state of the West Indies, whereof
he had received some knowledge by the instructions of
his father, but increased the same by the advertise
ments and reports of that people ; and being, amongst
other things, informed that Negroes were very good
merchandize in Hispaniola, and that store of Negroes
might easily be had upon the coast of Guinea, he re
solved within himself to make trial thereof."*
That was certainly not a very honourable branch of
English commerce. But the discredit lies rather with
the age than with Hawkins himself. For generations
it had been a custom of the Spaniards and Portuguese
to make slaves of their Moorish prisoners and of the
African tribes associated with them ; and for some time
previous Negro slaves had been employed in the Spa
nish West Indies. This, indeed, had been done partly
at the suggestion of the pliilanthropic Las Casas, who
ui'ged the substitution of Negro for Indian slavery
on the ground of humanity, never thinking that the
cruelty was as great in the one case as in the other.
* Hakluyt, vol. iii., p. 500 ; Prince, 'Worthies of Devon (1701), p, 389.

1540-1563.] The Beginnings of the Slave Trade. 25
Hawkins, therefore, shocked no prejudices and broke
no accepted moral law, by participating in the slave-
trade. A man of generous nature and high sense of
honour would have preferred some other way of enrich
ing himself. But Hawkins was not remarkable for
generous or highly honourable conduct. He was a
daring voyager, a brave soldier, and one of the first
promoters of our country's naval greatness. In other
respects he was no better than his fellows.
Hawkins was not quite the first Enghshman who
traded in Negro slaves. In 1553 Captain John Wind
ham, accompanied by Antonio Pinteado, a Portuguese
refugee, who revenged himself for some real or supposed
wrongs by enticing others to enter on the African trade
that had hitherto been jealously reserved to itself by
Portugal, was sent by some London merchants in the
track of old William Hawkins to Guinea. Windham's
bad management, which caused his own death, and the
death of two hundred out of his crew of two hundred
and forty, made this voyage altogether disastrous.* But
better fortune attended the expedition despatched next
year, under Captain John Lock, with young Martin
Frobisher for one of its crew.t Elephants' teeth and
gold dust were procured in large quantities, also five
of the Negroes, whom Lock described as "people of
beastly living, without God, law, religion, or common
wealth."! There was some difficulty, however, in
disposing of these latter commodities in England ;
* Hakhtyt, vol. ii., part ii., pp. 11 — 13. f See vol. i., p. 121.
X Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., pp. 14 — 23.

26 Hawkins's First West Indian Voyage. [ohap. xn.
and slave-buying seems not to have been repeated
until 1562, when Hawkins set out on his first expe
dition. ' In fitting out this expedition he was aided by Lionel
Duckett, the great London merchant, by his father-in-
law, Benjamin Gonson, the Treasm-er of the Navy, and
by many other men of influence; and one Thomas
Hampton went with him as partner in the undertaking.
They left England in October, with a hundred men in
three vessels ; the Solomon, of 120 tons' burthen, the
Swallow, of 100 tons, and the Jonas, of 40 tons, and
proceeded quickly to Sierra Leone. There Hawkins,
we are told, " partly by the sword, and partly by other
means, got into his possession three hundred Negroes at
the least, besides other merchandizes which that
country yieldeth." These commodities he then con
veyed to San Domingo, entering the port with some
doubt as to his reception, and with a pretence that he
had been driven there by bad weather and want of
food. The Spaniards, however, were in need of slaves,
and readily bought all Hawkins's cargo. He had
"peaceable traffic," says the narrator of the voyage,
"trusting the Spaniards no farther than by his own
strength he was able to master them." In exchange
for his English goods and Negroes he obtained a goodly
store of pearls, ginger, sugar, hides, and other native
produce. Part of these he conveyed direct to England in
September, 1563, in his three English ships, and thereby
secured " much gain to himself and the adventurers."
The rest he sent, under the care of Thomas Hampton,

i562-i664.]i The Origin of his Quarrel -with Spain, 27
to Cadiz in two Spanish vessels which had been char
tered for the purpose.*
In so doing Hawkins showed that he had no thought
of offending Spain or of doing anything more than
trading peaceably with its subjects both at home and
in the West Indies. Philip II. looked upon the matter
very differently. Resenting all English interference
with his colonial affairs, he reproved the Governor of
San Domingo for sanctioning the trade, confiscated all
Hampton's cargo, and nearly subjected Hampton him
self to the rough handling of the Inquisition. He sent
peremptory orders to the West Indian viceroy that no
Englishman, on any pretext, was to be allowed to have
any dealings with Spanish subjects, and acquainted the
English ambassador at Madrid, that if such a thing
were attempted, mischief would result. "Our folks
must be narrowly looked to," wrote the ambassador to
Queen Ehzabeth in June, 1564, "and specially that
they enterprise no trade or voyage to the Indies or
islands of this King's navigation; which if they do,
as already they have intelHgence of some that propose
it, surely it wUl breed occasion of much matter to
pick."! Queen Elizabeth did not heed that warning. Hawkins,
as soon as he heard of the way in which Hampton and
their joint property had been treated, made indignant
claim upon the Spanish Government for restitution.
* Haklttyt, vol. iii., p. 500 ; Record Office MSS., Spanish, cited by
Feoude, vol. viii., p. 471.
t Feoude, vol. viii., pp. 472, 473.

28 Ha-wkins's Second West Indian Voyage, cohap. xn.
None was made to him, and he thereupon lost no time,
with the sanction of the Queen and her Council, in
planning retaliation. Elizabeth showed her approval
by allowing the Jesus of Lubeck, of 700 tons' burthen,
one of the largest ships in her navy, to be chartered for
500Z. for a new voyage.* The Earls of Leicester and
Pembroke and other courtiers joined with Hawkins
and his City friends in raising money enough for this
voyage ; and on the 18th of October, 1564, Hawkins
left Plymouth with a little fleet of five vessels, the
Jesus, his old Solomon and Swallow, and two little barks
or sloops, the Tiger, of 50 tons, and the Saint John
Baptist, of 30 tons ; the crews of all numbering a hun
dred and seventy men. " Serve God daily ; love one
another ; preserve your victuals ; beware of fire ; and
keep good company," were the last of the pithy rules
which Hawkins drew up for their guidance.!
While Hawkins was preparing for his second expe
dition, other preparations were being made for a pre
cisely similar enterprise, under a Captain David Carlet,
to whom also Queen Elizabeth lent one of her ships,
the Minion, and who had charge of two smaller vessels,
the John the Baptist and the Merlin, which last ship
was blown up soon after its embarkation through an
explosion of her powder-store. Carlet appears to have
left London only a few days before Hawkins left
Plymouth. The parties met in the Channel and kept
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. xxxvii., No. 61.
t The details of this voyage, where no other authority is given, are
from a narrative by John Sparke, in Hakluyt, vol. iii., pp. 501—521.

15M.] In Search of Negroes. 29
company for a month. They reached Santa Cruz, one
of the Canaries, on the 4th of November. " About this
island," says the historian of the voyage, " are certain
flitting islands, which have been oftentimes seen, and
when men approached near them they vanished; as
the like hath been of these islands now known, by the
report of the inhabitants, which were not found of long
time one after the other ; and therefore it should seem
he is not yet born to whom God hath appointed the
finding of them."
On the 29th of November Hawkins called at Cape
de Verde. The inhabitants he found to be of " nature
very gentle and loving," and " more civil than any
other, because of their daily traffic with the French
men." This did not hinder him from proposing to take
some of them as slaves; but, for some reason which
is not given, the people of the Minion made known to
them the designs of Hawkins, " so that they did avoid
the snares laid for them." In punishment for that,
Carlet was dismissed from the protection of the Jesus,
and he soon got into such trouble with the Portuguese
in Africa that he had to conduct his two vessels back
to England without passing on to the West Indies.
In pursuance of his plan Hawkins tracked the African
coast for nearly two months, generally going " every
day on shore to take the inhabitants, with burning and
spoiling of their towns." Many of these inhabitants,
perhaps — though that is no justification of the English
procedure — did not deserve much better. The Sam-
boses, who lived somewhere beyond Sierra Leone, are

30 Hawkins's Second West Indian Voyage, [chap. xn.
described as cannibals living by war and robbery upon
their neighbours ; " wont not only to eat them that
they kUl, but also to keep those that they take until
such time as they want meat, and then they kill
them." The Sapies, their chief victims, we are told,
" do not eat men's flesh, unless in ivar they be driven
by necessity thereunto." It is added that "they do
jagg their flesh, both legs, arms, and bodies, as work
man-like as a jerkin-maker with us pinketh a jerkin."
Hawkins did a little jagging of a rougher sort. All
that he could, however, he took alive and unbacked, in
order to turn them into marketable slaves.
In a fight with the natives of these parts on the 27th
of December Hawkins had seven of his own men killed
and twenty -seven wounded. On New Year's Day, 1565,
he narrowly escaped much greater injury from a great
effort made to surprise his men while on shore in a
strange place in search of water. " But," says the narra
tor, pious after his own fashion, " God, who worketh all
things for the best, would not have it so, and by Him we
escaped without danger — His name be praised for it !"
At length, having collected negroes enough, Hawkins
started for the W^est Indies on the 29th of January.
They were becalmed for eighteen days midway, " having
now and then contrary winds and some tornadoes
amongst the same calm," says the chronicler ; " which
happened to us very ill, being but reasonably watered
for so great a company of Negroes and ourselves. This
pinched us all ; and, that which was worst, put us in
such fear that many never thought to have reached the

1564-1565.]] From Guinea io the Spanish Main. 31
Indies without great dearth of Negroes and of them
selves ; but the Almighty God, which never suffereth
His elect to perish, sent us the ordinary breeze."
A desolate part of Dominica was reached on the 9th of
March. On the 16th Hawkins touched at Margarita,
where he was hospitably entertained, but not allowed to
sell his negroes ; and at Cumana, which he visited on the
22nd, he also found trade impossible. At Santa Fe, where
there were few Spaniards, he was on the following day
well received by the Indians. " They came down, pre
senting meal and cakes of bread, made of a kind of corn
called maize. Also they brought down hens, potatoes,
and pines, which we bought for beads, pewter whistles,
glasses, knives, and other trifies. These potatoes," says
the chronicler, concerning an article of food soon to be
introduced into England, " be the most dehcate roots
that may be eaten, and do far exceed our parsnips and
carrots." " These Indians," it is added, " surely were
gentle and tractable, and such as desire to live peace
ably, or else it had been impossible for the Spaniards
to have conquered them as they did, and the more to
live now so peaceably, they being so many in number
and the Spaniards so few."
Some fiercer and more crafty Indians on the Ameri
can mainland, whom he visited on the 29th of March,
invited Hawkins to trade with them. " If it had not
been for want of wares to traffic with," we read, " he
would not have denied them, because the Indians
which he had seen before were very gentle people, and
such as do no man hurt. But, as God would have it,

32 Hawkins's Second West Indian Voyage, [ohap. xn.
he wanted that thing which, if he had had, would have
been his confusion; for there were no such kind of
people as he took them to be, but more devilish a thou
sand parts, and are eaters and devourers of any man
that they can catch, — bloodsuckers both of Spaniards,
Indians, and all that light in their laps ; not sparing
their own countrymen if they can conveniently come
by them."
Having entered on his first voyage with no aver
sion to the Spaniards, and with the simple object
of carrying on a profitable trade in Negroes, Hawkins,
on this second voyage, determined only to outreach
King Philip, and, in defiance of his inhibitions, to fol
low out his purpose and win back the wealth of which
he considered that he had been robbed when the cargo
of hides sent by him to Cadiz was confiscated. He had
not yet begun to consider that, if the punishment of
Spaniards was not better than commercial gains, it
would greatly tend to sweeten them. Therefore, ac
cording to an arrangement that he had made with Queen
Elizabeth's Council before starting, he attempted to
avoid open collision with the colonists. He kept away
from San Domingo, and tried, by going only to the
smaller and more remote dependencies, to sell his
human wares in districts which Philip's prohibitory
orders had not reached. With this intent he pro
ceeded to Barbarotta, where he anchored on the 3rd
of April, and asked permission to trade with the resi
dents. He was informed that this could not be done,
as the residents had been forbidden to have any dealings

1565.] His Exploits in the Spanish Main. 33
with foreigners ; " wherefore they desired him not to
molest them farther, but to depart as he came, for other
comforts he might not look for at their hands, because
they were subjects, and might not go beyond the law."
Hawkins, however, answered that he was an English
man, with one of Queen Elizabeth's own ships in his
fleet, and that he had need of refreshment "without
which he could not depart." If they did not allow
him to have his way, he said in another message, " he
would displease them."
Some profitable trade resulted from his threats, and
he remained in Barbarotta until the 4th of May. On
the 6th he visited Curapoa, and there, says the chro
nicler, "we had traffic for hides, and found great refresh
ing both of beef, mutton, and lambs, whereof there was
such plenty that, saving the skins, we had the flesh
given us for nothing; and the plenty thereof was so
abundant that the worst in the ship thought scorn, not
only of mutton, but also of sodden lamb, which they
disdained to eat unroasted." Yet, it is added, "not
withstanding our sweet meat, we had sour sauce
there ; by reason of riding so open at sea, what with
blasts whereby, our anchors being aground, three at
once came home, and also with contrary winds blowing,
whereby, for fear of the shore, we were fain to haul off
to have anchor-hold, sometimes a whole day, and we
turned up and down ; and this happened not once but
half a dozen times in the space of our being there."
From Curafoa Hawkins passed on, by way of Cape
de la Vela, to Rio de la Hacha, on the borders of
VOL. II. D

34 Hawkins's Second West Indian Voyage, [chap.xh.
Darien. There, arriving on the 19th of May, he re
quested permission to trade as he had done in Barba
rotta, supporting his request by a certificate of good
conduct signed by the governor of the latter place. He
was told, as he had been told at Barbarotta, that his
proposal was in violation of the express orders of King
Philip, and could not be assented to. Hawkins repeated
his old excuse about bad weather and his need of fresh
supplies. " But," he added, " seeing they would, con
trary to all reason, go about to withstand his traffic, he
would it should not be said by him, that, having the
force he had, he was driven from his traffic perforce,
but would rather put it in an adventure whether he or
they should have the better; and therefore he willed
them to determine either to give him licence to trade
or else stand to their own harms." That blunt message
induced the Spaniards to assent to his trading with
them ; but after they had inspected the Negroes, they
offered only half as much per head as Hawkins had
received at Barbarotta. It may be that the best slaves
had already been picked out of the gang, and that the
Spaniards proposed to give fiair value for the remainder.
Hawkins did not think so. "Weighing their uncon
scionable request, he wrote to them a letter, saying that
they dealt too rigorously with him, to go about to cut
his throat in the price of his commodities, which were so
reasonably rated as they could not by a great deal have
the like at any other man's hands : but, seeing they
had sent him this to his supper, he would in the morn
ing bring them as good a breakfast." The breakfast

1565.] His Exploits in ihe Spanish Main, 35
consisted of a volley of ordnance, followed by the
landing of a hundred Englishmen, who, even before
they had time to land, put to flight the hundred and
fifty Spaniards that came out to meet them. After
that, says Hawkins's companion, " we made our traffic
quietly." All the remaining Negroes having been
disposed of on the English terms, and three boats,
" with balls in their noses and men with weapons
accordingly," having superintended the settling of ac
counts, Hawkins left Rio de la Hacha on the 31st of
May. Having thus sold all his Negroes, Hawkins proposed
to apply the money he had received for them in pur
chasing hides and other articles, which, conveyed to
Europe for sale, would bring in a second profit. With
that view he directed his course to Hispaniola; but
bad steering took him instead to Jamaica. The blame
of this blunder was laid upon a Spanish merchant whom
Hawkins bad rescued from the people of Africa and
promised to take home to Hispaniola if he would
first be an honest guide to his protectors. Even when
Jamaica was reached, the Spanish merchant insisted
that it was Hispaniola, and identified each creek and
headland as they came within sight with similar parts
of the larger island. " In the end," says the chronicler,
" he pointed so from one point to another, that we were
a-leeboard of all places and found ourselves at the west
end of Jamaica before we were aware of it ; and, being
once to leeward, there was no getting up again, so that,
by trusting of this Spaniard's knowledge,' our captain

36 Hawkins's Second West Indian Voyage, [ohap. xn.
sought not to speak with any of the inhabitants, which,
if he had not made himself sure of, he would have done,
as was his custom in those places. But this man was
a plague, not only to our captain, whom he made lose,
by overshooting the place, 2,000Z. in hides which he
might have got there, but also to himself; for having
been three years out of his country and in great misery
in Guinea, and now in hope to come to his wife and
friends, he could not find any habitation, neither there
nor in Cuba, which we sailed all along."
Mistaking Jamaica for Hispaniola, Hawkins also
mistook Cuba for Jamaica. He was thus taken out of
reach of all the ports at which he might have made
profitable purchases of hides. Then he resolved to
sail homewards as soon as he had procured the fresh
supply of water of which his ships were in sore need.
That was not easy. Some they obtained at Pinas, on
the 16th of June ; and, we are told, " although it were
neither so toothsome as running water, by means it is
standing, and but the water of rain, and, moreover, being
near the sea, was brackish, yet did we not refuse it,
but were more glad thereof, as the time then required,
than we should have been another time with fine con
duit water." Further search for water took the vessels,
through a storm in which one of them was nearly
wrecked, past Havannah and along the coast of Flo
rida, till they fell in with the Huguenot colony that had
been founded there, in 1562, at the instigation of
Admiral Coligni. Strife with the Indians and with
one another had reduced the colonists from two hun-

1565.J From Florida to England, 37
dred to forty. Hawkins, in exchange for water, gave
them an abundance of food. He also lent them
his little Tiger, in which to return to Europe, after
they had refused his offer of a passage in his own
company. Hawkins started for England on the 28th of July.
Contrary winds kept him so long on the way that there
was dearth of food. " We were divers times," says the
chronicler, " in despair of ever reaching home, had not
'God, of His goodness, provided for us better than our
deserving ; in which state of great misery we were pro
voked to call upon Him by frequent prayer, which
moved Him to hear us, so that we had a prosperous
wind." The prayer and its consequences took . them
far to the north, up to the Bank of Newfoundland ; but
they safely reached Padstow, in Cornwall, on the 20th
of September, after just eleven months' absence, " with
loss of twenty persons in all the voyage, and with great
profit to the venturers, as also to the whole realm, in
bringing home both gold, silver, pearls, and other jewels,
great store." The profits of the voyage to Hawkins
and the friends who helped him to fit it out were
reckoned at sixty per cent.
Greater profit came in the favour that was heaped
upon Hawkins by Queen and people. " By way of
increase and augmentation of honour, a coat of arms
and crest were settled upon him and his posterity by a
patent thus worded: — 'He bears sable on a point
wavee, a lion passant gold, in chief three besants ; upon
his helm a wreath argent and azure, a demi-moor, in his

38 Hawkins's Second West Indian Voyage, ichaf. xn.
proper colour, bound and captive, with amulets on his
arms and ears, or, mantelled gules double argent.' "*
Hawkins was everywhere applauded for his bold and
well-planned seamanship, for his successful opening up
of a new line of commerce, and — though this was only
spoken of in whispers — for his smart over-reaching of
Philip II.'s plans for restraining him.
Hawkins thought it prudent to make light of his vic
tory over the King of Spain. " I have always," he said in
a letter to Queen Elizabeth, " been a help to all Spaniards
and Portugals that have come in my way, without any
form or prejudice offered by me to any of them, although
many times in this tract they have been under my
power."! " I met him in the palace,'' wrote the Spanish
Ambassador in London to King Philip, in November,
" and invited him to dine with me. He gave me a full
account of his voyage, keeping back only the way in
which he had contrived to trade at our ports. He
assured me, on the contrary, that he had given the
greatest satisfaction to all the Spaniards with whom he
had had dealings, and had received full permission from
the governors of the towns where he had been. The
vast profit made by the voyage has excited other mer
chants to undertake similar expeditions. Hawkins him
self is going out again next May, and the thing needs
immediate attention. I might tell the Queen that, by
his own confession, he has traded in ports prohibited by
your Majesty, and require her to punish him ; but I
* Prince, TVorthies of Devon, p. 389.
t Cambridge MS., cited by Froude, vol. viii, p. 478.

1565-1666.] The Progress of his Quarrel with Spain. 39
must request your Majesty to give me full and clear
instructions what to do."*
Philip was not in the habit of giving clear instruc
tions, though full they certainly were, in any case ; and
here his difficulty was increased by the tact with which
Hawkins bad so contrived as that any blame which
might fall upon him must rebound with much greater
force upon Philip's own governors and viceroys in the
West Indies. Therefore the Spanish monarch seems
to have done little more than grumble, and send out
fresh and more stringent orders for the prevention of
any further efforts that might be made by Hawkins or
other Englishmen at forcing their trade upon the
colonies in the Spanish Main.
These did not deter Hawkins ; but they had some
effect upon Elizabeth and her counsellors. The new
expedition, which the Spanish Ambassador spoke of as
likely to take place in May, 1566, was postponed till
October ; and then, when Hawkins was at Plymouth,
just ready to embark, letters were sent down by Sir
William Cecil strictly forbidding his project of " repair
ing armed, for the purpose of traffic, to places privileged
by the King of Spain."t In consequence, Hawkins
was obliged to give his bond, with a penalty of 500?.,
that he would forbear sending to any of the Spanish
possessions the ship which he was fitting out for another
slave-trading enterprise.! For that, or for some other
* Sirnancas MS., cited by Froude, vol. viii., p. 479.
t Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. xi.. No. 84.
X Ibid., vol. xi., No. 99.

40 Hawkins's Third West Indian Voyage. [Chap. xn.
reason, he did not accompany the two or three ships
that went out in 1566 ; and of their movements we
have no records. All we know is, that they retm-ned
to England next summer laden with gold, silver, and
fine skins, which Philip's ambassador suspected to have
been taken from some Spanish or Portuguese galleon.*
It is probable that, lacking the slave-trading tact of
Hawkins, their captains applied themselves to the easier
work of piracy.
In the meanwhile, Hawkins was not idle. In June,
1567, we find him making estimates concerning the ma
terial requisite for setting up a fort on the Guinea coast,
if that should be needed for extending his commerce in
Negroes.f He was at the same time planning a larger
expedition to the West Indies, which the progress of
European politics during the previous year again made
possible. Elizabeth, having given her countenance to
the Netherlanders' insurrection against Spain, could
make no serious objection to such work as Hawkins
projected. She discreetly abstained from hearing the
details of the project ; but, knowing its general tenour,
she even allowed the Jesus of Lubeck, which she had
lent to Hawkins in 1564, and the Minion, which had
been chartered at the same time by Carlet, to be again
made use of. Her subjects were not slow in providing
money for fitting out the expedition, and in proffering
their services as actual sharers in it.
One of these volunteers was young Francis Drake,
* MS. cited by Feoude, vol. -viii., p. 481.
t Record Office MSS„ Domestic, vol. xliii., ISTo. 12.

1566-1567.] The Ea-rly History of Sir Francis Drake. 41
then about twenty-two years old, but already possessed
of many years' experience upon the sea. Drake's
father appears to have been a resident in Devonshire
of small means, which were made still smaller by the
persecution to which he subjected himself through
becoming a Protestant in violation of Henry VIIL's
Six Articles. " He was forced," says the old historian to
whom Francis Drake told the story, " to fly from his
house near South Tavistock in Devon, into Kent, and
there to inhabit in the hull of a ship, wherein many of
his younger sons were born. He had twelve in all.
After the death of King Henry, he got a place among
the seamen in the King's navy, to read prayers to
them, and soon after he was ordained deacon. But by
reason of his poverty he put his son to the master of a
bark, with which he used to coast along the shore, and
sometimes to carry merchandize into Zealand and
France. The youth, being painful and diligent, so
pleased the old man that, being a bachelor, at his death
he bequeathed his bark unto him."*
That report of Francis Drake's parentage and early
history is partly contradicted by another, almost as old,
from which it would seem that his father was a com
mon sailor.! It is clear, at any rate, that the young
man rose from obscurity by his own merits, and was a
sailor from his boyhood. As soon as he became owner
of the coasting-bark which he had previously navi
gated, he appears to have sold it and applied himself to
" Camden, Annals, p. 351.
t In a Memoir of Drake, by Campbell, in the Siographia Britannica,

42 Hawkins's Third West Indian Voyage, [Chap. xn,
bolder work. He is said to have been purser in a ship
trading to the Bay of Biscay in 1563.* In 1565 he
went to Rio de la Hacha with a Captain John Lovell,
about whose enterprise we have no information, but who
evidently was one of the adventurers who followed in
the track taken by Hawkins in 1564 to the Spanish
Main.! Here he so far distinguished himself as to be
entrusted by Hawkins, soon after his return, with the
care of one of the vessels appointed for his new expe
dition. These vessels were six in all ; — the Jesus of Lubeck,
and the Minion, supplied by the Queen, either for hire
or on the understanding that her Majesty was to have
a share in the profits of the enterprise, and commanded,
the one by John Hawkins himself, the other by the John
Hampton who accompanied him in 1562 ; and four
others fitted out by Hawkins and his brother William,
the William and John, under Captain Thomas Bolton,
the Judith, a bark of 50 tons burthen, entrusted to
Captain Francis Drake, the Sivallow, and the Angel,
Added to these six was a small pinnace ; and the whole
fleet is said to have contained, though the number is
certainly overstated, fifteen hundred sailors and soldiers.!
Five hundred is a more probable number. The primary
object of the voyage does not seem to have been slave-
trading. Two Portuguese refugees had offered to put
*' Stow, Annals, p. 807.
t Sir Francis Dralce Bevived, Jiublished by his Nephew, Sib Feancis
Drake, the Younger, in 1626.
X Habxuyt, vol. iii., p. 521 ; Heereea, Historia General, lib. xix.,
cap. 18.

156T.] Further Progress of his Quarrel with Spain. 43
Hawkins in the way of loading as many ships as he
chose to employ with gold and other wealth belonging
to Spain ; and perhaps it was intended to use the little
fleet, as a first step at any rate, in piratical attack
upon galleons in Spanish waters.* But the Portuguese
took fright and ran away before Hawkins was ready to
start ; and, on the 16th of September, he wrote from
Plymouth to Queen Elizabeth, saying he would now
take all the management in his own hands, and that he
proposed "to lade Negroes in Guinea, and sell them
in the West Indies, in truck of gold, pearls, and
emeralds."! On the eve of embarkation a memorable episode
occurred. A Spanish galley was passing through the
English Channel, with a cargo of captive insurgents
from the Netherlands, on its way to Cadiz. Hawkins,
glad of an excuse, fired upon the Spanish flag that was
hanging from her topmast, and, in the turmoil that
ensued while the flag was being lowered, the captives
made their escape to the Jesus, whence they were sent
back to Holland. Elizabeth, formally reproving him
for this, was appeased by his assurance that he sup
posed the Spanish ship had been sent to attack him.
But Philip's ambassador was not appeased. " Your
mariners rob my master's subjects on the sea and trade
where they are forbidden to go," he said in an angry
letter to the Queen. " They plunder our people in the
streets of your towns. They attack our vessels in your
* Heeeera, lib. xix., cap. 18.
t Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. xliv., No. 7.

44 Hawkins's Third West Indian Voyage. [Chap. xn.
very harbours, and take our prisoners from them. Your
preachers insult my master from their pulpits ; and,
when we apply for justice, we are answered with threats.
We have borne with these things, attributing them
rather to passion or rudeness of manners than to any
deliberate purpose of wrong; but seeing there is no
remedy and no end, I must now refer to my sovereign
to learn what I am to do. I make, however, one con
cluding appeal to your Majesty : I entreat your Majesty
to punish this last outrage at Plymouth, and to pre
serve the peace between the two nations."*
Immediate punishment, if she had wished to effect it,
was out of Elizabeth's power. Four days before the
ambassador's letter was written, on the 2nd of October,
Hawkins had left Plymouth to enter on a course of
troubles by which he certainly was punished enough.
In a four days' storm off Cape Fitiisterre the Jesus was
nearly disabled, and the ship's boats were lost; and
when Cape de Verde was reached on the 18th of No
vember, fresh disasters arose. A hundred and fifty
men were there landed and sent in search of Negroes.
"But," says Hawkins, in his narrative of the voyage,!
" we got but few, and those with great hm-t and damage
to our men, which chiefly proceeded of their envenomed
arrows. Although in the beginning they seemed to be
but small hurts, yet there hardly escaped any that had
blood drawn of them but died in strange sort, with
¦* MSS. cited by Froude, vol. viii., pp. 481, 482 ; Recced Office
MSS., Domestic, vol. xliv., No. 13.
t Hakluyt, vol. iii., pp. 521 — 525, which is the auteirity for the
following account, when no other is cited.

1567-1568.] Another Search for Negroes, 45
their mouths shut some ten days before they died, and
after their wounds were whole. I myself had one of the
greatest wounds, yet, thanks be to God, escaped." Seven
or eight Englishmen died of lock-jaw.
At Cape de Verde and on aU the coast from Rio
Grande to Sierra Leone, where he made tedious
search for them until the 12th of January, Hawkins
collected only a hundred and fifty slaves; and he
thought that sickness and the lateness of the season
would compel him to cross the Atlantic, " having yet
nothing wherewith to seek the coast of the West
Indies." He went a little further, however, and then,
to his great satisfaction, was asked by a Negro king to
aid him in vanquishing one of his neighbours. All the
captives were to go to Hawkins in payment for his
services. A hundred and twenty Englishmen were
detached for this work. They attacked a town con
taining eight thousand inhabitants, " strongly paled and
fenced after their manner," and, when six of their
number had been killed and forty wounded, they had
to send to Hawkins for reinforcements. " Where
upon," he says, " considering that the good success of
this enterprise might highly further the commodity of
our voyage, I went myself, and, with the help of the
king of our side, assaulted the town both by land and
sea, very hardly with fire — their houses being covered
with pahn-leaves — obtained the town, and put the in
habitants to flight. We took two hundred and fifty
persons, men, women, and children ; and by our friend
the king on our side there were taken six hundred

46 Hawkins's Third West Indian Voyage, [chap. xn.
prisoners, whereof we hoped to have our choice; but
the Negro — in which nation is never or seldom found
truth — meant nothing less ; for that night he removed
his camp and prisoners, so that we were fain to content
us with those few that we had gotten ourselves."
With his scanty and basely acquired cargo of Negroes
Hawkins proceeded to the Spanish Main. Passing Do
minica on the 27th of March, and stopping often to trade
at the islands on his way, he reached Rio de la Hacha
in June. There, as he expected and perhaps hoped,
there was opposition to his projects. " The treasurer
who had the charge," he says, "would by no means
agree to any trade or suffer us to take water. He had
fortified his town with divers bulwarks in all places
where it might be entered, and furnished himself with
a hundred harquebusiers ; so that he thought by famine
to have enforced us to land our Negroes. Of which
purpose he had not greatly failed, unless we had by
force entered the town ; which, after we could by no
means obtain his favour, we were enforced to do, and
so, with two hundred men, brake in upon their bul
warks and entered the town, with the loss of only two
raen of our parts, — and no hurt done to the Spaniards,
because, after their volley discharged, they all fled.
Thus having the town, with some circumstance, as
partly by the Spaniards' desire of Negroes, and partly
by the friendship of the treasurer, we obtained a secret
trade ; whereupon the Spaniards resorted , to us by
night, and bought of us to the number of two hundred
Negroes."

1668.] Fresh Exploits in the Spanish Main. 47
From Rio de la Hacha Hawkins went to Carta
gena ; but being there forbidden to trade, and having
very few Negroes left for any purposes of trade adapted
to the port, and being also anxious to get clear of the
West Indies before the season of hurricanes set in, he
left it peaceably on the 24th of July. He then directed
his course to Florida, where on his previous voyage he
had been able to obtain fresh supplies of water. When
he was westward of Cuba, however, on the 12th of Au
gust, a violent storm, lasting four days, sadly troubled
the fleet. " It so beat the Jesus," says Hawkins, " that
we cut down all her higher buildings. Her rudder also
was sore shaken; and withal the ship was in so extreme
a leak that we were rather on the point to leave her
than to keep her any longer. Yet, hoping to bring all
to a good pass, we sought the coast of Florida, where
we found no place nor haven for our ships, because of
the shallowness of the coast. Thus, being in great
despair, and taken with a new storm, which continued
other three days, we were enforced to take for succour
the port which serveth for the city of Mexico, called
San Juan de UUoa."
In that plan Hawkins was overbold, and his prospects
were not improved by his capture of three small Spanish
vessels which fell in his way, and which he attached to
his fleet, hoping that for the hundred prisoners which
they yielded he might obtain the requisite supphes by
way of ransom. He reached San Juan, which is a
rocky island helping to form the harbour of Vera Cruz,
on the 16th of September. There he at first adopted a

48 Hawkins's Third West Indian Voyage, (chap. xn.
policy of moderation, very rare in him and only here to
be explained on the assumption that he had discovered
the weakness of his force and the need of propitiating
the Spaniards, who now looked upon him as one of their
worst enemies. "I found in the same port," he says,
" twelve ships whicb had in them, by report, 200,000?.
in gold and silver ; all which, being in my possession,
with the King's Island" — that is, San Juan — "as also
the passengers before in my way thitherward stayed, I
set at liberty without taking from them the weight of
a groat." The colonists at Vera Cruz at first supposed that
Hawkins's ships were a fleet from Spain, for which they
were looking out. The chief officers of the port accord
ingly came on board for the despatches. " Being de
ceived of their expectation, they were greatly dismayed;
but immediately, when they saw our demand was
nothing but victuals, they were recomforted." Hawkins
kept two of them as hostages, while a message was sent
to the governor in Mexico, representing his condition
and asking permission to buy such articles as he
needed. That message was despatched on the night of Haw
kins's arrival, and in it he exhausted his moderation.
«' On the morrow," he says, " we saw open of the haven
thirteen great ships, and, understanding them to be the
fleet of Spain, I sent immediately to advise the General
of the fleet of my being there, giving him to understand
that before I would suffer him to enter the port, there
should be some order of conditions pass between us, for

1568.1 His Bearing at San Juan de TJlloa. 49
our safe-being there and maintenance of peace." That
certainly was haughtier conduct than any that Eng
lishmen had had to complain of at the hands of
Spanish captains in British waters. Hawkins himself
felt constrained to make some excuse for it. " It is to
be understood," he wrote in his history of the enterprise,
" that this port is made by a little island of stones not
three foot above the water in the highest place, and but a
bowshot of length any way, standing from the mainland
two bowshots or more. Also it is to be understood that
there is not in all this coast any other place for ships to
arrive in safety, because the north wind hath there such
violence that, unless the ships be very safely moored,
with their anchors fastened upon this island, there is no
remedy for these north winds but death. Also the place
of the haven is so little that of necessity the ships must
ride one above the other, so that we could not give
place to them, nor they to us. And here I began to
bewail that which after followed ; for now, said I, I am
in two dangers and forced to receive the one of them.
That was ; either I must have kept out the fleet, the
which, with God's help, I was very well able to do ; or
else suffer them to enter in with their accustomed
treason, which they never fail to execute, when they
may have opportunity to compass it by any means. If
I had kept them out, then had there been present ship
wreck of all the fleet, which amounted, in value of our
money, to 1,800,000?., which I considered I was not able
to answer, fearing the Queen's Majesty's indignation in
so weighty a matter. Thus, with myself revolving the
VOL. II. E

50 Hawkins's Thi7-d West Indian Voyage. [chap.xh.
doubts, I thought rather better to abide the jutt of the
uncertainty than the certainty. The uncertain doubt,
I account, was their treason, which, by good policy, I
hoped might be prevented ; and therefore, as choosing
the least mischief, I proceeded to conditions."
Hawkins's "good policy" was no match for the
" accustomed treason " of the Spaniards as practised by
the commander of their fleet, Francisco de Luxau, and
the new Viceroy of Mexico, Don Martin Henriquez, who
was on board. This treason, however, was no worse than
rough precedents of the age fully sanctioned, and pro
bably no worse than Hawkins himself would have re
sorted to in like case. Don Martin, when told that the
strange ships which opposed his immediate entrance
into port were under the command of the hated Haw
kins, is reported to have sent a haughty message to
him, saying " that he was a Viceroy, and had a thou
sand men, and therefore he would come in." "If he
be a Viceroy," answered Hawkins, "I represent my
Queen's person, and I am a Viceroy as well as he ; and
if he have a thousand men, my powder and shot will
take the better place."* Don Martin, knowing that he
must enter somehow or run the chance of shipwreck,
immediately resolved upon treachery. He sent word
that he would comply with any reasonable terms that
Hawkins might propose. Hawkins replied that all he
wanted was permission to barter certain of his goods, in
fair market, for such provisions as were required for his
* Job Hartop, in a narrative printed by Hakluyt, vol. iii.,
pp. 487-495.

136S.] His Fight at San Juan de UUoa. 51
voyage back to England. " Then the Viceroy," says
one of the Englishmen, " yielded to our General's de
mands, swearing by his King and his crown, by his com
mission and authority that he had from his King, that
he would perform it, and thereupon pledges were given
on both parts." Hostages were exchanged — the Spanisli
hostages being " the basest of their company, in costly
apparel," — and "proclamation was made on both sides
that, on pain of death, no occasion should be given
whereby any quarrel should grow to the breach of the
league."* Thus the Spaniards entered the harbour, and the
Englishmen were at their mercy. After two days of
"great amity" Hawkins's suspicions were aroused by
seeing that additional guns were placed on the fortifica
tions of the port, and that fresh soldiers were drafted
to the ships. A great Spanish hulk, also, was moored
beside the Minion, and at daybreak Hawkins saw that
three hundred meti had been smuggled into her in the
dark. He bade his men prepare for the worst, and sent
Robert Barret, the master of the Minion, to ask the
Viceroy what all this meant. Barret was straight
way put in irons, and a trumpet sounded. That was
the appointed signal for an attack upon the English.
The three hundred Spaniards had begun to board the
Minion almost before the trumpet had ceased to blow.
"God and Saint George !" shouted Hawkins. "Upon
those traitorous villains, and rescue the Minion. I trust
* Job Hartop's narrative.

52 Hawkins's Tliird West Indian Voyage, [chap.xh.
in God the day shall be ours !"* " By God's appoint
ment," he says, " in the time of suspicion we had, which
was only one half-hour, the Minion was made ready to
avoid ; and so, loosing her head-fasts and hauling away
by the stern-fasts, she was gotten out. Thus, with God's
help, she defended the violence of the first brunt of
these three hundred men. The Minion being passed
out, they came aboard the Jesus; which also, with
very much ado and the loss of many of our men, kept
them ont. There were also two other ships that
assaulted the Jesus at the asme instant, so that she had
hard getting loose ; but yet, with some time, we had cut
our head-fasts. Now, when the Jesus and the Minion
were gotten about two ships' lengths from the Spanish
fleet, the fight began so hot on all sides that, within one
hour, the admiral! of the Spaniards was supposed to be
sunk, their vice-admiral burnt, and one other of their
chief ships behoved to be sunk ; so that the ships were
little able to annoy us."
But this first triumph was brief. Hawkins had to face
an overwhelming force on shipboard and all the artillery
of San Juan and Vera Cruz. Let the sequel be told in
the words of Job Hartop, one of the combatants. " We
cut our cables, wound off our ships, and presently fought
with them. They came upon us on every side, and
continued the fight from ten of the clock until it was
* Job Hartop's narrative.
t In those days the chief fighting ships were generally called the
Admiral and the Vice-Admiral ; the titles of the chief ofiBcers on ship
board, as on land, were General and Lieutenant-General.

1563.] His Fight at San Juan de Ulloa. 53
night. They killed all our men that were on shore in
the island saving three, which, by swimming, got aboard
the Jesus of Lubeck. They sunk the Angel, and took the
Swallow. The Spaniards' admiral had above three score
shot through her. Many of her men were spoiled.
Four other of their ships were sunk. There were in
that fleet, and that came from the shore to rescue them,
fifteen hundred. We slew of them five hundred and
forty, as we were credibly informed by a note that came
to Mexico. In this fight the Jesus of Lubeck had fiv(
shot through her mainmast : her foremast was struck ir
sunder, under the hounds, with a chain-shot, and he:
hull was wonderfully pierced with shot. Therefore i
was impossible to bring her away. They set two of thei:
own ships on fire, intending therewith to have burnt th(
Jesus of Lubeck, which we prevented by cutting on
cables in the hawse and winding off by our stern-fas1
The Minion was forced to set sail and stand off from us
and come to an anchor without shot of the island. Ou
General courageously cheered his soldiers and gunners
and called to Samuel his page for a cup of beer, wh
brought it him in a silver cup ; and he, drinking to a]
his men, willed the gunners to stand by their ordnanc
like men. He had no sooner set the cup out of hi
hand but a demi-culverin shot struck away the cup, an
a cooper's plane that stood by the mainmast, and ra
out on the other side of the ship. Which nothing dis
mayed our General ; for he ceased not to encourage u
saying, ' Fear nothing ; for God, who hath preserved m
from this shot, will also deliver us from these traitoi

54 Haivkins's Third West Indian Voyage, [chap. xn:
and villains.' Then Captain Bland, meaning to have
turned out of the port, had his mainmast struck over
board with a chain-shot that came from the shore.
Wherefore he anchored, fired his ship, took his pinnace
with all his men, and came on board the /estis of Lubeck
to our General ; who said unto him that he thought he
would not have run away from him. He answered that
he was not minded to have run away from him, but his
intent was to have turned up, and to have laid the
weathermost ship of the Spanish fleet aboard and fired
his ship, in hope therewith to have set on fire the
Spanish fleet. He said, if he had done so,' he had done
well. With this, night came on. Our General com
manded the Minion, for safeguard of her masts, to be
brought under the Jesus of Luheek's lee. He willed
Master Francis Drake to come in with the Judith and
to lay the Minion aboard, to take in men and other
things needful, and to go about ; and so he did. At
night, when the wind came off the shore, we set sail,
and went out, in despite of the Spaniards and their shot,
when we anchored with two anchors under the island,
the wind being northerly, which was wonderful dan
gerous, and we feared every hour to be driven with the
lee shore."*
* The above details, ill-arranged and differing somewhat from the
other narratives extant, are yet the best we have. They agi-ee, iu the
main, with Hawkins's shorter and also confusing account, and with
another account, by Miles Philips (Hakluyt, vol. iii,, pp. 469 — 487).
Hekreka, whose report is certainly not more favourable to his country
men's good faith, says that the fight was begun on shore by Spaniards,
with arms concealed, who invited some Englishmen to drink, and
then set upon them. He reports that the Spanish hostages left with

1568.] His Defeat at San Juan de Ulloa. 55
Thus dismally, though gloriously, ended Hawkins's
great fight with the Spaniards at San Juan de UUof
on the 23rd of September, 1568. But the troubles o
the Englishmen were not here ended. Drake, in hii
little Judith, crowded with his own men and severa!
who had escaped from the other ships, proceeded ai
once to England, thereby incurring serious blame, ant
reached Plymouth after a tardy voyage, a day or twc
before the 20th of January, 1569.* The Jesus of Lu
heck, the William and John, the Angel, and the Sivallon
had been wrecked or taken by the Spaniards, many o
their crews being drowned or captured, and only s(
many as could make their escape in boats being abl<
to take refuge in the Minion. ¦•' The men on board th(
Minion," says Hawkins, " without either the captain'i
or the master's consent, set sail in such hurry and con
fusion, that it was not without great difficulty I wai
received on board."
The Englishmen taken by the Spaniards had nc
mercy from them. " It is a certain truth," it was saic
in 1582, " that they took our men and hung them uj
by the arms, upon high posts, until the blood burs
out of their fingers' ends. Of which men so used there
is one Copstone and certain others yet alive, who, b]
the merciful providence of the Almighty, were lon^
since arrived here in England, carrying still abou
with them, and shall to their graves, the marks anc

Hawkins testified to the generous treatment they received at his hands
— Historia General, lib. xix., cap. 18.
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. xlix., Nos. 36, 37.

56 Hawkins's Third West Indian Voyage. [Chap.xh.
tokens of those their inhuman and more than barbarous
cruel dealings."*
Of those who escaped in the Minion, about two
hundred in all, many fared no better. " We were now
left alone," says Hawkins, " with only two anchors and
two cables, our ship so damaged that it was as much
as we could do to keep her above water, and a great
number of us with very little provisions. We were
besides divided in opinion what to do. Some were for
yielding to the Spaniards; others chose rather to
submit to the mercy of the savages ; and again, others
thought it more eligible to keep the sea, though with
so scanty an allowance of victuals as would hardly
suffice to keep us alive. In this miserable plight we
ranged an unknown sea for fourteen days, till extreme
famine obliged us to seek for land. So great was our
misery that hides were reckoiied good food. Rats, cats,
mice, and dogs, none escaped us that we could lay our
hands on. Parrots and monkeys were our dainties.
In this condition we came to land, on the 8th of Oc
tober, at the bottom of the Bay of Mexico, where we
hoped to have found inhabitants of the Spaniards, relief
of victuals, and a proper place to repair our ship. But
we found everything just contrary to our expectation ;
neither inhabitants, nor provisions, nor a haven for the
repair of our ship. Many of our men, nevertheless,
being worn out with hunger, desired to be set on shore,
to which I consented. Such as were willing to land I
put them apart, and such as were desirous to go home-
* Miles Pliilips's narrative, in Hakluyt, vol. iii., p. 473.

1668.] The Troubles consequent on his Defeat. 57
wards I put apart ; so that they were indifferently
parted, a hundred on one side, and a hundred on the
other side. These men we set a-land with all diligence
in this little place ; which iaeing landed, we determined
there to take in fresh water, and so with our little
remains of victuals to take the sea."
Hawkins's excuse for thus abandoning half his men
to the scant mercies of Indians and Spaniards in a
Mexican morass is in the certainty that, without some
such measure, the whole party must have perished of
starvation on ship-board ; and he is not greatly to be
blamed for adding to the many who desired to be thus
left a few of mutinous disposition who, having at first
insisted upon being put on land, had in the end to be
coerced thereto. " When we were landed," says one
of the number, " he came unto us, where, friendly end-
bracing every one of us, he was greatly grieved that he
was forced to leave us behind him. He counselled us
to serve God and to love one another, and thus cour
teously he gave us a sorrowful farewell, and promised,
if God sent him safe home, he would do what he could
that so many of us as lived should by some means be
brought into England, and so he did."*
The melancholy history of these hundred men must
be briefly told. Their troubles began as soon as they
were landed, when many of them were made ill by the
quantity of water which they drank and the unwhole
some nuts which they ate. At night time their only
bed was the damp ground. They wandered through
* Job Hartop's narrative, in Hakluyt, vol. iii., p. 491.

58 Haivkins's Third West Indian Voyage. [Chap.xh.
marshes for some days, until they met a wandering
tribe of man-eating Indians who, supposing them to be
Spaniards, fiercely assailed them, and, after they had
begged by signs for mercy and shown by their speech
that they were not of the hated race, stripped all who
wore coloured clothes, and left only the black raiment
to be divided among them. Only eight Englishmen
were slain in this meeting. The others divided into
two parties, half going northwards along the shore, and
half going to the west, in a route pointed out by the
Indians. This latter company forced their way for a
fortnight through marshes overgrown with grass five
or six feet high, interspersed with bramble-covered
clumps of ground on which their naked limbs were
torn at every step. Many were killed by Indians who
shot at them unawares. Those who escaped from the
Indians' arrows were plagued almost to madness by
mosquitoes and other stinging flies. At length they
reached the river Panluco, and saw Spaniards on the
other side, who crossed over in boats and so conveyed
them to the town of Panluco. There, upon telling their
story, the Governor threatened to hang them all for
treacherous villains, and, when sued for mercy, put them
for tln-ee days into " a little hogsty," where they were
fed upon pigs' food and nearly poisoned by foul smells.
At the end of the three days, they were bound two and
two together and marched over ninety leagues of road
to the city of Mexico. They were kindly used at some
of the halting-places, and one of the two officers to
whom they were entrusted did what he- could to

1568-1682.] Tlie Sufferings of his Comrades in Mexico. 59
lessen their sufferings ; but the other " carried a javelin
in his hand,-" says Miles Philips, one of the two who
has told the story, " and sometimes, when as any of
our men with very feebleness and faintness were not
able to go so fast as he required them, he would take
his javelin in both his hands, and strike them with the
same between the neck and the shoulders so violently
that he would strike them down : then would he cry
and say, ' March, march on, you English dogs, Lu
therans, enemies to God.' " At last they reached
Mexico, and there they were put into a vile prison, in
company with many of the comrades from whom they
had parted a few weeks before, and many others who
had been taken prisoners at San Juan de Ulloa; the
whole body of prisoners being about a hundred. After
they had been in gaol for four months, they were taken
out and distributed as servants among the Spanish
colonists, who generally employed them as overseers of
their Indian and Negro slaves. That state of things
lasted six years, and most of them fared well during
that time. But in 1575 the Inquisition was introduced
into Mexico, and then " their sorrows began afresh."
On the eve of Good Friday all were dressed for an
auto da fe, and paraded through the streets. A few
were burnt : others were sent to the galleys : those
who had kind friends escaped with short imprison
ment and two or three hundred lashes apiece. Miles
Philips, one of the most fortunate, served five years
in a monastery, and then, having made friends with
some Indian fellow-slaves and learnt their language.

60 Hawkins's Third West Indian Voyage. [chap. xu.
managed to make his escape to Guatemala, and thence,
professing that he was a Spaniard, to work his way to
England in February, 1582. Another of the party.
Job Hartop, who was soon taken to Spain, thus sums
up a long narrative of his long troubles : " I suffered
imprisonment in Mexico two years ; in the Contratation
House in Seville, one year ; in the Inquisition House
in Triana, one year. I was in the galleys twelve years ;
in the Everlasting Prison Remediless, with the coat
with Saint Andrew's Cross on my back, four years;
and, at liberty, I served as a drudge Hernando de Loria
three years ; which is the full complement of twenty-
three years."* Hartop returned to Portsmouth in 1590,
and a few others reached England at various times;
but most of the hundred men left by Hawkins on the
Mexican coast died of the hardships inflicted upon them
by the Spaniards.
Death came more quickly to most of the hundred
who left the Mexican coast with Hawkins on the 16th
of October, 1568. While the division of the men was
being made, the Minion had been very nearly wrecked
in a violent storm that lasted for three days. But
" God again had mercy on thera." The disconsolate
voyagers had fair weather as they sailed out of the
Gulf of Mexico and past the Baharaas, although through
lack of food they were hardly able to raanage the sails,
A great many died of starvation. The rest slowly
worked their way across the Atlantic, and finding them
selves near the coast of Spain, put in at Pontevedra,
* Hakluyt, vol. iii., pp. 469—487, 487 — 495.

1668-1569.] His Sufferings on the Way to England. 61
in Galicia, on the 31st of December. There and at
Vigo, whither they went on hearing that they were
identified, and that steps were being taken for their
arrest, they obtained supplies of food and the assistance
of twelve English sailors, who navigated the ship for
them. They themselves nearly all died of the " mise
rable diseases " which came upon their weakened bodies
through the " excess of fresh meat," which they pro
cured in Spain. Hawkins and a few others, however,
survived and reached Mount's Bay, in Cornwall, on the
25th of January, 1569. " All our business hath had
infelicity, misfortune, and an unhappy end," he said in
a letter addressed on that day to Sir William Cecil.
" If I should write of all our calamities, I am sure a
volume as great as the Bible will scarcely suffice."*
When the story of those calamities was made known,
a new thrill of hatred against Spain and all Spaniards
ran through England. Spaniards had been too often
Ul-used by Enghshmen, and especially by Hawkins
hiraself, for their bad faith to be made a ground of
serious coraplaint by Queen Elizabeth to King Philip ;
but the recollection of this occurrence was treasured up
until a future time as one of the many cogent reasons
for the carrying on of open war between England and
Spain. In the meanwhile it gave a new impetus to the
private warfare that had already been in progress for
ten years or raore.
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. xlix.. No. 40. A whole
volume (liii.) of this collection is occupied -with the reports, evidence of
witnesses, and the like, presented to a Commission of Inquiry, to which
Hawkins's case was referred, in July, 1569.

62 Drake's Earlier Exploits inthe Spanish Main, [chap.xh,
Hawkins applied hiraself to the prosecution of that
vt'arfare with persistent zeal. But he had suffered too
much in purse, as well as in health, by the misfortunes
of his last voyage to be hasty in entering upon another.
The task of fighting with the Spaniards in the Spanish
Main he left to others, and his most famous follower
was young Francis Drake.
Having lost, in the expedition of 1567, all his little
savings, Drake determined to win back all that had
been taken from him, and in doing so to seize as much
more as he could lay hands on. And he set about the
business in a business-like way. " Finding that no
recompense could be recovered out of Spain by any of
his own means or by her Majesty's letters," we are
told, " he used such help as he might by two several
voyages into the West Indies, to gain such intelligence
as might further him to get some amend for his loss."
The first of these voyages was undertaken in 1570, in
two little vessels, the Dragon and the Swan. The
second was undertaken iu 1571 in the Swan alone.
About neither expedition is much more recorded than
that in them " he got such certain notice of the per
sons and places aimed at as he thought requisite."*
They were small trading and piratical voyages made
" Sir Francis Drake Bevived, by Philip Nichols — " i-eviewcd also by
Sir Francis Drake himself before his death, and much holpeii and
enlarged, by divers notes with his own hand, here and there inserted "
(1626)— which is my chief authority for the account of the voyage of
1572. Some other details are from a Sloane MS. in the British Museum
made use of by Baeeow, in his Life, Voyages, and Exploits of Sir
Francis Drake (1 843).

1569-1572.] His Three Voyages to the West Indies. 63
probably at other people's expense, and used by Drake
for earning money, as well as for acquiring information,
both being alike needful to the work he had in view.
In 1572 Drake entered upon this work in good
earnest. On the 24th of May he left Plymouth, in
corapany with his brother John — another brother,
Joseph, being also of the party — with two barks, the
Pascha, of 70 tons burthen, and the Sivan, of 25 tons,
well supplied with food and all fighting-, implements,
" especially having three dainty pinnaces made in
Plyraouth, taken asunder all in pieces, and stowed
aboard, to be set up as occasion served." His entire
crew comprised seventy-three men and boys. With
this force he purposed to despoil Nombre de Dios, on
the north side of the Isthmus of Darien, then " the
granary of the West Indies, wherein the golden harvest
brought from Peru and Mexico to Panama was hoarded
up till it could be conveyed into Spain."
Drake proceeded at once to a little bay in the Gulf
of Darien, which he had discovered in a previous
voyage, and naraed Port Pheasant, "by reason of the
great store of those goodly fowls, which he and his
companions did there daily kill and feed on in that
place." This seems to have been a haunt of English
voyagers who amused theraselves with AVest Indian
piracy, already practised by many. In it Drake found
upon a tree a communication frora a John Garret of
Plyraouth, who had been previously associated with
him, warning him that the Spaniards had discovered
the hiding-place, and that it was no longer safe to use it.

64 Drake's Earlier Exploits in the Spanish Main. [Chap.xh.
Drake, however, remained a few days, long enough to
set up the three pinnaces that he had taken from
England, and also to welcome one James Rouse, who
had also been previously connected with him, and who
now seems to have come to the place by appointment.
Rouse brought his little bark, with a crew of thirty
men, and a Spanish caravel and shallop which he
had captured on the way out. It was arranged that he
should stay at Port Pheasant with the three barks and
the caravel, while Drake went to plunder Nombre de
Dios with the three pinnaces and the shallop, manned
by fifty-three of his own men and twenty of Rouse's.
The bold little company reached Nombre de Dios at
three o'clock in the morning of the 23rd of July. In
the dark they sped into the port, and all landed without
opposition frora the single gunner who was on the
watch. " On landing on the platforra," says one of the
freebooters, " we found six great pieces of ordnance
raounted upon their carriages, some demi, some whole,
culverins. We presently dismounted them. The
gunner fled : the town took alarm, as we perceived not
only by the noise and cries of the people, but by the
bell ringing out, and drums running up and down the
town. Our captain sent some of our raen to stay the
ringing of the alarm-bell, which had continued all this
while, but the church being very strongly built and fast
shut, they could not without firing, which our captain
forbade, get into the steeple where the bell hung."
The first firing came frora the Spaniards, who dis
charged a volley of shot upon the invaders, and wounded

1572.] His Raid on Nombre de Dios. 65
Drake in the leg, but they were driven off by the
English arrows. John Drake and seventeen others —
the most notable of whom was John Oxenham of Ply
mouth, at first a comraon sailor and cook, but already
high in favour as a daring buccaneer — were sent to get
possession of the King's Treasure House ; and twelve
raen were left in charge of the pinnaces. W^ith the
other forty-three Drake rushed into the raarket-place,
causing as ranch noise as possible to be raade with
trumpets and drums and as ranch glare as possible with
fire-pikes and torches, so as to deceive the sleepy in
habitants concerning the number of their assailants.
In a sraart skirmish with the Spaniards he drove them
back, with the exception of two or three whom he forced
to lead him at once to the Governor's House. The door
was open, and Drake hurrying in, discovered a great
heap of silver bars, which he guessed to be seventy feet
long, ten broad, and twelve high, and worth about
1,000,000?. Leaving here a strong guard, Drake hast
ened to the Treasure House, where a yet greater store
of gold was thought to be, telling his comrades " that
he had now brought them to the raouth of the treasury
of the world, which if they did not gain, none but thera
selves were to be blamed." They did not gain it, how
ever, and the blame, if any, was with Drake himself.
Of the wound which he had received almost at landing
he had made Hght, "knowing that, if the general's
heart stoops, the men's will fall, and that, if so bright
an opportunity once setteth, it seldora riseth again." But
blood dropped from his leg at every step, and while he
VOL. II. F

66 Drake's Earlier Exploits in the Spanish Main. [ohap. xn.
was before the Treasure House, directing his men as to
the best way of forcing an entry, says the narrator, " it
soon filled the very prints which our footsteps made, to
the great dismay of all our company, who thought it
not credible that one raan should lose so ranch blood
and live." Drake lived, but he fainted, and his men
were so disconcerted thereat, that they could do nothing
but bind up his wound with his scarf, and then bear
him back to the pinnaces. Many of them picked up a
goodly quantity of plunder as they went, and in the
harbour they de.spoiled a Spanish ship of several kegs
of wine. But, with very little of the booty that they
hoped for, they had to retreat to a small island some
six miles off, called by them the Island of Victuals, and
there spend two days in attending to the wounds which
many others, besides Drake, had received. The wine
which they had captured proved very serviceable ; and
other refreshraent, " no less strange than delicate," was
procured frora the gardens and farrahouses in the fruit
ful Island of Victuals.*
While Drake was there lying, a Spanish hidalgo
frora Norabre de Dios, in seeming friendship, came
to visit him. He asked whether the captain was the
same Drake who had troubled the coast on two previous
years, and, seeing how sorely the Spaniards had been
hurt, whether the English poisoned their arrows, and
how the wounds could be healed. Drake haughtily
replied "that he was the same Drake they meant;
* A slightly different account of this raid, by Lopez Vaz, a Portu
guese, is in Hakluyt, vol. iii., pp. 525, 526.

1572.] His Raid on Nombre de Dios. 67
that it was never his custom to poison arrows; that
their wounds might be cured with ordinary remedies ;
and that he wanted only sorae of that excellent com
modity, gold and silver, which that country yielded, for
himself and his company ; and that he was resolved, by
the help of God, to reap some of the golden harvest
which they had got out of the earth and then had sent
into Spain to trouble the earth."
On the 25th of July Drake left the little Island of
Victuals and returned to Captain Rouse and his barks.
Rouse feared pursuit, and therefore, receiving his share
of the small spoil, departed to follow his own way of
piracy. Drake, thereupon, sent his brother John to
make fresh observations of the approaches to the river
Chagres, a little to the west of Norabre de Dios, which
he had seen in 1571, but about which, a new plot being
in his mind, he desired some fm-ther information. The
information appears to have been unsatisfactory and
the pl^n abandoned.
Drake then sailed towards Cartagena, and alraost in
its harbour, on the 13th of August, boarded and plun
dered two Spanish ships, one of them of 240 tons
burthen. In the evening, leaving his two barks araong
some barren islands a little to the south, he took the
three pinnaces into the harbour itself, heard that the
colonists had been warned, by a flying pinnace frora
Nombre de Dios, of his approach, and, in cool defiance,
sailed up to a great ship of Seville which was to start
next morning for San Domingo. " Every pinnace,
according to the captain's order, one on the starboard

68 Drake' s Earlier Exploits in the Spanish Main, [chap.xh.
bow, the other on the starboard quarter, and the captain
in the midships on the larboard side, forthwith boarded
her, though all had some difficulty to enter, by reason
of her height. But, as soon as all entered upon the
decks, they threw down the gratings and spar-decks, to
prevent the Spaniards from annoying them with their
close fights ; who then, perceiving the English were
possessed of their ship, stowed theraselves all in the
hold with their weapons. Having cut their cables at
the hawse, with the three pinnaces they towed her
about the island into the sound right afore the town.
Meanwhile the town, having intelligence hereof by
their watch, took the alarm, rang out their bells, shot
off about thirty pieces of great ordnance, put all their
men in a readiness, horse and foot, came down on the
very point of the wood, aud discharged their calivers in
going forth." While all that stir was being made,
Drake was in safe retreat.
His hardiness, which would have been foolhardiness
in any one of less skilful and persistent daring, had now
brought him into what raight seem to be a desperate
state. The fortifications at Nombre de Dios and Carta
gena, the two strong gates of the Gulf of Darien, had
put out all their strength to withstand hira, and stout
galleys were looking out for him in the intermediate
waters. Therefore, fearing nothing, he deterrained to
resort to a bold expedient. Trusting raost to his fleet
pinnaces, and not having men enough for all his five ves
sels, he set on fire his little Swan, and turned the Pascha
into a store-ship, to be lodged in a remote corner of the

i6'2.j His Piracies near Cartagena. 69
bay. In that corner, which he reached on the 21st of
August, he raade friends of the native Symerons or
Maroons, a race of Indians, with Spanish blood among
them, formed, or at any rate augmented by fugitives from
the slavery enforced by the Spanish conquerors of Ame
rica, and thus imbued with fierce hatred against thera.
These Symerons helped Drake's followers to clear a plot
of ground and build enough huts for thera to live in,
thus providing very convenient head-quarters for the ad
venturers during the next few raonths.
Frora this teraporary residence Drake raade raore
piratical expeditions than need be here detailed. During
one little cruise, with two of the pinnaces, he took six
Spanish frigates — frigates in those days being sraall
pinnaces of only 5, 10, or 15 tons burthen — laden with
"hogs, hams, and raaize," of which useful articles he
put the greater part into two of the captured boats,
discharging the Spaniards in the other four. More
than once he passed within gun-shot of Cartagena, and
even landed in its neighbourhood. On the 20th of
October two frigates were sent out thence, in hopes of
decoying hira into the harbour. He burnt one and
sunk the other, within sight of two arraed ships de
spatched to take him, and then retired without waste
of powder. On the 3rd of November, says the quaint
narrator, " we espied a sail plying to the westward to
our great joy, who vowed together that we would have
her, or it should cost us dear. Bearing with her, we
found her to be a Spanish ship of above 90 tons, which,
being hailed by us, despised our suraraons and shot off

70 Drake's Earlier Exploits in the Spanish Main. [ohap. xn.
her ordnance at us. The sea went very high, so that it
was not for us to attgrapt to board her, and therefore we
raade fit sraall sail to attend upon her and keep her
corapany, to her small content, till fairer weather might
lay the sea. We spent not past two hours in our
attendance, till it pleased God, after a great shower, to
send us a reasonable calra, so that we raight use our
pieces and approach her at pleasure, in such sort that
in short tirae we had taken her, finding her laden
with victual, well powdered and well dried, which
at that present we received as sent us of God's great
mercy." Drake's God was not altogether merciful. His brother
John was killed, in November, in a fight with a Spanish
frigate, and his other brother Joseph died, in the follow
ing January, of a disease brought on by drinking brackish
water.* By the 3rd of February, twenty-eight of his
seventy-three comrades had died in one way or an
other. On that day - Drake started on a famous land adven
ture. With seventeen Englishmen and thirty Symerons
he began to journey towards Panama, on the south side
of the Isthmus of Darien, the rich capital of the district
fitly named Castila del Oro, or Golden Castile. On
the road he attempted to waylay a treasure-party pro-
* "That the cause might be better discerned, and consequently
remedied to the relief of others, by our Captain's appointment, he waa
ripped open by the surgeon, who found his liver swollen, his heart as it
were sodden, and his guts all fair. This was the first and last ex
periment that our Captain made of anatomy in this voyage." 
Sloane MS.

1572-1573.] His Land Expedition towards Panama, 71
ceeding to Nombre de Dios ; but one of his men, being
drunk, made so much noise that the Spaniards were
alarmed too soon, and the Englishmen had to save
themselves with some rough fighting, which they carried
up to the gates of Venta Cruz, and ended by sacking
that town. Shortly afterwards he met another treasure-
party, which he successfully attacked and robbed of
300 pounds of silver and sorae bars and wedges of gold.
This booty, however, was soon lost. Drake buried it
in the sand, intending to pick it up on his return ; but
one of his followers, having been taken by the Spaniards,
was corapelled by torture to reveal the hiding-place,
and so it was restored to its rightful owners.
Yet this expedition had a memorable issue. In 1513,
Vasco Nunez de Balboa, wandering among the steep
mountains of the Isthmus of Darien, had ascended one
of the highest, and thence obtained that view of the
Pacific Ocean, the first enjoyed by Europeans, which
had been a great incentive to the Spanish conquest of
South America and treasure-seeking along the shores
of the Southern Sea. Just sixty years afterwards
Drake was led by his Syraeron friends to what appears
to have been the same mountain, at the summit of
which was " a goodly and great high tree," revered by
the natives, and twisted, at its upper part, into "' a con
venient arbour, wherein twelve men might sit." He
ascended it and beheld the Pacffic, and then, says the
old historian, who probably invented for Drake the
melodramatic imitation of Vasco Nunez's behaviour,
" being influenced with ambition of glory and hopes of

72 Drake's Earlier Exploits in the Spanish Main, ichap.xh.
wealth, he was so vehemently transported with desire
to navigate that sea, that falling down there upon his
knees, he implored the Divine assistance that he raight,
at sorae tirae or other, sail thither and raake a perfect
discovery of the sarae ; and hereunto he bound hiraself
with a vow."*
That resolution raay have hastened Drake's return to
England. After an absence of two or three raonths, he
went back to his little settlement on the Gulf of
Darien, and, loading his bark and pinnaces with the
abundant treasure that he had collected, set sail in
June. After a prosperous voyage he entered Plymouth
Harbour on Sunday, the 9th of August, 1573. It was
sermon-time when the news of his arrival got abroad,
and we are told that all the congregation hurried out of
church to welcome hira, " all hastening to see the
evidence of God's love and blessing towards our gra
cious Queen and country, by the fruit of our captaiu's
labour and success."
He was not welcoraed by his fellow-townsraen of Ply
mouth alone. All praised hira for his successful enter
prise against the Spanish colonies, and none blamed
him for the lawless ways in which that enterprise had
been often carried through. In his eight-and-twentieth
year, Drake found hiraself rich in farae as well as in
money. He had not succeeded in his raid on Nombre
de Dios, and in some other treasure-winning projects he
had failed ; yet, as we are told, " he had gotten a pretty
store of money, by playing the seaman and the pirate."!
* Camden, Annals, p. 249. -f Ibid.

1573-1576.] The End of his Voyage, and its Issue. TS
His piracy raust be judged by sixteenth-century prin
ciples of raorality ; his searaanship by a standard of
courage that is unchangeable.
The many kindred undertakings which were contem
poraneous and subsequent to this famous voyage need
not here be chronicled. It will suffice briefly to describe
one which raay at the sarae tirae afford further illustra
tion of the hatred gro-wing araong Englishraen against
Spain and all Spaniards, and show how grievous was
the failure which carae to enterprises conducted by raen
who had no share in the wit and prowess possessed by
Drake. The raanager of this particular enterprise was Andrew
Barker, a raerchant of Bristol. Having successfully
traded for some years with the Canaries, a cargo belong
ing to hira, worth nearly 2,000?., was, in 1575, seized by
the Inquisition. Knowing that " no suit prevaileth
against the Inquisition of Spain," Barker determined to
reimburse himself by a season of piracy in the Spanish
Main, after the method made famous by Drake. He
accordingly fitted out two barks, the Ragged Staff, in
which he himself went as captain, with Philip Roche
for master, and the Bear, entrusted to Willian Coxe.
He left Plymouth early in June, 1576, and proceeded
by way of Cape de Verde to the Spanish Main. At
Trinidad he had sorae trade with its Indian inhabitants.
At Margarita he captured a sraall Spanish ship ; and in
the Gulf of Darien, fifty miles beyond Cartagena, he
seized a larger ship, containing 500?.'s worth of gold
and silver, and, among other treasure, "certain green

74 Barker's Expedition to the Spanish Main. [Ohap.xu.
stones called emeralds, whereof one, very great, being
set in gold, was found tied secretly about the thigh of a
friar." A third Spanish vessel was taken near Veragua,
and to it were transferred the crew of the Bagged Staff,
which was no longer seaworthy and had to be sunk.
Barker could hardly so dispose of those of his comrades
who were unseaworthy ; but he quarrelled and fought
with them. In a duel with Roche, at Veragua, he was
wounded in the cheek ; and in the Bay of Honduras he
was also wounded in another duel. The crew of the
Bear, turning mutinous in a body, took him out of his
own ship and placed him, with those who still supported
him, upon the island of San Francisco. They promised
to take him on board again, on his agreeing to their
terras ; but before that could be done a party of
Spaniards landed secretly at San Francisco, and killed
Barker and eight other Englishraen. Thereupon Coxe
took the coraraand of the expedition. The Bear being
unfit for further service, he caused it to be sunk, and
built a new frigate in the Bay of Honduras. This
alone returned to England, the Spanish frigate, in
which was raost of the booty, having been wrecked with
more than half of its crew. " Divers of our company,
upon our arrival at Plymouth," says one of the party,
" were committed to prison at the suit of Master John
Barker, of Bristol, brother unto our captain. Master
Andrew Barker, as accessories to our captain's death
and betrayers of him unto the enemy ; and, after
straight examination of many of us, by letters of direc
tion from her Majesty's Privy Council, the chief male-

1676.] Its Misfortunes and Miserable Failure. 75
factors were only chastised with long iraprisonment,
where indeed, before God, they had deserved to die ;
whereof sorae, although they escaped the rigour of
men's law, yet could they not avoid the heavy judgment
of God, but shortly after came to miserable ends."*
* Haklutt, vol. iii,, pp. 528—530.

76

CHAPTER XIII.
The V0YA9ES of Sie Francis Drake and Thomas Cavendish to the
Southern Sea amd round the "World.
[1575—1593.]
Captain Feancis Drake had no sooner returned from
his successful expedition to the Spanish Main than he
began to plan a new voyage in the direction of the
Southern Sea, of which he had had a distant view in
1573. But "he was prevented frora setting forth,"
according to his old biographer, " partly by secret envy
at home, and partly by being employed in his prince
and country's service in Ireland."* The report of his
daring insults to the Spaniards probably led Queen
Elizabeth to forbid at any rate iraraediate renewal of
his distant voyaging, and to give hira work which was
less likely to bring her into trouble with foreign powers.
In the autumn of 1573, by the Queen's permission, we
are told, " he furnished, at his own proper expense,
three frigates with raen and munition, and served
voluntary in Ireland under Walter, Earl of Essex,
where he did excellent service both by sea and land, at
* Prince, Worthies of Devon, p. 487.

1573-1575.] Drake in Ireland and in England. 77
the winning of divers strong forts."* About that " ex
cellent service," which must have been fierce butchery
at the best, we have no precise details. It was of short
duration, as the Earl of Essex's Quixotic attempt at the
colonization of Ulster was short-lived. After a year or
two of Irish adventure, Drake appears to have spent
another year or two in attendance at Court, where, as
the favourite of Queen Elizabeth's new favourite, Sir
Christopher Hatton, and as a, humble sharer in the
royal smiles, he was able to lay the foundations of his
future advancement.
For four years, at any rate, though he was " privately
brooding over his new design," he was not openly active
in its furtherance ; and through that delay his project
was in part anticipated by one of his most zealous fol
lowers in the exploits of 1572 and 1573. John Oxen-
ham had not only distinguished himself in the raid
upon Norabre de Dios ; he had also been Drake's chosen
corapanion in ascending the tree on the raountain-
surarait in Castila del Oro whence the Pacific Ocean
had been seen, and when Drake had vowed that one
day he would sail thereon, " if it would please God to
grant hira that happiness," Oxenhara had declared that,
unless he were forcibly hindered, " he would follow hira
by God's grace." To this resolution he adhered, after
their return to England, until, says the old biographer,
" having waited Drake's leisure for two years, and not
knowing how ranch longer it would be, if at all, ere his
occasions would permit bim so to do, he thought him-
* Stow, Annals.

78 Oxenham's Expedition to the South Sea. [chap.xih.
self disobliged from his promise ; and so he undertook
something himself."*
In the Spanish Main, under Drake, says the same
biographer, Oxenham " had gotten among the seamen
the name of captain for his valour, and had privfly
scraped together a good store of money." In 1575, he
put both money and narae to good use in fitting out a
small expedition for piracy and searching in the Southern
Sea. In a ship of 140 tons burthen, with seventy men
on board, he sailed to the shores of the Isthmus of
Darien, westward of Norabre de Dios. There he en
tered a narrow creek, and, drawing his sliip on the shore,
covered it and his provisions and great guns with
boughs. With the crew and six Symeron guides he
crossed the Darien mountains and, by the side of a
stream running into the Pacific, built a little pinnace,
" which was five-and-forty foot by the keel." Thus he
was able, first of Englishmen, to sail on the Pacific
Ocean. He proceeded to the Pearl Islands, there to
watch for Spanish treasure-ships on their way to Pa
nama. After ten days' waiting he captured a small
bark, bringing 60 pounds of gold from Quito and an
abundance of food, which was of raore present value
than the gold. Six days later he seized another little
vessel, coming from Lima with 100 pounds of silver among
its stores. He also found a few pearls on the Pearl
Islands. Then he returned to the river in the Bay of
Panama whence he had started, and dismissed the
captured barks. * Prince, Worthies of Devon, p. 487.

1576.] Its Good Beginning and Bad Ending, 79
Then good fortune left him. Imraediately after his
departure frora the Pearl Islands the Indians sent in-
forraation to Panaraa of his presence in the Southern
Sea. Four barks and a hundred soldiers were thence
despatched under Juan de Ortega to search for hira,
and they met the Spanish vessels which had just been
let loose from the mouth of the river. Thither Ortega
at once went. He followed Oxenhara up the river and,
after searching for four days, found his pinnace lying
ou the shore, with six Englishmen in charge of it. In
a scuffie with them one was killed, and the other five
ran off to tell Oxenham of the danger. It seems that
the Englishmen had quarrelled about the spoil they
had won. Oxenhara wished without delay to take it
back to the ship on the other side of the Isthraus, and
there store it for future division. Sorae of his followers
clairaed their shares at once, and the dispute was only
settled by its being teraporarily lodged in a hut half a
league frora the spot where the pinnace had been left ;
and there, while Oxenhara was a little way off, Ortega
found it. A fight ensued in which, with loss of seven
of his own men, Ortega killed five and captured eleven
of Oxenham's, putting the rest to flight. With some
difficulty and without their treasure, these made their
way back to the place in which they had concealed
their ship. But the Spaniards in Nombre de Dios,
informed from Panama of Oxenham's movements, had
discovered and seized it. With only such refuge as the
Symerons could give them, many of them ill and others
faint-hearted, with little food and less material for fight-

80 Drake's Voyage round the World, [ohap. xm.
ing or working, Oxenhara and his fifty men had to
wander about until they could find some way of im
proving their forlorn condition. This they never found.
A hundred and fifty soldiers were sent from Norabre de
Dios in search of them and, with the assistance of some
Negroes or Symerons, they were soon captured and
taken to Panama. Oxenham was asked if he had
Queen Elizabeth's authority for entering the dorainions
of the King of Spain. Being able to produce none, he
and all his followers, with the exception of two or three
boys, were executed as pirates. " Thus," says the old
historian, " raiscarried this great and memorable ad
venture."* Its fate was very different frora that of the greater
and more meraorable adventure in which Drake en
gaged soon after. Whatever " secret envy " and per
sonal arabition had deterred hira frora it through four
years were reraoved by the summer of 1577, and then
Drake applied himself heartily to the carrying out of
his old plan. The growing quarrel between England
and Spain, weakening every day Elizabeth's fear of too
much offending Philip, led her to withdraw her prohi
bition of the undertaking. It is even said that she
openly expressed her approval of it, and gave Drake an
implied commission thereto in presenting to him a sword
and saying, " We do account that he which striketh at
thee, Drake, striketh at us." At any rate, she offered
* Camden, Annals, pp. 251, 252; Hakluyt, vol. ih., pp. 526, 527;
BuENEY, Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea, vol. i.,
pp, 295—299.

15'".] The Ships and their Outfit. 81
no opposition to the active preparations which during
sorae raonths were being openly made, though their
precise object was kept secret, for an armed expedition
against the possessions of Spain.*
This expedition was fitted out partly at Drake's own
expense, partly with the assistance of his friends, Eliza
beth herself being one of thera. It comprised five, ves
sels ; the Pelican, to which was afterwards [given the
famous name of the Golden Hind, a ship of 100 tons,
coraraanded by Drake hiraself, the Elizabeth, a bark of
50 tons, under John Winter, the Marigold, a bark of
30 tons, under John Thomas, the Swan, a fly-boat of 30
tons, under John Chester, and the Christopher, a pin
nace of 15 tons, under ^Thoraas Moon. The crews of
these vessels numbered in all a hundred and sixty-four,
officers, sailors, and soldiers ; and they were supplied
with four pinnaces taken to pieces and adapted for
speedy putting together whenever they were needed
for use, as weR as with " such plentiful provision of all
things necessary as so long and dangerous a voyage
seemed to require." " Neither did he omit," it was said
of Drake, " to make provision for ornament and delight,
carrying to this purpose with hira expert musicians,
rich furniture — all the vessels for his table, yea, many
belonging to the cook-roora, being of pure silver — with
" The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake ; " carefully collected
out of the Notes of Master Feancis Fletcher, preacher in tliis employ
ment, and divers others his followers in the same," and published by
Sir Francis Drake, the younger ; re-issued, with copious notes and ad
ditions from MSS. in the British Museum by the Hakluyt Society (1854)
This is my authority for the ensuing details, where no other is cited,
VOL. n. G

82 Drake's Voyage round the World. [onAP.xm.
divers shows of all sorts of curious workraanship,
whereby the civility and magnificence of his native
country might, araong all nations whither he should
come, be the more admired."
All these preparations were completed by the 15th
of November. On that day Drake started from Ply
mouth. But a storm which overtook the little fleet
near Falmouth did so much damage that it had to be
taken back for repairs. A second and successful start
was made on the 13th of December. At Mogadore, off
the coast of Morocco, Drake halted on the 25th, and
there put up one of his pinnaces. There were no
people on the island, but the Moors from the mainland
crossed over to trade and exchange presents with him.
Leaving Mogadore on the last day of the year, he
seized three fishing-boats and three caravels, all be
longing to the Spaniards, on the way to Cape Blanco,
which he reached on the 16th of January. There he
dismissed two of the captured fishing-boats, and gave
the Christopher in exchange for the third, which was a
stout little bark of 40 tons burthen. He also released
two of the caravels. Four days were passed in trade
with the miserable inhabitants of Cape Blanco, who
eagerly bartered gums and other valuable commodities
for sorae of Drake's provisions. Near Cape de Verde
Islands and the adjoining coast, where Hawkins and
other slave-traders had made hateful the name of Eng
lishmen, he was very differently received. All the
inhabitants fled on his arrival, flrst fllling the wells
with salt and doing all else in their power to hinder

1677-1578.] From England to the African Coast. 83
his gaining the refreshment of which he was in need.
Refreshment was obtained in that neighbourhood, how
ever, by the capture of a Portuguese ship, laden with
wine and other articles. Drake gave to her crew the
little pinnace that he had put together at Mogadore,
and placed in her twenty-eight of his own men, under
the command of Thomas Doughty.
That arrangement was unfortunate. Doughty had
only been in charge a few days when he was accused
of having purloined sorae of the Portuguese stores, with
intent " to rob the voyage and deprive the company
of their hope and her Majesty and other adventurers
of their benefit, to enrich himself and make himself
greater to the overthrow of all others.' Drake, on
examination, found in Doughty's possession only a few
old coins, a ring, and some other articles of trifling
value, which were proved to have been given to hira by
one of the Portuguese sadors. Thinking that Doughty
was thus falsely accused, he placed him in teraporary
command of his own ship, the Pelican, and himself
remained for a few days to arrange matters in the
prize-ship. In the Pelican, however. Doughty fell into
fresh disgrace : " he was thought to be too peremptory
and exceeding his authority, taking upon hira too great
a coraraand." Drake had to make a fresh investiga
tion, and the issue of this, though we are not told on
what grounds, was Doughty's removal into the Swan as
" a prisoner, with utter disgrace." Thus were sown the
seeds of much future trouble.
In the meanwhile Drake's little fleet was crossing the

84 Drake's Voyage round the World. [ohap.xui.
Atlantic. Quitting the African coast on the 2nd of
February, and crossing the equator on the 17th of the
same month, it carae within sight of Brazil, about two
hundred railes north of the Rio de la Plata, on the 5th
of April, sixty-three days having 'been passed without
sight of land. On their approach the ships were seen
by the natives of the district, who thereupon, we are
told, " made upon the coast great flres for a sacrifice to
the devils, about which they use conjurations, making
heaps of sand and other ceremonies, that, when any
ship shall go about to stay upon their coast, not only
sands may be gathered together in shoals in every
place, but also that storms and tempests may arise, to
the casting away of ships and men."* Not hindered
by the report of those incantations, Drake attempted to
land; but he could find no suitable harbour, and he
accordingly sailed on to the mouth of the La Plata,
where he anchored his ships on the 14th of April.
Nearly a fortnight was spent in halting for refreshment
and in exploring the river. There and along the more
southern coast, seals and ostriches were used as food,
greatly to the satisfaction of the voyagers.
On the 12th of May Drake reached the Gulf of Saint
George, in Patagonia. On the way thither, seeking
vainly for a good place of shelter, he had lost sight of
the Sivan and tlie Portuguese prize-ship, which had
been named the Mary. Only this vessel was found
during his fortnight's stay in the Gulf of Saint George,
and in later coasting both north and south in search
* Hakluyt, vol. iii., p. 732.

16/s.] From the African Coast to Patagonia. 85
of the Sivan, the Christopher — the fishing-bark ex
changed for the sraaller Christopher, to which its narae
had been transferred — was also lost. The Mary, too,
soon proved unseaworthy, and had to be unloaded and .
broken up. Thus the fleet was reduced to three ves
sels, the Pelican, the Elizabeth, and the Marigold, besides
the pinnaces.
While coasting up and down Drake made a me
morable stay at Port Saint Julian, between the 19th of
June and the 17th of August. Both here and in the
Gulf of Saint George he carae into contact with the
aborigines of Patagonia. "Magellan," says the chro
nicler of the voyage, " was not altogether deceived in
naraing them giants ; for they generally differ from the
common sort of men, both m stature, bigness, and
strength of body, as also in the hideousness of their
voice ; but yet they are nothing so monstrous or giant
like as they are reported, there being some English
men as tall as the highest that we could see." Later
travellers have found that they are hardly as taU as
ordinary Englishmen. To early voyagers, however,
always looking out for marvels, their curious customs
gave a serablance of great height and inordinate bulk.
On their bodies they wore little but paint, and they
delighted in huge headgear. Their arms and legs were
daubed over with different colours : on a white back
would be a black sun, and a black stomach would be
ornamented with a white moon. Iraraense and parti
coloured horns, spikes, and the like, were fastened to
their crowns. Their manners also were peculiar.

86 Drake's Voyage round the World. [CHAP.xm.
" They fed on seals and other flesh, which they ate nearly
raw, casting four or six pounds weight into the fire,
till it was a little scorched, and then tearing it in
pieces with their teeth like lions, both men and
women." The Patagonians carried on sorae trade,
chiefly in seals and other food, with the English, and
showed even too rauch readiness to imitate their cus
toms. " One of the giants," we are told, " standing
with our men when they were taking their morning
draught, showed himself so familiar that he also would
do as they did ; and, taking a glass in his hand, being
strong canary wine, it came no sooner to his lips than
it took him by the nose, and so suddenly entered his
head that he was so drunk, or at least so overcome, that
he fell on his bottom, not able to stand, yet he held the
glass fast in his hand, without spilling any of the wine ;
and when he came to himself he tried again, and,
tasting, by degrees got to the bottom. Frora which
time he took such a liking to the wine, that, having
learnt the name, he would every morning corae down
from the mountains with a mighty cry of ' Wine ! wine !
wine !' continuing the same untfl he arrived at the tent."
The intercourse with the Patagonians at Port Saint
Julian was not wholly either amusing or profitable. On
the 20th of June, one of Drake's party, anxious to show
his skill in archery to the natives, pulled his bow-string
so violently that he snapped it. They, taking fright in
some way, imraediately wounded hira mortally with
arrows. Thereupon the only other Englishman on the
spot discharged his musket upon the assailants, and

1578.J Troubles at Port Saint Julian. 87
his shot was answered by an arrow, which brought hira
to the ground. Drake himself, being within sight, then
came up, and dispersed the crowd by shooting the
ringleader, who died with "so hideous and terrible a
roar, as if ten bulls had joined together in roaring."
The Patagonians raade no fresh attack, and the bodies
of the two unfortunate Englishmen were buried " with
such honours as in such case martial men use to have
when they are dead, being both laid in one grave, as
they were both partakers of one raanner of death, and
ended their lives together by one and the self-same
kind of accident."
"To this evil, thus received at the hands of the
infidels," adds the narrator, "there was adjoined and
grew another mischief, wrought and contrived closely
among ourselves, as great, yea, far greater and of far
more grievous consequence than the former, but that it
was, by God's providence, detected and prevented in
time, which else had extended itself not only to the
violent shedding of blood, by raurdering our general,
and such other as were most firm and faithful to hira, but
also to the final overthrow of the whole action intended
and to divers other raost dangerous effects." The
offender, real or fancied, was the sarae Thoraas Doughty,
who had been put in charge of the Portuguese prize-
ship taken off Cape de Verde. He had been an old
acquaintance of Drake's, and a man well esteemed
before the departure of the fleet from England. Drake's
first liking of him is shown in his appointing him to the
care of the Portuguese vessel, and that Drake shared in

88 Drakes Voyage round the World. lohap. xm.
the groAving opposition to him appears from his sanc
tioning of his speedy degradation. Then or at some
later time he was informed that, even before leaving
Plymouth, Doughty had proposed that, as soon as con
venient, Drake should be got rid of, and he himself
should take command of the whole expedition. Drake
is reported to have at first disbelieved this charge, but
to have been ultimately convinced. At any rate, a sort
of court-martial was held at Port Saint Julian, and by
it Doughty was adjudged guilty of mutiny, and con
demned to death. According to one account, he con
fessed his guilt, and, when Drake offered to leave him in
Patagonia or to send him back to England in one of the
pinnaces, he is said to have chosen a death by which that
gudt would in part be expiated. According to another
account, "he utterly denied it upon his salvation,
at the hour of communicating the sacrament of the
body and blood of Christ, at the hour and moment of
his death, affirming that he was innocent of such things
whereof he was accused, judged, and suffered death
for."* It is not easy to believe that he really was
guilty ; but it is still harder to believe that Drake,
to gratify his own or others' spite — one scandal being
that this was done out of compliment to the Earl of
Leicester, whom Doughty had accused of murdering
the Earl of Essex! — would have sanctioned his punish
ment without being convinced that it was right and neces-
* Both statements are given in full, with much illustrative matter
and much argument in disp.iragenient of Drake, in IMr. Vaux's edition
of Ttie World Encmnpassed, published by the Hakluyt Society in 1854.
t Camden, Annals, p. 251.

1578.] Troubles at Port Saint Julian. 89
sary. At any rate, Doughty was executed at Port
Saint Julian with the approval of nearly all his com
rades, followed by that of nearly all Englishmen at
home when the story was told to them.
Port Saint Julian had only once before been visited
by Europeans, the first visit being made by Magellan
in 1519. On that occasion, also, a raan had been exe
cuted for mutiny, and the gibbet used for the purpose
was still standing in Drake's time. " Of the wood of
which gibbet," says the chronicler, " our cooper made
tankards or cans for such of the corapany as would
drink in thera; whereof, for my own part, I had no
great liking, seeing there was no such necessity."
There was more need of food than of vessels in which
to put it. " Our stay being longer than we purposed,"
it is recorded, " our diet began to wax short, and small
mussels were good meat, yea, the seaweeds were
dainty dishes. By reason whereof we were driven to
seek corners very narrowly for some refreshing, but
the best we could find was shells instead of meat.
We found the nests, but the birds were gone ; that is,
the shells of the cockles upon the sea-shore, where the
giants had banqueted ; but could never chance with
the cockles themselves in the sea. The shells were
so extraordinary that it would be incredible to the
most part ; for a pair of shells did weigh four pounds,
and what the meat of two such shells raight be raay
be easily conjectured."
Drake left Port Saint Julian on the 17th of August.
Thi-ee days' quick sailing to the south brought him to

90 Drake's Voyage round the World. LCHAp.xm.
Cape Virgin Mary, at the entrance to the Strait of
Magellan. " We found the strait," says one of his
comrades, " to have raany turnings and, as it were,
shuttings up, as if there were no passage at all; by
means whereof we had the wind often against us, so
that, some of the fleet recovering a cape or point of land,
others should be forced to turn back again and to come
to an anchor where they could. There be many fair
harbours, with store of fresh water, but yet they lack
their best coramodity; for the water is there of such
depth that no raan shall find ground to anchor in,
except it be in some narrow river or corner, or between
some rocks ; so that, if any extreme blast or contrary
winds do corae, whereunto the place is raost subject, it
carrieth with it no small danger. The land on both
sides is very huge and mountainous ; the lower moun
tains whereof, although they be monstrous and wonderful
to look upon for their height, yet there are others which
exceed thera in a strange manner, reaching themselves
above their fellows so high that between them did
appear three regions of clouds. These mountains are
covered with snow. The strait is extremely cold, with
frost and snow continually. The trees seem to stoop
with the burden of the weather, and yet are green con
tinually ; and raany good and sweet herbs do very plen
tifully grow and increase under them."*
Drake was Magellan's first follower in the passage of
this dangerous channel. On entering it, "in homage
to the Queen's Majesty, he caused his fleet to strike
* Hakluyt, vol. iii., p. 734.

1578.] Through the Strait of Magellan, 91
their topsails upon the bunt; and withal, in remem
brance of his honourable friend and favourer. Sir Christo
pher Hatton, he changed the name of the ship which
hiraself went in from the Pelican to be called the Golden
Hind," Sixteen days were spent in traversing it, part
of the tirae being occupied in a little exploration of the
islands, and, on one of these islands, in much useful
hunting of penguins. Three thousand of these birds
were caught in one day. " They have no wings," says
the quaint describer of thera, " but short pinions, which
serve their turn in swimraing. Their colour is soraewhat
black, raixed with white spots under their belly and
about their necks. They walk so upright that, afar off,
a raan would take them to be little children. If a man
approach anything near them, they run into holes in
the ground, which be not very deep, whereof the island
is full ; so that to take them we had staves with hooks
fast to the end, wherewith some of our raen pulled them
out, and others being with cudgels did knock thera on
the head, for they bite so cruelly with their crooked
bills that none of us were able to handle thera alive."*
With the human inhabitants of these islands, also,
Drake's party had sorae slight dealings. In the Strait
of Magellan, they considered, there was " nothing want
ing to raake a happy region, but the people's knowing
and worshipping the true God."
They were again in the open sea, and Drake's long-
cherished project was at length realized, on the 6th of
September. He proposed at once to sail northwards,
* Hakluyt, vol. ui., p. 752.

92 Drake's Voyage round the World. [ouap.xhi.
both to relieve his people frora the cold which had
oppressed thera in Magellan's Strait, and to attempt the
spoliation of the rich Spanish possessions in Peru, which
was a leading object of his voyage ; and before the close
of the following day he had easily traversed some
seventy leagues of water. But then a terrible tempest
arose, followed by other storms hardly less violent, ia
the course of which the ships were driven southwards,
below Cape Horn, and westward for more than six
hundred miles. Then, on the 30th of September, finer
weather returned, though, in the violent winds that
still oppressed them, a week was , occupied by the
Golden Hind and the Elizabeth in getting back to land,
and during that week the little Marigold was blown out
of sight, never to be again heard of.
Soon Drake was left quite alone with the Golden
Hind. The two remaining ships, having approached
a little bay near to the western opening of Magellan's
Strait, on the 7th of October, there sought for shelter,
" it being a very foul night, and the seas sore grown."
But the Golden Hind had only been anchored for a few
hours when her cable broke and she was driven out to
sea again. Next morning the Elizabeth took refuge in
the strait, " hardly escaping the danger of the rocks."
She waited at the entrance for ten days, and then
retired to a sound a little further in, where two weeks
more were spent in waiting. At the end of that time,
John Winter, her captain, determined to go Iiome. On
the 1st of November, we are told, " by Captain Winter's
compulsion, full sore against the mariners' minds, they

1558.] A Seven Weeks' Storm, and its Work. 93
gave up their voyage." Without rauch difficulty they
made their way back to England, where they arrived
on the 2nd of June, 1579, and spread the report that
Drake had been wrecked.*
But Drake was fortune's favourite. The storra that
took hira out to sea on the 7th of October forced him
southwards. On the coast of Tierra del Fuego he took
shelter for two days, when he was again driven from his
anchorage and parted from his brave little pinnace,
of four or five tons burthen, which up to this time had
clung to the Golden Hind. Eight men were on board
this pinnace, with only one day's supply of victuals.
They struggled on to the last. Four of them were
killed by the natives of a little island, whither they
went in search of food, and two others afterwards died
of wounds received at that time. The pinnace also was
wrecked, and the two survivors, after two months' wait
ing, had to paddle across to the mainland on a single
plank, about ten feet long, spending three days in the
passage. " On coming to land," says Peter Carder, who
has told the story, " we found a rivulet of sweet water ;
when William Pitcher, ray only corafort and corapanion,
although I endeavoured to dissuade him, being before
pinched with extreme thirst, overdrank himself and, to
my unspeakable grief, died within half an hour, whom
I buried as well as I could in the sand." Carder made
friends with sorae Patagonians, lived with thera for some
years, and returned to England in 1587.!
* Hakluyt, vol. iii., p. 752.
t -PuECHAS, vol. iv., p. 1188 ; Bueney, vol. i., p. 868.

94 Drake's Voyage round the World. [Chap. xm,
Drake and the forty or fifty men in the Golden Hind
thus came to be the only representatives of the fleet
that had left England nearly a year before. They
began to regret that they had changed the name of
their ship, seeing that she was now verily "a Pelican,
alone in the wilderness." Their case indeed seemed
desperate. " The violence of the storm without inter
mission," says the chronicler of the voyage, " the im
possibility to corae to anchor, the want of opportunity
to spread any sail, the most maddened seas, the lee
shore, the dangerous rocks, the contrary and raost in
tolerable wind, the irapossible passage out, the desperate
tarrying there, and the inevitable perils on every side,
did present so small a likelihood to escape present
destruction that, if the special providence of God
Himself had not supported us, we never could have
endured that woful state, as being environed with
most terrible and most fearful judgments round
about." The series of storms, which lasted almost without
intermission for fifty-one days, had, however, one good
result. On the 28th of October, the last day of storm,
Drake "fell in with the uttermost part of the land
towards the South Pole, without which there is no
main or island to be seen to the southward, but the
Atlantic Ocean and the South Sea meet in a large
and free scope." He landed at the edge of Cape Horn,
called by him — in opposition to the old term Terra
Incognita — Terra Nunc Bene Cognita, and, standing
upon its farthest limit, was able to boast, as often he

1578.1 From Cape Horn to Valparaiso. 95
did in later years, that he had been upon more southern
land than any other man alive.*
On the 30th of October, having satisfied himself
with^his exploration of Cape Horn and its neighbourhood,
and being at last favoured with fair weather, Drake
turned northward. He was anxious to return to the
coast of Peru, where,' according to the instructions he
had given in anticipation of their being parted, he
hoped to meet the Elizabeth, perhaps also the Mari
gold. He found neither, and, on the way past Tierra
del Fuego, he was very nearly killed. Landing with a
boat's crew of eight at a little island on the way, where
he hoped to obtain fresh water, he was, after some show
of friendship, fiercely attacked by the natives. Two
Englishmen were killed, and every one of the other
seven was wounded, Drake himself being struck by
arrows under his right eye and on the crown of his
head. They had great difficulty in returning to the
ship, and regarded as miraculous both that and their
subsequent cure ; " for," it is said, " our chief surgeon
being dead, and the only reraaining one absent in the
Elizabeth, and so being left to the care of a boy who
had little experience and no skill, we were little better
than altogether destitute of such cunning and helps as
so grievous a state of so many wounded bodies did
require." This accident caused sorae delay ; but by the 30th of
November Drake had reached the Bay of San Felipe.
¦* SiE RiCHAED Ha-wkins, cited by Southey, vol. iii., p. 142.

96 Drake's Voyage round the World. [Chap. xm.
He there had friendly intercourse with the natives,
and by one of them he was led back, some six leagues,
to Valparaiso. At Valparaiso he easily despoiled its
two or three dozen Spanish colonists of everything
possessed by them which was useful to his ship, and
from a Spanish vessel in the port he took a goodly
quantity of wine, with some gold, pearls, and other
articles. Other booty, and water, which just then was
more needed than the richest treasure, he tried to get
at Coquimbo on the 19th of December; but there
more than a hundred Spaniards were prepared to
receive him, and, after losing one man, he retired to a
little bay about a hundred miles further north, where
there were no Spaniards to quarrel with him.
In that bay he waited for nearly a month, partly to
biuld a new pinnace, j^artly to watch for his missing
ships upon the sea, and to make inquiries concerning
them Ii-om the Indians on the shore. Departing
thence about the middle of January, he proceeded
slowly along the coast, still looking for the Elizabeth
and the Marigold, taking a few small prizes, and
robbing a few Spaniards in the settlements which he
passed. On the 15th of February he reached Callao,
the port of Lima, and there had less ignoble exercise of
his skill in piracy.
When near the entrance to the harbour, Drake
captured a Portuguese bark. He offered to release
her, on condition that the captain should safely pilot
him into the harbour. This was done at night time, so
secretly that he was in the midst of seventeen trading-

1579.] From Valparaiso to the Bay of Panama. 97
vessels before any alarm was given. "The masters
and merchants here were most secure," we are told,
" having never been assaulted by enemies." Therefore
they were quite unprepared for Drake's attack, and
the seventeen ships were plundered by him without
the loss of even a charge of powder and shot.
The plunder, though valuable, was not as much as
Drake had hoped for, being chiefly silk, linen, and other
merchandize. He asked where the silver was lodged,
and was informed that part of it still lay in the strong
house in the town, but that a goodly store had lately
been despatched to Panama in a large treasure-ship,
"the great glory of the Southern Sea," named the
Cacafuego. Thereupon, cutting the cables of the
ships he had just rifled, in order to hinder them in any
pm-suit that might be attempted, he hurried off before
morning in quest of the Cacafuego. Ten days were
spent in eager pursuit. From one Spanish vessel
which they met, but did not choose to waste tirae
in despoiling, they heard that the treasure-ship had
been seen three days before. Another vessel which
was spoken with had passed her two days before.
Drake saw that he was gaining on her, and used every
effort to overtake her before she could reach Panama.
He promised his chain of gold to the man who should
first descry her. At length, on the 25th of February,
sixty or seventy railes north of the equator, and within
two days' sail of Panaraa, his object was gained. It was
even facilitated by a raistake made by the captain of the
Cacafuego. Seeing a vessel behind him, he slackened
VOL. II. H

98 Drake's Voyage round the World. [chap. xm.
speed, intending to ask her destination, and to offer
her protection. He had no suspicion that the Golden
Hind could belong to any nation but his own. Drake,
however, soon undeceived him. Approaching the Caca
fuego, he challenged her to submit. The astonished
captain asked what he raeant thereby. In answer,
Drake " shot her mast overboard with a great piece, and,
having wounded the master with an arrow, the ship
yielded." He took from her an abundance of jewels
and precious stones, eighty pounds of gold, twenty-six
tons of raw silver, and thirteen chests of silver coin,
the whole being valued at little short of 90,000?.*
By this capture, following those at Callao, the Golden
Hind was filled to the utmost with valuable property.
Drake had made as much profit by piracy in the
Southern Seas as was possible with the tonnage to
which his expedition had beeii reduced. According to
the plan with which he had left England, it was now
his business to return to it as quickly and easily as he
could. But he found that there was no quick or easy
way open to him. ' Toilsome and perilous as his out
ward voyage had been, the toil and peril of the home
ward voyage would necessarily be very much greater.
The Spanish colonists and traders along nearly the
whole western side of South America, whom he had
hitherto taken by surprise, would now be watching and
planning for his overthrow. He was therefore induced
to take a new course.
* Hakluyt, vol. iii., pp. 734, 735, 746 — 748 ; Heeeeea, cited by
Sovthey, vol. iii., pp. 147 — 157.

1579.] From the Bay of Panama to Nicaragua. 99
Little inducement frora fear was needed where there
was a prospect of fresh glory ; and the project which
seeras now first to have occurred to him promised glory
without lirait if it could be successfully accomplished.
When he started on his expedition, England was full
of interest in the scheme, to which F^robisher's three
famous" voyages had been devoted, for reaching the
Indies by sailing along the northern limits of America,
from east to west. Drake considered that the work
in which Frobisher had failed would be excellently
done by him, if, after sailing up to the north-western
corner of America, he could reach home by sailing
round its northern shores, frora west to east. Accord
ingly, as soon as the plundered Cacafuego had been
dismissed, somewhere near the equator, and not far
frora the Galapagos Islands, he announced his project
to his hardy little crew, now nurabering about fifty
men. " All of us," says one of the number, " willingly
hearkened to our General's advice, which was, first,
to seek out some convenient place to trim our ship,
and store ourselves with wood and water and such pro
visions as we could get ; and, thenceforward, to hasten
on our intended journey for the discovery of the said
passage, through which we raight with joy return to
our longed homes."
That bold resolution having been taken, Drake
sailed due north, leaving Panama on his left, towards
the coast of Nicaragua. Reaching a convenient bay in
that neighbourhood on the 16th of March, he spent a
week or ten days in making preparations for their pro-

100 Drake's Voyage round the World. [chap.xui.
jected voyage, and seeing that the Golden Hind was fit
to enter upon it. Then, plundering a few ships that
came in his way, and stopping once to ransack a Spanish
settlement in the Gulf of Tehuantepec, he proceeded
with all possible speed upon his new enterpiise.
Quitting the Mexican coast on the 16th of April, he
sailed westward into the open sea for some fifteen
hundred railes, and thence, for about two thousand, ia
a northern direction. He was thus, on the 2nd of June,
brought very near to the most northern shore of Cali
fornia, in 42 degrees of latitude. But on that day a
sudden change of temperature so frightened many of
his followers, who appear to have already grown tired
of the prospect, that he was forced to abandon his pro
jected Arctic voyaging. " The night following," says
one of the nuraber, evidently exaggerating, " we found
such an alteration of heat into extreme and nipping
cold, that our men in general did grievously complain
thereof; some of them feeling their healths much
impaired thereby. Neither was it that this chanced in
the night alone ; but the day following carried with it
not only the marks, but the stings and force of the
night going before. Om- meat, as soon as it was
reraoved from the fire, would presently in a raanner
be frozen up ; and our ropes and tacklings in a few
days were grown to that stiffness that what three men
before were able to perform now six raen, with their
best strength and utmost endeavours, were hardly able
to accomplish , whereby a sudden and great discourage
ment seized upon the minds of our men, and they were

1579.] From Nicaragua to California. 101
possessed with a great mislike and doubt of any good to
be done that way."
It is clear that the sailors, accustomed to exciting
piracy in tropical waters, were weary of their mono
tonous sailing in a colder region, and therefore made
much of a trifling spring-frost: other than trifling it
could not be, in the same latitude as New York, on the
3rd of June. Drake did his best to encourage them,
and addressed arguments that strengthened their faint
hearts for a few hours. "As well by comfortable
speeches of the Divine Providence and of God's loving
care over His children, out of the Scriptures, as also by
other good and profitable persuasions, adding thereto
his own cheerful example," we are told, " he so stirred
thera up to put on a good courage, and to acquit thera
selves like raen to endure sorae short extreraity to have
the speedier corafort, and a little trouble to obtain the
greater glory, that every man was thoroughly armed
-with willingness, and resolved to see the uttermost, if it
were possible, of what good was to be done that way."
The willingness and the resolution lasted for two
days, and took them very nearly up to Vancouver's
Island. " The 5th day of June," says the fear-stricken
chronicler, " we were forced by contrary winds to run
in with the shore, which we then first descried, and to
cast anchor in a bad bay, the best road we could for the
present meet with; where we were not without some
danger by reason of the raany extrerae gusts and flaws
that beat upon us ; which, if they ceased and were still
at any time, immediately upon their intermission there

102 Drake's Voyage round the World. tCHAp.xm,
followed such vile, thick, and stinking fogs, against
which the sea prevailed nothing, till the gusts of wind
again removed them, which brought with them such
extremity and violence when they came that there was
no dealing or resisting against them. In this place was
no abiding for us, and to go further north the extremity
of the cold — which had now utterly discouraged all our
men — would not permit us."
Very rauch to the satisfaction of Drake's crew and,
though very much to his own annoyance, doubtless in
the end to the good of all, a strong and steady north
wind set in, and " coraraanded them to the southward,
whether they would or no." In the course of twelve
days they traversed nearly seven hundred railes of
coast-line, and on the 17th of June " it pleased God to
send thera into a fair and good bay," which appears to
have been what is now the harbour of San Francisco.
There Drake remained five weeks, repairing some
damage that had been done to his ship, and having
much friendly intercourse with the natives. After two
days of cautious exchanging of presents and other
tokens of mutual kindliness, the English, who were in
tents, with their ship on dry land, saw, with some fear,
that the Indians were gathering in the distance in large
numbers. "Presently," says our chronicler, "came
down from the country a great multitude, and among
them a man of goodly stature and comely personage,
who was the King himself, accompanied by many tall
and warlike raen. Before his Majesty advanced, two
ambassadors presented theraselves to the General to

1679.] His Visit to California. 103
announce his approach, and continued speaking for
about an hour, at the end of which the Hioh, or King,
making as princely a show as he possibly could, with all
his train carae forward; in the course of which they
cried continually, after a singing manner, with a lusty
courage. As they drew nearer and nearer unto us, so
did they more and more strive to behave theraselves
with a certain comeliness and gravity in all their
actions." The " comeliness and gravity " were of a
curious sort. The men sang and danced as they ap
proached ; the woraen " tore theraselves till the face,
breasts, and other parts were bespattered with blood."
As they bore no arras, save a few quaintly-ornaraented
clubs hanging from the necks of the chief persons,
Drake made no opposition to their coraing. " Then
they raade signs to our General to have him sit down.
To whom, both the King and divers others made several
orations, or rather, indeed, if we had understood them,
supplications that he would take the province and king
dora into his hand and becorae their king and patron,
making signs that they would resign unto him their
right and title in the whole land and become his
vassals ; which, that they raight make us indeed believe
that it was their true meaning and intent, the King
himself, with great reverence, joyfully singing a song,
set the crown upon his head, enriched his neck with
chains, and, offering unto him many other things,
honoured hira with the name of Hioh. They added
thereto, as it might seem, a song and dance of triumph,
because they were not only visited of the gods, for so

104 Drake's Voyage round the World. [chap.x.h.
they still judged us to be, but that the great and chief
god was now become their god, their king and patron,.
and themselves were become the only happy and blessed
people in the world. Which thing our General thought
not meet to reject, because he knew not what honour
and profit it might be to our country. Wherefore, in
the narae and to the use of her Majesty, he took the
sceptre, crown, and dignity of the said country in his
hands, wishrag that the riches and treasure thereof
might so conveniently be transported to the enriching
of her kingdom at home."
To the district of which he was thus crowned king,
Drake gave the name of New Albion. He little thought
that in its precincts, hidden only by a thin coating of
earth, was Californian gold rivalling in value the
fancied wealth that Spaniards sought for and all Europe
craved after, in the fabled El Dorado of the south.
King Drake, during the ensuing month, saw rauch of
his Indian subjects. "They are a people of a very
tractable, free, and loving nature, without guile or trea
chery," we are told. " Their bows and arrows would do
no great harm, being weak, and fitter for children than
for men ; and yet the men were so strong of body, that
what two or three of our people could scarcely bear, one
of them would take upon his back, and, without grudg
ing, carry it up hill and down hdl an English mile
together." The women, who wore clothes, while the
raen went nearly naked, were praised for being " very
obedient and serviceable to their husbands." " The
comraon sort of the people," says another of the

15790 His Kingdom of New Albion and its People, 105
voyagers, " leaving the King and his guard with our
General, scattered themselves, together with their sacri
fices, among our people, taking a diligent view of every
person ; and such as pleased their fancy, which were the
youngest, they, enclosing thera about, offered their
sacrifices unto them, with lamentable weeping, scratch
ing and tearing the fiesh from their faces with their
nails, whereof issued abundance of blood. But we
used signs to them of disliking this, and stayed their
hands from force, and directed them upwards to the
living God, whora only they ought to worship. Every
third day they brought their sacrifices unto us, until
they understood our meaning, that we had no pleasure
in them. Yet they could not long be absent from us,
but daily frequented our corapany to the hour of our
departure; which departure seeraed so grievous unto
them that their joy was turned into sorrow. They
entreated us that, being absent, we would remember
them, and by stealth provided a sacrifice, which we mis-
liked."* Drake left New Albion and the coast of America on
the 23rd of July. Having been hindered, seven weeks
before, by contrary winds and the fears of his sailors
frora pursuing his design of going horae by the icy seas
to the north of North America, he determined to follow
the lead of Magellan, and circumvent the world by pass
ing through the Southern and the Indian Seas into the
Atlantic Ocean. This he did in exactly a year, and with
skilful and heroic seamanship, which rivalled, if it did
* Hakluyt, vol. iii., pp. 441, 442.

106 Drake's Voyage round the World, [chap. xm.
not surpass, that shown by Magellan ; but it was not
raarked by raany very memorable incidents.
After sixty-eight days of straight and quick sailing,
he reached what seem to have been the Pelew Islands,
in Polynesian waters, on the 30th of September. These,
frora the way in which he was treated by the natives,
he called the Islands of Thieves. He sighted tlie Phi
lippines on the 16th of October, and the Moluccas on
the 3rd of November. There he made a famous begin
ning of English intercourse with the East Indies. He
was preparing to anchor at Tidore, when some natives,
who could speak Portuguese, carae in a boat to tell him
that the Portuguese tyrants, having been driven out of
Ternate, had now settled in Tidore, and that, if he would
go to the forraer place, its King would join hira in alto
gether expelling their common enemies from the East.
Drake had had fighting enough since he left England,
and now only wished to reach home safely and quickly.
But he went to Ternate and exchanged courtesies with
its King.
Of this King's state and costume, which was all that,
during their hasty visit, the English were able to observe
closely, we have ample details. " Four great and large
canoes " were sent out to meet hira, " in every one
whereof were certain of his greatest states that were
about him, attired in white lawn of cloth of Calicut,
having over their heads, from the one end of the canoe
to the other, a covering of thin perfumed mats, borne
up with a frarae made of reeds for the sarae use, under
which every one did sit in his order, according to his

1579.] From California io the Moluccas. 107
dignity ; divers of whora, being of good age and gravity,
did raake an ancient and fatherly show. There were
also divers young and comely men attired in white, as
were the others. The rest were soldiers, which stood in
coraely order round about on both sides ; without whom
sat the rowers in certain galleries, which, being three on
a side all along the canoes, did lie off frora the side
thereof three or four yards, one being orderly builded
lower than another, in every of which galleries were the
nuraber of fourscore rowers. These canoes were fur
nished with warlike raunition, every man, for the most
part, having his sword and target, with his dagger,
besides other weapons, as lances, calivers, darts, bows
and arrows ; also every canoe had a small cast cannon
raounted at the least one full yard upon a stock set up
right." These messengers conducted Drake into the
harbour on the same evening, and there he sumptuously
entertained the King of Ternate. Next raorning, hiraself
staying on shipboard, he sent sorae of his followers to
Court. " The King being yet absent, there sat in their
places sixty grave personages, all which were said to be
of the King's Council. There were besides four grave
persons, apparelled all in red down to the ground, and
attired on their heads like the Turks ; and these were
said to be Roraans,* and liegers there to keep continual
traffic with the people of Ternate. There were also
two Turks, liegers in this place, and one Italian. The
King at last came in, guarded with twelve lances,
* This is probably a misprint. They were evidently traders &om
some Asiatic state.

108 Drake's Voyage round the World. [Chap.xhi.
covered over with a rich canopy, with embossed gold.
Our men rising to meet him, he graciously did welcome
and entertain them. He was attired after the manner
of the country, but more sumptuously than the rest
From his waist down to the ground was all cloth of gold,
and the same very rich. His legs were bare, but on
his feet were a pair of shoes made of Cordovan skin.
In the attire of his head were finely wreathed hooped
rings of gold, and about his neck he had a chain of
perfect gold, the links whereof were great and one gold
double. On his fingers he had six very fair jewels, and,
sitting in his chair of state, at his right hand stood a
page with a fan in his hand, breathing and gathering
the air to the King. The fan was in length two foot,
and in breadth one foot, set with eight sapphires, richly
embroidered, and knit to a staff three foot in length, by
which the page did hold and move it."*
More important than these exhibitions of wealth was
a treaty for trade and mutual protection which Drake
made, on behalf of Queen Elizabeth, with the King of
Ternate. He did not take much accotmt of it ; but in
later years it became a famous precedent for English
commerce with the East.
The Golden Hind, with plenty of fresh provisions and
some cloves, the first bought by Englishmen in the
Moluccas, left Ternate on the 9th of November. On
the 11th she halted at a little island eastward of
Celebes, and there four weeks were spent in strengthen
ing her for the long sea voyage which was to bring her
* Hakluyt, vol. ui., pp. 739, 740.

1579-1580.] From the Moluccas to Celebes. 109
back to England. All that strength was needed on the
9th of January, 1580, when, after more than three weeks
of rough beating about araong the dangerous currents
and raore dangerous shoals in the neighbourhood of
Celebes, she struck on a rock. "Here," says the
quaintest of all quaint historians, " they struck ; having
ground too much and yet too little to land on, and
water too much and yet too little to sail in. Had God,
who, as the wise man saith, holdeth the winds in His
fist, but opened His little finger and let out the smallest
blast, they had undoubtedly been cast away. But
there blew not any wind aR the while. Then they,
conceiving aright that the best way to lighten the
ship was first to ease it of the burthen of their
sins by true repentance, humbled themselves by fast
ing under the hand of God. Afterward they received
the communion, dining on Christ in the sacrament,
expecting no other than to sup with him in Heaven.
Then they cast out of the ship six pieces of great ord
nance, threw overboard as much wealth as would break
the heart of a miser to think on't, with much sugar, and
packs of spices ; making a caudle of the sea round
about. Then they betook themselves to their prayers,
the best lever at such a dead lift indeed, and it pleased
God that the wind, formerly their enemy, became
their friend."* Perhaps it would have been more
devout to have prayed before working, but Drake and
* FuLLEE, Holy State, p. 127. Fuller's version is not quite correct in
the details. Drake threw overboard eight, not six guns, and certainly
sacrificed no part of his golden cargo.

110 Drake's Voyage round the World, [chap.xih.
his comrades knew when to be pious and when to be
prudent. Yet in this case neither piety nor prudence
helped them. Their ship stuck fast in spite of both,
until at low tide, by a lucky accident, she slipped off
the rock and floated in fair water.
Saved from that imminent peril, they endured no
other throughout the remainder of their voyage. After
refreshing themselves at Java and another island in the
East Indian archipelago, they crossed the Indian Ocean,
and, with rare freedom frora storras, passed the Cape of
Good Hope, which they considered "a most stately thing,
and the fairest cape they had seen in the whole circum
ference of the earth."* Then they traversed the
western coast of Africa, calling at Sierra Leone for two
days ; and at length, on the 26th of September —
"which," says the chronicler, "was Monday in the just
and ordinary reckoning of those that had stayed at
home, but in our computation was the Lord's day or
Sunday " — they anchored in Plymouth Harbour.
There were no bounds to the joy of Drake's fellow-
townsmen, who, frora John Winter's report of his dis
appearance near Magellan's Strait, had learnt to think
of hira as long since dead, when he once raore trod their
streets and talked with thera of his exploits and escapes.
But he only remained in Plyraouth a few days. In his
little Golden Hind he hastened up to Deptford, and
there, leaving the ship in safe keeping, proceeded to
make personal report of his achievements to Queen
Elizabeth, then keeping Court at Richraond. It appears
* Hakluyt, vol. iii., p. 741.

1680.]' His Return to England, and Reception there. Ill
that he was not at once permitted to make this personal
report. " The people generally," it is recorded, " with
exceeding admiration, applauded his wonderful long
adventures and rich prize;" but "the Queen paused,"
and statesmen and courtiers, following her instructions,
likewise held aloof.*
There was good reason for this, and no unkindness
to Drake in it. Early in the year there had been great
stir in the law courts and among diplomatists about the
comparatively small quantity of treasure taken from the
Portuguese by Drake, which Winter had brought home
in the Elizabeth. The Portuguese ambassador had
angrily claimed restitution, and restitution had only
been withheld through the convenient tardiness of the
Court of Admiralty.! And now Drake had come home
with fifty times as much treasure, acquired by piracy
upon Spanish ships and in Spanish waters. The Spanish
arabassador stormed and raged, demanded instant punish
ment of Drake, and immediate compensation for his
evil deeds.! Elizabeth had learnt to think lightly of
Spanish threats and Spanish claims. She saw that war
with Spain was inevitable, and was, in her own slow
way, and according to the scanty powers of her Exclie-
quer, steadily preparing for it. But there were many
weighty reasons for avoiding an imraediate rupture,
and she considered that an iraraediate rupture would
very likely follow her public approval of Drake's pro-
"¦ Stow, Annals, p. 807.
t Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. cxxxix., Nos. 5, 24.
X Ibid,, vol. cxliv.. No. 1.

112 Drakes Voyage Round the World. toHAp.xm.
ceedings. Therefore she and her statesraen allowed
it to go forth that they " misliked and reproached him,"
and that arrangements were being made for "aU pos
sible disgraces against the master thief of the unknown
world."* She gave orders on the 24th of October, only
a few days after his arrival at Deptford, that all the
treasure he had brought home was to be sent up to
London, and be placed in the Tower for safe keeping,
for equitable distribution in due tirae among its proper
owners.! That much was made public. It was kept private
that this arrangement was raade with the full concur
rence of Drake hiraself, and that from the treasure,
before its removal to London, 1 0,000?. 's worth was to be
left in Drake's hands, " the leaving of which sum in his
hands was to be kept most sacred to himself alone."!
Thus, though it was prudently kept secret. Queen
Elizabeth's implied approval of Drake's conduct was
prompt and clear. It was soon shown yet more clearly
in public. Her special reasons for keeping on good
terms with Spain soon became less urgent, and then,
when the Spanish arabassador again raade claim for
Drake's punishment and the restitution of his prizes,
she haughtily replied, " that the Spaniards, by their ill-
treatment of her subjects, to whora, contrary to the law
of nations, they had prohibited coramerce, had drawn
these raischiefs upon themselves ; that Drake should be
* Stow, p. 807.
t Record OFFicEMSS.iDomesiic, vol. cxliii.,No.30; vol. cxliv., No. 17.
1 Ibid.

1680-1581.] Queen Elizabeth's Treatment of Him. 113
forthcoming to answer according to law, if he were con
victed by good evidence and testimony of having com
mitted anything against law and right; and that the
goods in question were purposely laid by that satisfaction
raight be made to the Spaniards, although the Queen
had spent a greater sum of money than Drake had
brought in against those rebels whom the Spaniards had
raised and encouraged against her, both in Ireland and
in England."* And Queen Elizabeth herself was then
no longer backward in showing that she considered
Drake had both law and right on his side. On the
4th of April, 1581, she went down to Deptford, there
to be entertained by him at a sumptuous banquet on
board the Golden Hind, and on that occasion knighted
him for his famous prowess and its famous conse
quences.! That was a signal for universal heaping of
favour upon hira. Cautious statesraen and jealous
courtiers forgot their caution and their jealousy in the
"¦ Camden, Annals, p. 255.
t Stow, p. 807. The Golden Hind, by Queen Elizabeth's orders, was
preserved at Deptford, till it could be preserved no longer, "for a monu
ment to all posterity of that famous and worthy exploit of Sir Francis
Drake." It was afterwards taken to pieces, and the best parts of the
wood were made into a chair, and lodged in the University of Oxford ;
whereupon Cowley wrote these lines : —
" To this great ship, which round the globe has run.
And matched in race the chariot of the sun ;
This Pythagorean ship, (for it may claim,
Without presumption, so deserv'd a name,)
By knowledge once, and transfoi-mation now.
In her new shape this sacred port allow.
Drake and hia ship could ne'er have wished from fate
A happier station or more blest estate ;
For lo ! a seat of endless rest is given
To her in Oxford, and to him in Heaven."
VOL. II. I

114 Drake's Voyage round the World.* [CHAP.xm.
utterance of his praises. Merchants and men of scien^
applauded him as one of the greatest friends of com
merce and promoters of geographical knowledge ever
sent to bless the world; and every English patriot
thanked God that so mighty a champion of his country's
honour, so daring a punisher of foreign insolence, had
been suffered to rise up among them.*
The admiration with which Drake's skill and prowess
were regarded was in no way lessened by the great
pecuniary gains attendant upon thera. Besides the
10,000?. secretly reserved for Drake, and the great
quantity of jewels, precious stones, and other costly
articles of which no account is given, the bullion lodged
in the Tower was worth about 60,000?. ; and, after some
money had been paid to the Spanish ambassador in
partial compensation for the injuries done by Drake to
private individuals — which money, being intercepted by
Philip II. , was used by him in meeting some of the
expenses of his war in the Netherlands — the various
courtiers and merchants who contributed to the fitting
out of the expedition received 47?. for every 1?. advanced
by them.!
* One of the thousand compliments to Drake appeared on the sign
board, long standing, of the Queen's Head Tavern : — .
" 0 Nature ! to Old England still
Continue these mistakes ;
Still give us for our King such Queens,
And for our Dux such Drakes."
— Bakeow, Memoirs of ihe Naval Worthies of Queen Elizabeth's Beign,
p. 116.
t Record Office MSS., Dmnestic, vol. cxliv.. No. 60; Lewes
Roberts, Merchaitt's Map of Commerce (1638) ; Barrow, Life of Drake,
pp 175-177.

13-ii.l Its Influence on later Enterprise. 115
This success, of course, added to the eagerness with
which Drake and others applied theraselves to projects
for carrying on the work of voyaging in the Southern
Seas which he had made so famous. He had only been
in England a month or two before it was suggested,
apparently by Sir Francis Walsingham, to form " a
company of such as should trade beyond the equinoctial
line," with Drake for its life-governor.* A few months
later, in April, 1581, proposals were submitted to Eliza
beth's Government for the fitting out of an arraed
expedition of eight ships and six pinnaces, under Sir
Francis Drake, Edward Fenton, and others, which
should have for its " first enterprise " the attacking of
Spanish galleons in the West Indies and other parts
near at hand ; and for its " second enterprise " the esta
blishment of her Majesty's right to trade with India
and the spice islands in the Indian Archipelago, to which
Portugal, now annexed to Spain, had hitherto laid ex
clusive claim.!
Neither of these enterprises, however, was at once
adopted ; and in the voyage next undertaken in supple
ment to Drake's exploits Drake adventured nothing
but his money. There was still a show of peace with
Spain, and it was not just then thought prudent openly
to engage in further defiance of Philip II. Therefore
the defiance was entered upon in an underhand way, by
the perversion frora its original purpose of the voyage
by which, as we have seen, it was at first proposed to
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, voL cxliv.. No. 44.
t Ibid,, vol. cxlviii., Nos. 43-47.

116 Fenton's Expedition to the Southern Seas. [Chap.xih.
send Martin Frobisher upon a fourth search for the
north-west passage to Cathay.* How or why this
original purpose was modified we are not told ; but it is
easy to understand that, when the failure of Frobisher's
three previous voyages was contrasted with the brilliant
success of Drake's achievements, the subscribers of
11,600?. should prefer to speculate in the new instead
of in the old direction, especially when Drake himself
had subscribed 1,000?., and was a principal adviser in
the undertaking. At any rate, in the revised instructions
issued to Frobisher a few weeks before his intended
departure, this clause was inserted : — " We wiU this
voyage shall be only for trade, and not for discovery of
the passage to Cathay."! Soon after that Martin Fro
bisher's name was, in the instructions, replaced by that
of Edward Fenton, and in the further instructions
added thereto, it was oddly said, " You shall take your
right course to the isles of the Moluccas for the better
discovery of the north-west passage."!
This voyage was excellent in intention. " We wiU,"
it was said in the instructions, "that you deal alto
gether in this voyage like good and honest merchants,
trafficking and exchanging ware for ware, with all
courtesy to the nations you shall deal with, as well
ethnicks as others ; and for that cause you shall instruct
all those that shall go with you that, whensoever you or
any of you shall happen to come in any place to con-
* Seevohi., pp. 175,176.
t Bkitish Museum MSS., Coffon, Otho E. viii., fols. 87-92.
X Hakluyt, vol. iii., pp. 754-757.

1582.] Its Auspicious Setting Out. 117
ference with the people of those parts, in all your
doings and theirs, you so behave yourselves towards the
said people, as may rather procure their friendship and
good liking by courtesy than move thera to offence or
raisliking ; and especially you shall have great care of
the performance of your word and promise to them."
They were also "straightly enjoined, as they would
answer the contrary by the laws of the land, that,
neither going, tarrying abroad, nor returning, they
should spoil or take anything frora any of the Queen's
friends or any Christians, without paying justly for the
sarae, nor use any manner of violence or force against
any such, except in then- own defence."*
Catholic Spaniards being looked upon by Protestant
Englishmen as neither Queen's friends nor Christians,
they easily turned those orders into a licence for piracy
against 'Spain. Fenton himself seems not to have
taken that view altogether ; but it was the view taken
by the most enterprising of his corarades and by the
raost zealous of his eraployers. " I wish all the King of
Spain's gold in their bellies, to temper the pride of
such a tyrant," was the sentiment of one of the princi
pal setters out of the expedition.!
The expedition consisted of four ships, the Leicester,
¦with Edward Fenton for admiral, William Hawkins,
apparently a nephew of Sir John Hawkins, lor lieu
tenant, and Christopher Hall, Frobisher's old comrade,
for master, and a hundred and twenty other officers and
* Hakluyt, vol. iii., pp. 754-757.
t British Museum MSS., Cotton, Otho E. viii., foi. 121.

118 Fenton's Expedition to the Southern Seas, [chap. xm.
men ; the Edward Bonaventure, under Luke Ward, with
a crew of eighty-two ; the Francis, of which John
Drake, Sir Francis Drake's brother, was captain, hav
ing seventeen sailors ; and the Elizabeth, under Thomas
Skevington, with sixteen sailors.* They left Plymouth
on the 1st of June, 1582. On the day of starting began
" great grudging and choler," through Fenton's in
tentional or accidental leaving behind of William Haw
kins, John Drake, and some others of the company.
They soon overtook the main body of the fieet ; but,
says Hawkins, " I had not frora that tirae till my
coming home any good countenance."! Quarrels and
jealousies lasted all through the voyage, and helped to
bring it to an early end; although, for any good or
honourable issue that it had, it might better have been
ended rauch earlier. Fenton loitered about the African
coast, apparently looking out for Spanish prizes but
finding none, between the 26th of June and the middle
of October. He had been ordered to go round to the
East Indies, by the way of the Cape of Good Hope.
Instead of that he crossed the Atlantic, and on the
1st of December he reached the Brazilian coast. There
he loitered about for a further period, until the 24th of
January, 1583, when he fell in with three great Spanish
ships of 600, 500, and 400 tons burthen respectively.
* British Museum MSS., Sloane, No. 2146, fols. 72, 73. A very
curious and copious history of this voyage and its preliminaries, from
Jan. 14, 1582, by Richard Madox, the chaplain of the Leicester, is in the
British Museum among the Cotton MSS., Appendix xlvii. ; and Titus,
B viii., fols. 171-121.
t Ibid., Cotton, Otho E. viii., foi. 201.

1582-1683.] Its Luckless Coming Home. 119
With these he fought, and they were driven off, with
the loss of a hundred or more Spaniards against six or
eight Englishmen ; but Fenton was not active enough
to tum his victory to any advantage. Perhaps this was
partly due to the weakness of his own men, many
of whom suffered severely from scurvy and other
diseases. In the Leicester alone about forty died during
the voyage, and the sickness was as great in the other
ships. He therefore returned to England, sorely
against the wishes of his comrades, who openly taunted
him with ignorance and cowardice.
On one occasion he told Hawkins, who seems to have
been the leader of this half-mutinous opposition, that
Sir Francis Drake had only made himself rich and
famous by playing the thief and pirate. " Do you think
I will ?" he added ; " nay, I know how to raake ray
voyage without any of your evil advices." "When we
come home," answered Hawkins, " if you call Sir
Francis thief, I wiU see how you can justify it ; for
when we came both forth we were gentlemen alike."
Thereto Fenton angrily exclaimed, " Thou shalt not be
so good as I so long as thou livest." " What make you
of me then?" said Hawkins. "A knave, a villain,
and a boy," answered Fenton. " If I were at horae, I
would not be afeard to follow you in any ground in
England," replied Hawkins, anxious, if possible, to keep
down his anger; "but here, in this place, for quietness'
sake, I let it pass, and will bear every wrong, be it ever
so great." "Wilt thou so?" said Fenton. To which
Hawkins answered, " Yea, truly." " Then," it is added,

120 Cavendish's Voyage round the World. [chap.xui.
" the General would have drawn his long knife and have
stabbed Hawkins ; and, intercepted of that, he took up
his long staff, and was coraing at Hawkins, but the
master, Mr. Bannister, Mr. 'Cotton, and Simon Fer-
nandes stayed his fury."*
Fortunately that altercation occurred in the Downs,
only a few days before the return of the unfortunate and
ill-managed fleet on the 29th of June, 1583.! On that
day Fenton wrote up to Lord Treasurer Burghley and to
the Earl of Leicester to excuse hiraself and explain the
causes of the disasters ;! but he fell into disgrace, which
nothing but his favour at Court prevented from being
his utter ruin.
Many other futile attempts were made in later years
to follow in Drake's track ; and in 1586 an attempt was
made, which was by no means futile, by Thomas Caven
dish. Cavendish, born about 1556, was the scion of an
old Suffolk family, long resident at Trimley Saint Martin,
near Ipswich. He is Teported in a few years to have
squandered most of his patrimony " in gallantry and
following the Court." Then, like many other adventu
rous noblemen and gentlemen, he took to piracy as a
means of money-making.§ He certainly became a
* This is from Hawkins's own report— British Museum MSS., Otho
E. viii., foi. 205.
t Very full accounts of this luckless expedition are in Hakluyt,
vol. ui., pp. 757-768 (by Luke Ward), and among the Beitish Museum
MSS., Cotton, Otho E. viii., fols. 179-200 (by John Walker , besides the
narratives of Hawkins and Madox already cited.
X Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. clxi,. No. 16 ; British Museum
MSS., CoUon, Otho E. viii., fols. 157-159.
§ Sie William Monson's Tracts in Chui-chill's Collection, vol. iii.,
pp. 368, 369.

1586.] Its Preparation and Departure. 121
fierce and skilful pirate. His flrst schooling in sea
manship was as a volunteer, with a ship of his own, in
the expedition led by Sir Richard Grenville, under Sir
Walter Raleigh's directions, for establishing the luck
less colony of Virginia in 1585.* Having landed the
colonists he shared with Grenville in some successful
piracy, and, imraediately after his return to England,
prepared to embark next year in a rauch greater under
taking, raodelled closely upon the example of Sir
Francis Drake.
Entirely at his own expense, as it would seem, he
fitted out a little fleet which consisted of two vessels
built for the purpose, the Desire, of 120 tons burthen,
and the Content, of 60 tons, and of the Hugh Gallant, of
40 tons, which had seen some previous service. The
crews of the three numbered a hundred and twenty-
three persons, and they took with them enough pro
visions to last two years. John Brewer — who had
accompanied Drake in his great voyage, and who was
captain of the Content, Cavendish himself having cora
raand of the Desire — was their chief guide and pilot.!
They left Plyraouth on the 21st of July, and, after a
sraall fight with five Spanish ships which they raet near
the coast of Spain on the 26th, proceeded to the
African shore. Calling at Sierra Leone, they destroyed
one of the Negro towns and took what little spoil they
could find, apparently out of raere love of raischief.
" See vol. i., p. 212.
t The following details are derived chiefly from the narrative of
Francis Pretty, in Hakluyt, vol. iii., pp. 803-825.

122 Cavendish's Voyage round the World. [CHAP.xm,
Then, between the 6th of September and the 1st of
November, they sailed across the Atlantic, and on the
latter date anchored off Brazil, near the Island of San
Sebastian. Halting there to set up a pinnace, and also
at a harbour which they discovered lower down, and
called Port Desire, they reached Magellan's Strait on
the 6th of January, 1587.
Anchoring for the night at the entrance to the
Strait, they saw signal-lights on the shore, and next
morning Cavendish went in a boat to see where they
were and what they meant. He found that here were
twenty-three Spaniards, the miserable remnant of a
force of thirty-five hundred that, on the report of
Drake's achievements, had gone out to build a fort and
oppose the passage of the Strait by any other Enghsh
ships. This expedition had been altogether disastrous. Of
the twenty-three ships that quitted Seville in September,
1581, under Diego Flores de Valdez as leader of the
fleet, and Pedro Sarmiento as governor of the intended
colony, five of the largest, with eight hundred men on
board, were wrecked almost before the Spanish coast
was out of sight. The others were driven back to
Cadiz, and two were so much damaged as to be of no
further use. The remaining sixteen started again in
December, and a hundred and fifty men died of sickness
on the way to Rio Janeiro. The survivors, weak and
out of heart, stayed in Brazd until November, 1582,
while De Valdez and Sarmiento quarrelled as to which
of them was master of the expedition during this delay

1581-1683.] The Story of a Spanish Colony. 123
in the voyage. Another ship had then to be broken up
as unserviceable, and before Magellan's Strait was
reached another and the largest that remained, con
taining three hundred and fifty persons and a great
quantity of stores, was utterly wrecked. That mis-
fortime so frightened De Valdez that he returned to
Brazil, losing yet another ship on the way. There he
heard of Fenton's cruising in the neighbourhood, but
had neither courage nor power to go in pursuit of him.
The three ships which Fenton attacked in January
were three which, finding them too rotten to be of
further use to him, De Valdez had sent homewards
with a cargo of three hundred sick and unserviceable
Spaniards. Perhaps it was fear of Fenton that drove
those who stayed behind, about a thousand raen in ten
ships, to proceed at last towards their destination. They
started again with this object in January, 1583, and
after coraing within sight of the Strait were again
driven back. Another ship was wrecked, and three
were detached with some of the corapany, who wished
to try and work their way separately up to ChiU.
When De Valdez returned to Brazil and anchored off
Rio Janeiro, however, he found there four fresh ships
laden with stores that had been sent frora Spain with
assistance for the colony. With them and with some
of his followers he returned to Spain, leaving Sarmiento
to make further trial of the colonizing project, with five
ships and five hundred and thirty persons. Sarmiento
was a soraewhat better leader. After wintering in
Brazil, he started on the 2nd of December for the

124 Cavendish's Voyage round ihe World. fCEAp.xm.
Strait. He reached it on the 1st of February, 1584,
and, thougli deserted on the same evening by the crews
of three ships, after the colonists had been landed, he
found himself at the head of a company of four hundred
men and thirty women. With these he founded a city
called Nombre de Jesus on the northern corner of the
Strait, and a town of San Felipe a little way in the
channel ; but in crossing from the one settlement to the
other, he was driven out to sea with his ship and a
scanty crew by a storra that lasted twenty days. At
the end of that term he found that he had been beaten
back to the neighbourhood of Rio Janeiro. Some of
his followers said that this was according to his wishes.
If so, he suffered for his treachery. His ship was
wrecked, and when, after long waiting, he was on his
way to Spain in another, he was captured by three
ships belonging to Sir Walter Raleigh and taken pri
soner to London, to be introduced to Queen Elizabeth,
who, as he stated, honourably received him, and sent him
home with a present of 1,000 crowns.*
That was about the time of Cavendish's departure for
the South Sea. The colonists whom Sarmiento left
behind had been left to live or die as best -they could ;
and when Cavendish discovered them he found that all
had died with the exception of twenty-three or twenty-
four, whose life must have been worse than death. " It
seemed unto us," says one of the English voyagers,
" that their whole living for a great space was altogether
upon mussels and limpets ; for there was not anything
* Bueney, vol. ii., pp. 45-57.

1584-1587.] The Story of a Spanish Colony. 125
else to be had, except sorae deer which came out of the
mountains down to the fresh rivers to drink. During
the tirae that they were there, which was two years at
the least, they could never have any thing to grow or
in any wise prosper. And on the other side, the Indians
oftentiraes preyed upon them, until their victuals grew
short, so that they died like dogs in their houses and
in their clothes, wherein we found them still at our
coming ; until that in the end, the town being won
derfully tainted with the smell and the savour of the
dead people, the rest which reraained alive were driven
to forsake the town and to go along the sea-side and
seek their victuals to preserve thera from starving.
And so they lived for the space of a year and more
with roots, leaves, and sometimes a fowl which they
might kill."
The name of this miserable town of San Felipe — he
did not visit Nombre de Jesus, but it seems before that
tirae to have corae to utter ruin — Cavendish changed
into Port Faraine. He stayed there several days and
took on board one of the raiserable colonists. Tome
Hernandez by name. Neither friends nor foes in his
own day charged him with any inhumanity in leaving
the others to their dismal fate.
The Strait of Magellan was safely passed through
by the 24th of February. Cavendish then proceeded
northwards in the track of Drake, but with freedom
from such storms as made havoc of Drake's fleet.
Along the coast of South America, he and his comrades
amused themselves with some fighting \\ ith the natives.

126 Cavendish's Voyage round the World, ichap.xhi.
But they found no Spanish barks or gaUeons to cap
ture ; and when, on the 30th of March, they approached
Valparaiso, there to use Hernandez as an agent in
treating for the purchase of provisions, their plan came
to nothing through the cleverness of Hernandez, who
ran away, " notwithstanding all his deep and damnable
oaths that he would never forsake thera, but would die
on their side before he would be false."
Hernandez did worse than that. On the following
day, while the English were searching for water and
other refreshment a few miles out of Valparaiso, he
assisted the Spaniards in attacking them. In some
sharp skirmishing twelve Englishmen were killed or
taken, apparently without any successful retaliation on
the part of their countrymen.
Cavendish sailed northward, vainly seeking for prizes
until the 23i-d of April, when, near Arica, he captured
a small bark, full of wine. The crew escaped in a boat,
and the bark, christened the George, was added for a
short time to the little fleet. On the same day Caven
dish seized a larger ship, and another fell into his hands
on the 25th of the month ; but both these, being nearly
erapty and of no use, were set on fire. Other prizes
then carae frequently in his way, and he rivalled Drake
for the boldness with which he plundered ships and
ransacked towns with a force so small that it was only
saved from certain destruction by the rapidity of its
movements and the smartness with which it avoided the
elaborate efforts made for its overthrow. Unlike Drake,
Cavendish was sometiraes over bold. Having lost twelve

1587.] At Valparaiso and at Puna. 127
men at Valparaiso on the 1st of April, he lost twelve
more at Puna, an island in the Gulf of Guayaquil, on
the 2nd of June. Twenty Englishmen were carelessly
searching the district for sheep, fowls, and the like, when
a formidable body of Spaniards attacked thera with
such energy that only eight escaped. This tirae, how
ever. Cavendish had his revenge. " The selfsarae day,"
says the curt chronicler, glorying in his cruelty, " we
went on shore again with seventy raen, and had a fresh
skirraish with the enemies, and drave thera to retire,
being a hundred Spaniards serving with rauskets and two
hundred Indians with bows, arrows and darts. This
done, we set fire on the town and burnt it to the ground,
having in it to the nuraber of three hundred houses, and
shortly after raade havoc of their fields, orchards and
gardens, and burnt four great ships which were in
building on the stocks."
Piracy, which was too brave and romantic as prac
tised by Drake to deserve much blame, wore its proper
shape of ugliness in Cavendish's hands. Yet Cavendish
was better than raany of his fellows. He thought, like
Drake, that he was a chosen messenger to pour out the
vials of God's wrath upon the devil-inspired Spaniards,
and that all the booty he took upon earth was only a
foretaste of the heavenly reward which he was earning.
This foretaste was considerable during Cavendish's
seven months' cruize in the waters extending frora Chili
up to Mexico. On the 5th of June, when he set sail
frora Puna, he found he had not men enough to manage
all his ships. Therefore he sunk the Hugh Gallant. Tn

128 Cavendish's Voyage refund the World, [Chap.xih.
the other two vessels, leaving the Quito and Panama
districts to his right, he then proceeded alraost in a
straight line to the Mexican coast. Near Acapulco he
captured, on the 9th of July, two ships, one of which
being just as large as the Desire, furnished her with a
very serviceable supply of new sails and rigging, besides
other valuables. On the 23rd of the month he landed
at a town called Guatulco, which he sacked before burn
ing its hundred houses. Araong the treasure taken
were six hundred bags of indigo, worth 40 crowns
apiece, and four hundred bags of cocoa berries, worth
10 crowns apiece. "These cocoas," it is said, "go among
them for meat and money. A hundred and fifty of
them are in value one real of plate in ready payment.
They are very like an almond, but are nothing so plea
sant in taste. They eat thera, and make drink of them."
At Guatulco, Cavendish brought upon himself the
special wrath of pious Catholics by burning a church.
The church was very old, and very sacred by reason of
a great wooden cross which Saint Andrew was believed
to have planted there when he preached Christianity to
the Aztecs of Mexico. The story goes that Cavendish,
in excess of sacrilegious spite, smeared this cross with
pitch and heaped it round with reeds to make it burn
the brighter ; but that, after the reeds and the pitch had
been burning for three days, the Spaniards, retui-ning to
their ruined home, found it, not only uninjured, but
even shining with a celestial lustre. " The report of
its rairaculous preservation spread far and wide, and
frora all parts devotees came to visit it and to carry

1587.] From Chili to California, 129
away fragments, the smallest splinter of which, if cast
into a sea, stilled a tempest; if thrown into a fire,
quenched the flames ; and, if put in water, changed it
into a sovereign medicine. When about a fifth part
only was left, the Bishop of Antiguera removed it to his
city, built a chapel for it, and enshrined it there with all
possible honours."*
As far as Cavendish was concerned, however, its raira
culous powers were used only in its own preservation.
Cavendish left Guatulco unharraed, and continued his
piracies without restraint. When prizes were not to be
found on the sea he went inland in search of plunder,
making his narae terrible in the district for two centu
ries to corae.
He waited on the coast longer than he had intended,
because he heard that a great galleon, the Santa Anna,
of 700 tons burthen, was expected to arrive with a cargo
of spices and other rich treasure frora the Philippine
Islands. With this vessel he fell in, a little below the
northern promontory of California, on the 4th of No
vember. In a sudden effort to board her, he was driven
off with a loss of two killed and five wounded men.
" But," says the chronicler, " we new trimmed our sails
and fitted every raan his furniture, and gave them a
fresh encounter with our great ordnance, and also with
our sraall shot, raking them through and through, to
the killing and wounding of many of their men. Their
captain still, like a valiant man, with his company,
stood very stoutly into his close-fights, not yielding as
* ToBQUEMADA, cited by Southey, vol. iii., p. 264.
VOL. IL K

130 Cavendish's Voyage round the World, [cuap.xiu.
yet. Our General, encouraging his men afresh with
the whole voice of trumpets, gave them the other en
counter with our great ordnance and all our sraall shot,
to the great discourageraent of our eneraies. They,
being thus discouraged and spoiled, and their ship
being iu hazard of sinking by reason of the great shot,
which were made, whereof some were under water,
within five or six hours' fight, set out a flag of truce
and parleyed for mercy, desiring our general to save
their lives and take their goods, and that they would
yield presently. Our General, of his goodness, promised
them mercy, and called them to strike their sails aud
to hoist out their boat and come aboard, which news
they were full glad to hear of; and presently one of their
chief merchants came on board, and falling down upon
his knees, offered to kiss our General's feet and craved
mercy. Our General most graciously pardoned both
hira and the rest, upon promise of their true dealing
with him and his company concerning such riches as
were in the ship ; and he sent for the captain and the
pilot, who, at their coming aboard, used the like duty
and reverence that the former did. The General, of his
great mercy and humanity, promised their lives and
good usage."
Cavendish thought that, if he released the Santa
Anna, she might reach some Spanish port in time to
give information, and cause him to be troubled with
pursuers. He therefore led her into a bay near by, and
there discharged her crew and passengers, numbering a
hundred aud ninety in all, with a fair allowance of food

15:7.] His Capture of the Santa Anna, 131
and furniture, advising thera, in his " great raercy and
humanity," to build a new bark for theraselves in lieu
of the Santa Anna, which he partly burnt. Then he
proceeded to arrange his booty, consisting of 122 pounds
of gold, and of "rich silks, satins, and damasks, with
musk and divers other merchandize and great store of
all manner of victuals, with choice of many conserves of
all sorts for to eat, and of sundry sorts of very good
wines." This lasted thirteen days, and was attended
with some trouble. " In division of the treasure," we
are told, "many of the company fell into a mutiny
against our general, especially those in the Content,
which, nevertheless, were after a sort pacified for the
time." As Cavendish sailed out of the harbour, however,
on the 19th of November, the Content lagged behind,
and during the ensuing night was lost sight of for ever.
It was supposed that her crew parted frora their com
rades by design, and attempted to reach England alone.
This they never did.
Cavendish, like Drake, was thus left to complete the
voyage round the world in a single ship. He perforraed
the rest of the circuit in nearly five raonths less than
the tirae which had been occupied by Drake. This he
was enabled to do not only by use of Drake's experi
ence, but by the assistance of a Spanish pilot whom he
had taken frora the Santa Anna, and who was well ac
quainted with the passage across the Pacific Ocean and
the intricacies of the Indian Archipelago.
On the 3rd of January, 1588, Cavendish arrived at
Guahan, one of the Ladrones, where the natives so

132 Cavendish's Voyage round the World. rcHAP.xm,
troubled hira with proposals for trading, that, in the
hard spirit that always marked his conduct, he fired at
thera. " They were so yare and nirable," it is recorded,
" that it could not be seen whether they were killed or
not, so ready were they at falling backward into the
sea and diving." Not stopping to inquire into their
fate, he sailed on to the Philippine group, and, on
the 15th of January, called at a little island called
Capul. There he was willing to trade, and during nine days
he raade observations Avhich, when the account of them
reached England, greatly encouraged others to follow
in his track. Already thriving commerce had been
begun by Spaniards and Portuguese with the people of
this island and the larger ones adjoining it, with Ma
nilla for their head-quarters. The inhabitants were
described by one of Cavendish's party as " of great
genius and invention in handicrafts and sciences, every
one so expert, perfect, and skilful in his faculty, as few
or no Christians are able to go beyond them in that
they take in hand. For drawing and embroidery upon
satin, silk, or lawn, either beast, fowl, fish, or worm, for
liveliness and perfectness, both in silk, silver, gold, and
pearl, they excel."
On the 23rd of January, Cavendish invited the chiefs
of Capul " and of a hundred islands more " to wait
upon him on board the Desire. They carae, bringing
tribute in the shape of pigs, poultry, cocoa-nuts, and
potatoes, of the sort they had been taught to yield to
the Spaniards, for such they thought Cavendish and

1588.] Among the Philippine Islands. 133
his comrades to be. " He then," says the chronicler,
" made himself and his company known that they were
Englishraen, and enemies to the Spaniards, and there
upon spread his ensign and sounded up the drums,
which they rauch raarvelled at. They promised, both
for theraselves and all the islands thereabout, to aid
him whensoever he should come again to overcome the
Spaniards. Also our General gave thera raoney back
again for all the tribute which they had paid ; which
they took marvellous friendly, and rowed about our
ships, to show us pleasure, marvellous swiftly. At the
last, he caused a saker to be shot off, whereat they
wondered, and with great contentment took their leave
of us."
Cavendish's short stay at Capul was raarked by one
ugly incident. His Spanish pilot had hitherto been
very serviceable to him, though his prudent navigation
was doubtless caused only by regard for his own safety.
In leading the English to the Philippine Islands and
acquainting thera with the wealth which Spain and
Portugal desired to keep to themselves, he was guided
only by treachery. No sooner had he arrived than he
prepared a letter to the Spanish governor at Manilla,
which, if it had not miscarried, would have been almost
certain to end in Cavendish's overthrow and the restitu
tion of the treasures he had taken from the Santa
Arma. His plot, however, was betrayed; and Caven
dish, thereupon, " willed that he should be hanged,
which was accordingly perforraed."
On the 28th of January, when near Manilla, Caven-

134 Cavendish's Voyage round the World. [UHAP.xm.
dish fell in with a Spanish vessel which had lately left
that port. His pursuit of her was unsuccessful, and he
only captured one Spaniard. Him, after some ques
tioning, he released with a message to the Spanish
governor, to the effect that he should corae again with
ample force in a few years' time, when he should expect
the enemies of God and man to have ready an abundant
store of wealth for hira to seize.
At present he was anxious to get home. He hurried
past the Moluccas, near which several of his men sick
ened, and one died " by reason of the extreme heat and
untemperateness of the climate." Sailing north, he
reached the eastern side of Java on the 5th of March,
and there halted for eleven days, making friends with
the natives, and giving his men the rest of which they
A^'ere in great need. He lA-as highly pleased with the
Javans, ^^ho were described as " the bravest race in
the south-east parts of the globe ;" and even more
pleased with some Portuguese residents, who, faithful
to the cause of Don Antonio, and resenting Philip II.'s
aggression in their country, seem to have songht peace
and happiness by making Java their home. " They
were men of marvellous proper personage," we are told,
" each in a loose jerkin and hose, which came down
from the waist to the ankle. Because of the use of the
country, and partly because it was a time for doing of
their penance, they had on each of them a very fair
and white lawn shirt with falling bands on the same,
very decently, only their bare legs excepted. These
Portuguese were no small joy to our General and all

1583.1 On the Coast of Java. 135
the rest of our corapany ; for we had not seen any
Christian that was our friend for a year and a half
before. Our General entreated them singularly well
with banquets and music. They told us they were no
less glad to see us than we to see them, and inquired
of the state of their country, and what was become of
Don Antonio their King, and whether he were living or
no, for they had not of long time been in Portugal, and
the Spaniards had always brought them word that he
was dead. Then our General satisfied them in every
demand, assuring them that their King was alive and
in England, and had honourable allowance from our
Queen, and that there was war between Spain and Eng
land, and that we were come under the King of Portugal
into the South Sea, and had warred upon the Spaniards
there, and had fired, spoiled, and sunk all the ships
along the coast that we could meet withal, to the
nuraber of eighteen or twenty saiL With this report
they were sufficiently satisfied. They told us that if
their King, Don Antofiio, would come unto thera, they
would warrant hira to have all the Moluccas at com
mand, besides China, Ceylon, and the Isles of the
Philippines, and that he might be sure to have all the
Indians on his side." They took their leave with pro
mise of all good entertainment at our return."
Leaving Java on the 16th of March, Cavendish spent
two months " in traversing that mighty and vast sea
between the island of Java and the main of Africa,
observing the heavens, the stars, and the fowls, which
are raarks unto searaen." He passed the Cape of Good

136 Cavendish's Voyage round the World, [chap.xhi.
Hope on the 18th of May, halted at St. Helena from
the 9th to the 20th of June, and thence, in eighty-one
days of direct sailing, as he said, " God suffered him to
return to England." On the 3rd of September, from
a Fleraish ship which he met not far frora Lisbon, he
heard, " to his singular rejoicing and comfort," of the
great triumph that had been attained by England in
the overthrow of the Invincible Armada. The storm
which wrought the final ruin of the Armada met him
in the English Channel and threatened to wreck his
ship, even when home was in sight ; but at length on
the 9th of September, " by the merciful favour of the
Almighty, they recovered their long-wished-for port of
Plymouth." Thence Cavendish wrote to Lord Cham
berlain Hunsdon, requesting him to inforra the Queen
of his achieveraents. "As it hath pleased God," he said,
" to give her the victory over part of her enemies, so
I trust ere long to see her overcome thera all ; for the
places of their wealth, whereby they have raaintained
and made their wars, are now perfectly discovered,
and, if it please her Majesty, with a very small power
she may take the spoil of them aU."*
This was partly done by Queen Elizabeth, and done
in yet greater part by her successors. But Cavendish
had no further share in the spoil. Having returned to
England in the autumn of 1588 with wealth " enough
to buy a fair earldom," and with farae which, notwith
standing the turraoil produced just then by other famous
achievements, was second only to that of Drake in
* Hakluyt, vol. iii., p. 873.

1588-1691.] His Return to England : a New Enterprise, 137
1580, for a tirae he seeras to have settled down to
the enjoyment of his wealth and farae. When tired of
that he entered upon another expedition, the history of
which, bringing to a close his brief career, it will be
best to detail at once, though in violation of the strict
order of chronology.
The expedition was projected early in 1591 ; and un
fortunately, as it happened. Cavendish, wishing that it
should be in keeping with other huge enterprises which
by that tirae had become popular, allowed other adven
turers to join with him in fitting it out. The arrange
ments were thus left in unworthy hands, and of the
money which Cavendish himself contributed, we are
told, a sura of 1,500?. was stolen by the agents to whom
it was intrusted. " These varlets, whom the justice
had before sought with great dihgence," says Sir Richard
Hawkins, " I saw, within a few days after his departure,
walking the streets of Plyraouth without punishraent."
Even without that money, however, a larger fleet was
prepared than Cavendish proved able to raanage. On
the 26th of August, 1591, he sailed out of Plyraouth
Harbour with three good ships and two barks. The
chief of these was the Leicester Galleon, the sarae in
which Edward Fenton had made his unfortunate ex
pedition in the sarae direction nine years before, and
which, being the property of the Earl of Leicester, was
probably furnished by him as one of the adventurers.
Of it Cavendish himself was captain. The others were,
his old ship the Desire, commanded by John Davis, the
famous Arctic navigator, who had just returned from a

138 Cavendish's Last Voyage. [CHAP.xm.
voyage to the East Indies as pilot to a Dutch fleet,* the
Roebuck, under Captain Cook, the Black Pinnace, and
the Dainty, which was contributed by Adrian Gilbert.
John Jane, who had accompanied Davis in two of his
Arctic voyages, went as raercliant and chronicler of the
enterprise.! The crews of this expedition numbered
nearly four hundred men in all.
It was unfortunate from first to last. The fieet was
becalmed for twenty-seven days near the equator, and
in consequence many died of scurvy before reaching
the coast of Brazil. When near that coast, on the 2nd
of December, Cavendish plundered a Portuguese vessel,
and, reaching land on the 5th, he pillaged a small set
tlement near Rio Janeiro. An attack upon Santos, on
the 16th, was ruined through the carelessness of Cap
tain Cook; and in consequence the voyagers suffered
sorely for want of provisions. Worse trouble came on
the way to Magellan's Strait, when, on the 8th of
February, the ships were parted by a storm. The
little Dainty returned to England. The Desire and
the Roebuck reached Port Desire, which had been the
meeting-place appointed by Cavendish in case of separa
tion, on the 6th of March. The Black Pinnace arrived
on the 16th and the Leicester on the 18th. All the
four ships had suffered greatly, the Roebuck and the
Leicester most of all, and the troubles in the latter
ship were aggravated by quarrels that arose between
" See vol. i, pp. 289, 290.
t Hakluyt, vol. iii., pp. 842—852. This, and a letter from Cavendish
to Sh- Tristram Gorges (Puechas, voL iii., pp. 1194-2000), are the au
thorities for the ensuing paragraphs.

1591-1692.] From England to Magellan's Strait. 139
Cavendish and his crew. In consequence of them
Cavendish removed frora the Leicester to the Desire,
soon to quarrel with its crew also. Lacking the energy
and perseverance that he showed during his former
voyage, he seems to have offended all by his haughty
tone, and to have thus greatly helped on the disputes
by which the whole enterprise was brought to ruin.
Leaving Port Desire late in March he reached Magel
lan's Strait on the 8th of April. " Such," he says, " was
the adverseness of our fortunes, that in coming thither
we spent the sumraer, and found the Strait in the
beginning of a raost extreme winter, not durable for
Christians." He entered it on the 14th of April, and
after a week of slow sailing was brought to a standstill
by bad weather. For three weeks the ships had to take
shelter in a little bay from, according to Cavendish's
statement, " such flights of snow and extremity of frosts
as, in aU his life, he never saw any to be compared
with." " Many of our men," says Jane, " died of cursed
faraine and miserable cold, not having wherewith to
cover their bodies, nor to fill their bellies, but living by
mussels, water, and weeds of the sea, with small relief
frora the ship's stores of raeal soraetimes." That suffer
ing begat cruelty. " All the sick men in the Galleon
were most uncharitably put ashore in the woods, in the
snow, rain, and cold, when men of good health could
scarcely endure it, where they ended their lives in the
highest degree of misery."
In this trouble Cavendish went to Davis for advice.
Davis, who, after his Arctic experiences, saw no great

140 Cavendish's Last Voyage. [chap. xm,
hardship in the snow and frost of Magellan's Strait,
urged patient waiting till they could pass out into the
South Sea, and thence seek warraer waters. Others of
the party also desired that they should " stay God's
favour for a wind." Cavendish, however, wished to
turn back and seek the East Indies by way of the Cape
of Good Hope ; and, after quarrelling with Davis and all
the bravest of his corapany, he so far prevailed upon
them that, aided by a west wind, they passed out of the
Strait in three days, and attempted to go to Santos in
search of refreshment. But no sooner were they in the
Atlantic again than fresh storras arose, by which the
Desire and the Black Pinnace were parted from the
Leicester, to which Cavendish, after his quarrel with
Davis, had returned, and the Roebuck. They, also,
were separated for a tirae ; but, raeeting again, with
difficulty took shelter in a bay soraewhere south of Eio
Janeiro. Loitering about the coast of Brazil in hopes that
Davis would join hira, and raade desperate by his
misfortunes. Cavendish insured his ruin. He sent out
marauding parties in search of food, by which his
already too scanty crews were utterly wasted. One
party of twenty-five was wholly lost. Out of another
party of eighty, sent to attack three Portuguese ships
at Spirito Santo, thirty-eight were killed and forty were
wounded. The survivors quarrelled with him. The
crew of the Roebuck, regardless of his protestations, set
sail for England and were wrecked on the way. Caven
dish besought those who stayed with him to make

1692.] The Disastrous Ending of his Enterprise, 141
another attempt at reaching the South Sea. " My
persuasions," he says, " took no place with them ; but
most boldly they all affirmed that they had sworn they
would never again go to the Strait ; neither by no
means would they." At length he consented to go
back to England.
On the passage, apparently in July, 1592, he died of
a broken heart. Our last view of him is in a pathetic
letter to his executor. Sir Tristram Gorges, from which
some sentences have been already cited. " Most loving
friend," he said, " there is nothing in this world that
makes a truer trial of friendship than at death to show
mindfulness of love and friendship, which now you shall
make a perfect experience of; desiring you to hold ray
love as dear, dying poor, as if I had been most infinitely
rich. The success of this most unfortunate action, the
bitter torments whereof lie so heavy upon me, as with
rauch pain I am able to write these few lines, much less
to make discourse to you of all the adverse haps that
have befallen me in this voyage, the least whereof is
my death." He did manage, however, to discourse
much of his raisfortunes. " My greatest grief," he said,
after detailing other griefs perhaps as great or greater,
"was the sickness of my dear kinsman, John Lock,
who by this time was grown in great weakness, by
reason whereof he desired rather quietness and con-
tentedness in our course than such continual disquiet-
ness, which never ceased us. And now by this, what
with grief for him and the continual trouble I endured
among such hell-hounds, my spirits were clean spent,

142 Cavendish's Last Voyage, [chap.xih.
wishing myself upon any desert place in the world, there
to die, rather than thus barely to return home again ;
which course I had put in execution, had I found an
island which the cards make to be eight degrees to the
southward of the line. I swear to you I sought for it
with all diligence, meaning, if I had found it, to have
there ended my unfortunate life. But God suffered not
such happiness to light upon me, for I could by no
means find it ; so as I was forced to go towards England,
and having gotten eight degrees by north the line,
I lost my most dearest cousin. And now consider
whether a heart made of flesh be able to endure so
many raisfortunes, all falling upon me without inter
mission. I thank ray God that, in ending of me, He
hath pleased to rid rae of all further trouble and mis
haps." Then he spoke of his private affairs. " I have
made my will, wherein I have given special charge that
all goods, whatsoever belong unto me, be delivered into
your hands. For God's sake, refuse not to do this last
request for me. I owe little that I know of, and there
fore it will be the less trouble ; but if there be any
debt that of truth is owing by me, for God's sake see it
paid." Whatever was left he assigned to his sister.
" To use compliments of love, now at my last breath,
were frivolous ; but know that I left none in England
whom I loved half so well as yourself, 'which you in
such sort deserved at my hands as I can by no means
requite. I have now no more to say; and take this
last farewell, that you have lost the lovingest friend
that ever was lost by any. No more. But, as you love

1592.] The Disastrous Ending of his Enterprise, 143
God, do not refuse to undertake this last request of
mine. Bear with this scribbling; for I protest I am
scarce able to hold a pen in ray hand."
The pen dropped, and the hand dropped, and one of
the raost truly representative of Tudor Englishmen,
bold, brave, strong in love and strong in hate, too
zealous in the achieving of any object to which he set
hiraself, to consider whether it was wise, honest, or gene
rous, closed a life that had been attended by some rare
circumstances of glory in bitter pangs of grief and
broken words of tenderness.
Blaraing in that letter nearly all his comrades in his
unfortunate voyage. Cavendish blamed John Davis raore
than most. " That villain," he said, " hath been the
death of me and the decay of this whole action. His
only intent was utterly to overthrow me, which he hath
well performed." There is no evidence of any such
intent, and it is altogether inconsistent with everything
that we know of Davis's character. When separated
from Cavendish by the storra that befel thera on passing
out of Magellan's Strait, Davis went with all speed to
Port Desire, believing that there he would be joined by
Cavendish. He waited and watched for nine weeks and
raore. Then, believing that the Leicester and the Roe
buck were either lost or had gone, according to Caven
dish's plan, towards the Cape of Good Hope, he started
with the Desire and the Blaek Pinnace in the direction
originally appointed. Using well his large experience
in seamanship, he had employed the interval in refitting
his ships and storing them with salted penguins. He was

144 John Davis's Visit to tlie South Sea, . cchap. xm.
thus able to brave the dangers of the Strait, and, after
first, on the 14th of August, discovering the Falkland
Isles, he traversed it, and entered the South Sea on the
2nd of October.
He was only able to stay in it a week. He fell
among storms as great as those by which Drake had
been harassed in 1578. On the 4th of October the
Black Pinnace was wrecked, and on the 5th the
Desire was barely saved, " the storm continuing beyond
all description in fury, with hail, snow, rain, and wind,
such and so mighty as that in nature it could not
possibly be more, the sea such and so lofty with con
tinual breach that many times they were doubtful
whether the ship did sink or swim." The storm lasted for
four days more. " The 10th of October," says Jane in
his narrative, " being, by the account of our captain and
master, very near the shore, the weather dark, the
storm furious, and most of our raen having given over
to travail, we yielded ourselves to death without further
hope of succour. Our captain sitting in the gallery
very pensive, I came and brought hira sorae rosa soils
to corafort him ; for he was so cold, he was scarce able
to move a joint. After he had drunk and was com
forted in heart, he began, for the ease of his conscience,
to make a large repetition of his forepassed time, and,
with many grievous sighs, he concluded in these words:
' 0 most gracious God, with whose power the mightiest
things among men are matters of no moment, I most
humbly beseech Thee that the intolerable burden of my
sins may, through the blood of Jesus Christ, be taken

1592-1593.] The Troubles of his Homeward Voyage, 145
from me, and end our days with speed, or show us some
merciful sign of Thy love and our preservation.' "
Hardly had the good man's prayer been uttered, than,
as if in answer to it, the sun broke through the clouds.
Thereby Davis was able to calculate his exact posi
tion, and, through that and the following day, there was
just enough abatement of the storm to enable him to
lead his ship back into the Strait. He sailed through
it with great difficulty, and with great diffi'culty pro
ceeded homewards. He was not troubled by storras
alone. In the Isle of Penguins he laid in a store of
dried penguins for food during the long voyage, and
after a tirae, we are told, " ugly, loathsome worms of an
inch long were bred in thera." "This worm," it i^
added, " did so mightily increase and devour our
victuals, that there was in reason no hope how we
should avoid famine, but be devoured of the wicked
creatures. There was nothing that they did not devour,
iron only excepted — our clothes, hats, boots, shirts, and
stockings. And for the ship, they did eat the tirabers ;
so that we greatly feared they would undo us by eating
through the ship's side. Great was the care and dili
gence of our captain, master, and company to consume
these vermin ; but the more we laboured to kill them,
the more they increased upon us, so that at last we
could not sleep for them, for they would eat our flesh
like mosquitoes." This new horror, added to the old ones,
drove sorae of the sailors mad. Many others died ; and
at length the whole corapany of the Desire was reduced'
fi:ora the seventy-six men with whom it quitted PI3'-
VOL. ir. L

146 John Davis's Later Work, tCHAP.xm.
raouth, to sixteen, and of these sixteen only five had
strength and wit reraaining to enable thera properly to
work the ship. This, however, they managed to do,
and they reached Ireland in June, 1593.
John Davis, as we have seen, raade sorae other famous
voyages. He went as pilot in the first Dutch expedi
tion to the East Indies in 1598, and he was second in
coraraand of the first expedition fitted out by the Eng
lish East India Corapany in 1601.* He died in har
ness. A trading and piratical enterprise by Sir Edward
]\lichelborne, in rivalry of the East India Company,
having received the countenance of King James,
Davis was employed in it as captain of the Tiger, a
ship of 240 tons burthen. The expedition left the
Isle of Wight on the 5th of December, 1604, and
reached the neighbourhood of Sumatra on the 19th
of July, 1605. Five months were spent in trading
with the natives of Acheen, Bantam, and other parts,
and in chasing Spanish and Portuguese ships in the
neighbouring waters. At length, on the 27th of De
cember, Michelborne fell in with a little vessel in which
ninety Japanese pirates, having lost their own ship,
had taken refuge. For a day or two there was much
show of friendship between the two races, and accord
ingly Davis, who had been ordered to take their wea
pons from the Japanese when they came into English
company, neglected to use this precaution. Thereby
he was the first to suffer. The Japanese, anxious to
repair the loss of their own ship, took advantage of what
see vol. i., pp. 289, 292.

1593-1605.] The End of his Idfe, 147
seemed an opportunity for raurdering the English and
taking possession of the Tiger,* They were hindered
from doing much harm, and Sir Edward Michelborne
reached England safely in the summer of 1606 ; but no
wealth that he brought home could atone for the loss
of Captain John Davis, the boldest and the manliest
of the Arctic explorers under Queen Elizabeth.
? Puechas, vol. i., pp. 132—139.

148

CHAPTER XIV.
The Prelude to thf Great Aemada Fight.
[1585—1587.]
Almost from the day when Queen Elizabeth ascended
the throne it was clear to far-seeing men that fierce
war must eventually arise between Spain and England.
During the brief reign of Mary, her husband Philip II.,
virtually King, had only been able to stamp down, in
no way to stamp out, the hearty Protestantism of Eng
land ; and when, with Elizabeth's accession, that hearty
Protestantism was again able openly to become a guid
ing principle of English politics, prompted by a new
hatred of Catholic intolerance and Catholic inter
ference as represented especially by Spain, the an
tagonism was too great to issue in anything less than
deadly fighting. But for a long time the old feud
between England and France, which was also in lesser
sort a feud between Lutherans and Papists, delayed
the struggle; and while it was the wise policy of
Elizabeth and her statesmen, who saw that thus only
they could save their country from overwhelming
danger, to avert aggression by playing the two great
Catholic nations against one another, prudent Philip

1558-1568.] Beginning of England's Quarrel with Spain. 149
also saw that, for the sake of keeping at bay his raore
dangerous CathoKc neighbour, it was well to preserve
a show of friendship for the more distant kingdom of
heretics. Therefore Elizabeth bore even with Spanish
fostering of insurrection in Ireland, and Philip bore
even with English piracy in the Spanish Main ; and
the war of races and of creeds was carried on for nearly
thirty years only by pirates and freebooters.
Yet, during every one of those years, the contest
became more imminent, and, by so long restraining it,
diplomatists only rendered it more vindictive when at last
it was allowed to be changed from individual piracy into
national warfare. This was in great part due to the
heroic battle of the Netherlanders for civil and religious
freedom, unsurpassed and hardly rivalled in the whole
world's history. Bringing the conflict between Pro
testantism and Catholicism, tyranny and freedom, to
the very walls of England, with no other barrier than
the Narrow Sea afforded, they forced Englishmen to
take part therein, unless they chose meanly to hold
aloof altogether from the movement of European politics,
and to avail theraselves of an insularity which it had
been the effort of five centuries to raake only artificial.
This was by no raeans their choice. From the first
sounding of the trumpet in Holland, English statesmen
entered zealously into the crooked courses of diploraacy,
and English adventurers went in crowds to swell the
ranks of straightforward soldiership. All, too, who
stayed at home showed, in more or less open ways, their
sympathy for the champions of independence.

150 The Prelude to the Great Armada Fight, [chap. xiv.
The first important evidence of this appeared in
December, 1568. Five Spanish ships, conveying money
to the Netherlands, to be there eraployed by the Duke
of Alva in paying his troops, were attacked in the
Enghsh Channel by a little fleet of French pirates
equipped by the Prince of Cond6. They took refuge in
the harbours of Falmouth, Plymouth, and Southampton,
and, after vainly trying to evade their pursuers and
proceed safely to Antwerp, appealed to Queen Eliza
beth for assistance, begging that she would protect
thera with some of her ships during the remainder of
the voyage. Instead of that the Queen took the money
into her own keeping, informing the Spanish ambas
sador that, as she understood it really belonged to some
Genoese merchants, and had been only borrowed by
Philip, she would borrow it herself. To this she was in
part induced by the arguments of Wdliara Hawkins,
John Hawkins's brother, who, having just heard of the
misfortunes experienced by him at San Juan de Ulloa,
urged that " her Majesty raight now raake stay of King
Philip's treasure till recompense was made " — a course
by which he " looked also to please God, for the Spa-
niai-ds were God's enemies."* Her bold conduct of course
gave great offence to the Spanish Government. Alva
immediately seized all the property of the English
merchants in the Netherlands, most of whora, however,
with Sir Thoraas Greshara at their head, had already
been driven out of it by the turmoils and harassmenfs
of the civil war. Thereupon Elizabeth authorized re-
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. xlviii., No. 50.

I568-1585.J Progress of England's Quarrel ivith Spain. 151
prisals with her own ships, and gave implied sanction to
the much greater reprisals resorted to by private ad
venturers upon the Spanish shipping that was forced, in
its passage to and from the Low Countries, to pass
through the English Channel. In such ways the struggle
was hastened on.
Philip IL, from that time, was anxious to enter upon
avowed war with England. He was only restrained by
the more cautious Duke of Alva, who argued that,
seeing how hard was the punishraent of the small and
unaided insurgent nation of the Low Countries, it would
be madness to force upon it the open and complete
alliance of the much larger nation of England. There
fore he confined hiraself to underhand warfare, and
plotted and scheraed his utmost in encouraging rebellion
among the Catholic subjects of Elizabeth both in Ire
land and in England. He so far succeeded as to be
amused with the hope, through every one of more than a
dozen years, that English Papists and Spanish money
would procure him an easy victory over what he called
" the lost and undone kingdom " of Ehzabeth. But
the hope was too weak to be held by many but himself,
and even he was now and then compelled to admit its
folly. Yet he continued to scheme and plot, with much
substantial injury to England, and with rauch loss of
wealth and, credit to hiraself, soraetimes with failures
that made hira the laUghing-stock of Europe.*
* It will be seen that I here only briefly allude, so far as seems necessary
to my purpose, to topics which are amplified in all the histories, and
most fully, as regards the earlier of them, in the excellent History of

152 The Prelude to the Great Armada Fight. [Chap. xiv.
One of these failures was the work of John Hawkins.
How fierce was Hawkins's hatred of Spain, and how
fearlessly he showed it, we have already seen. But
Hawkins could use duplicity as well as Philip. From
the time of his return to England, after his defeat at
San Juan de Ulloa in 1568, he did all in his power, by
threat, by argument, and by entreaty, to procure the
release of his comrades taken prisoners at San Juan, or
forced afterwards to throw theraselves upon the flinty
rock of Spanish raercy in Mexico. When entreaty, argu-
raent, and threat had failed, he tried deception, and this,
though it wrought no good for the poor sufferers in
Mexico, led to famous results in England. In April,
1571, he sent a message to King Philip at Madrid, pre
tending that he was weary of Elizabeth's fickle and
tyrannical rule, and offering to break his allegiance, and
to give the Spaniards all the advantages of his maritime
skill and his intimate acquaintance with English state
craft, on condition that his old friends should be set free,
and that he himself should be suitably rewarded. To this
astonishing proposal Philip gladly listened, but he asked
for proof that he was not being played upon.* Proof
satisfactory to him was sent in the shape of a letter
cunningly procured from Mary Queen of Scots;! and
in the following August a large sum of raoney was

England which Mr. Froude is now producing ; and as regards the
later of them, in Mr. Motley's no less excellent History of the United
Netherlands. * Simancas MS., cited by Froude, vol. x., pp. 262, 263.
t Record Office MSS., Scottis'hlSeries, Mary Queen of Scots, vol. vi.,
Nos. 61,71, 73.

1568-1635.] Hawkins's Overreaching of King Philip. 153
transmitted by Philip to Hawkins, to be used by hira
in making traitors of other Englishmen, and in pre
paring some English ships for Spanish service. Even the
details of the service on which they were to be eraployed
were confided to him.* Seldom before had Philip been
so duped. Hawkins straightway informed Queen Eliza
beth, who was not ignorant of the preliminaries, of the
state of affairs, and, while he kept Philip's money him
self, enabled her to use Philip's secrets to his serious
damage. " I have sent your Lordship the copy of my
pardon from the King of Spain, in the very order and
manner I have it," he said in a letter on the subject to
Lord Burghley, dated the 4th of September. "The
Duke of Medina and the Duke of Alva hath every
of thera one of the sarae pardons, raore amplified to
present unto rae, though this be large enough, with
my great titles and honours from the King — frora
which God deliver rae ! Their practices be very rais-
chievous, and they be never idle. But God, I hope,
will confound thera, and turn their devices upon their
own necks. I will put my business in some order, and
give ray attendance upon her Majesty, to do her that ser
vice that by your Lordship shall be thought raost conve
nient in this case."! Hawkins soon showed hiraself to
Philip as a true, though not a very truthful, English
man. In the meanwhile England's quarrel with Spain pro
gressed. Personal jealousy of the great Prince of
Orange, and resentment of his advocacy of popular
* Feoude, vol. x., pp. 267, 268.
t Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. Ixxxi., No. 7.

154 The Prelude to the Great Armada Fight, lchap.xit.
rights opposed to all theories of royal prerogative,
caused Elizabeth somewhat to restrain it. Sympa
thising oh sorae points with Spain, and on some others
with the Low Countries, she watched the struggle with
conflicting feelings through nearly twenty years, and
according to her various inclinations to join issue with
the Netherlanders or to leave Philip to crush them
were her varying approval and condemnation not only
of smaller piracies near home but also of such larger
enterprises as those of Hawkins and Drake. She
always showed raore friendship for the Netherlanders
than Philip approved ; but, by reason of her efforts to
conciliate him, as well as of her personal prejudices to
the republicans, the friendship was often less hearty and
less effective than the worthiest of her subjects desired.
Tortuous diploraacy was never so tortuous as during
these twenty years. But the end of it was forced to be
straightforward and decisive. In the treaty which on the
16th of August, 1585, Elizabeth concluded with the United
States of the Netherlands, asserting their independence,
and pledging herself to its maintenance, she took a step
which could not possibly be retraced without national
disgrace, and entered irrevocably upon open war with
Spain. Her reasons thereto were promptly announced
to all the world in a noble and eloquent " Declaration
of the causes moving the Queen of England to give aid
to the defence of the people afflicted and oppressed in
the Low Countries," which was published at the same
time in English, Dutch, Itahan, and French.*
* Hollinshed, vol. iii., pp. 1411-1419. See a whole chapter on this
treaty and its antecedents in Motley, vol. i., pp. 285-364.

1586.] Queen Elizabeth's League with the Netherlands. 155
By that treaty Queen Elizabeth undertook to assist
the Netherlanders with five thousand foot soldiers and a
thousand horsemen under the Earl of Leicester as Com
mander-in-Chief, and with Sir Philip Sidney as General
of the Horse and Governor of Flushing ; and, in conjunc
tion with her allies, to organize a formidable fleet for
further prosecution of the war under the direction of
Lord High Admiral Howard. The land-forces set out
at once to do memorable work, in which the brightest
incident was the fatal prowess shown by Sidney at the
battle of Zutphen. The movements of the fleet were
perforce somewhat slower, but the work done by it was
far more memorable.
Of the antecedents of Lord Charles Howard of Effing
ham we have already seen something. His first twelve
years' service under Queen Elizabeth had little to do
with searaanship. In July, 1559, before she had been
a year on the throne, and when he was only twenty-two
years old, he was sent by her with a raessage of sym
pathy to Henry II. on his illness, which message was
turned into a mission of condolence and congratulation
to Francis II. in consequence of Henry's death.* He
returned to England to shine in the Court and to win
especial liking, by reason of " his most proper person,"
from the Queen. In 1562 he entered Parhament
as knight of his native shire of Surrey; and in
1569 he served as General of the Horse in the array
with which the Earl of Warwick suppressed the re-
» Stevenson, Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, of the Beign
of Elizabeth, vol. i., Nos. 967, 985.

156 The Prelude to ihe Great Armada Fight, [chap.xit.
bellion of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmore
land.* In 1570 began his naval career. On the 29th of
August in that year he was made an Admiral, and
appointed, along with Admiral Williara Winter, to the
charge of ten ships sent by the Queen to escort Anne
of Austria, the intended bride of Philip II ., from Hol
land to Spain. If this work was intended merely as a
corapliraent to the Spanish monarch, Howard, following
the example of his father who, in 1554, had been sent
in kindred raanner to escort Philip to England for
marriage with Queen Mary, managed to turn it into' a
defiance of the pride of Spain. His ten ships were in
consort with a hundred and thirty Spanish sail, which
on entering the English Channel still flaunted the
Spanish flag. Thereupon Lord Charles Howard " en
vironed their fleet in raost strange and warlike sort, and
enforced them to stoop-gallant and to vail their bonnets
for the Queen of England." This done, " he performed
all good offices of honour and humanity to that foreign
princess."! Other courtly work fell to him in the ensuing years.
In February, 1582, he was employed in taking home
the Duke of Anjqu, after his visit to England in hope
and expectation of being made the husband of Queen
Elizabeth ; on which occasion he wrote to Sir Francis
Walsingham to advise that the Queen should part from
¦^ CoLUSS, Peerage, vol. iv., p. 269 ; Recced Office MSS., Domestic,
vol. Ix., No. 65 ; vol. Ixiv., No. 22.
t Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. Ixxiii., No. 36; Hakluyt,
Dedication.

1670-1685.] Lord Charles Howard of Effingham, 157
the Duke at Canterbury instead of seeing hira all the
way to Dover, as Dover was not large enough to enter
tain thera both.* Tougher work also carae to hira in
looking after the welfare of the fleet, seeing that it was
in good order for resisting invasion, and occasionally
exercising sorae part of it in the pursuit of pirates. In
these ways he so acted as to justify his appointment as
Lord High Admiral, in succession to the Earl of Lincoln,
who died in January, 1585. " The Queen," we are told,
"had a great persuasion of his fortunate conduct, and
knew him to be of a moderate and noble courage,
skilful in sea matters, wary and provident, valiant and
courageous, industrious and active, and of great autho
rity and esteem araong sailors."! That last was his
best recomraendation. " True it is," says another of
his old panegyrists, " he was no deep seaman ; but he
had skUl enough to know those who had more skill than
himself and to follow their instructions, and would not
starve the Queen's service by feeding his own sturdy
wilfulness, but was ruled by the experienced in sea
matters ; the Queen having a navy of oak and an
adrairal of ozier."!
The ozier and the oak fltted well together. Howard
did his best to strengthen the English navy, and to
prepare for the greater use of it that was to result from
the treaty made with the Netherlands a few raonths
after his appointraent as High Adrairal; and he had
' Recoed Office MSS., Domestic, vol. clii.. No. 34 ; Nichols, Pro
gresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. ii., p. 347.
t Camden, Annals, p. 325.
X Fuller, Warthies.

158 The Prelude to the Great Armada Fight, [chap.xiv.
excellent advisers and assistants in such raen as Drake
and Hawkins.
Hawkins, having retired from the personal contest
with Spain in distant waters, which he had been the
flrst to encourage, settled down to the hearty perform
ance of his multifarious duties as Treasurer or Comp
troller of the Navy, begun on the last day of 1578.
Drake, being younger, and having been wonderfully
successful in all his projects against Spain, continued to
take the lead in actual searaanship.
So great was the fear already excited in Spain and
its possessions by Drake's prowess, that, in ,1582, King
Philip offered a reward of 20,000 ducats to any one who
would bring him his head or proof that it had been
hindered from producing any more of his terrible
handiwork.* He seeras to have been in England or
near it, however, for nearly five years after returning
frora his famous voyage round the world. Dreading
Spain too much to sanction just then any further
voyaging of that sort, Queen Elizabeth kept him gene
rally at Court, allowed him occasionally to reside in
Plymouth, and sometimes eraployed hira in catching
pirates — if Spanish pirates, it would be all the better —
in the Narrow Seas. He was thus employed in the
autumn of 1583 and in the summer of 1584 ;! while in
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. cliii., No. 49. This offer was
made in the first instance to John Doughty, brother of the Thomas
Doughty who was executed by Drake at Port Saint Julian. Doughty,
however, seems to have done nothing more than slander Drake. (Ibid.,
vol. cliii., No. 50.) That he took no legal steps to avenge his brother's
death is some evidence in favour of Drake's innocence in the matter.
t Recoed Office MSS., Domestic, vol.clxii.. No. 33 ; vol.clxxxii., No. 38.

1678-1586.] A New Project for Troubling Spain, 159
the following autumn we find hira organizing volunteers
in South Devon for the defence of the country against
invaders and insurgents,* and, in corapany with a raulti-
tude of others, pledging hiraself by the most solemn
oaths, "faithfully to serve and obey the Queen, to
defend her against all estates, dignities, and earthly
powers whatsoever, and to pursue to utter extermina
tion aU that shall attempt by any act, counsel, or
consent to anything that shall tend to the harm of her
Majesty's royal person."!
As soon as it was clear that England would go to
war with Spain on behalf of the Netherlanders, and long
before the signing of the treaty by which war was vir
tually declared, Drake was ready with a bold scheme
for sharing in it. It was not his scherae alone. Sir
Philip Sidney — whose desire to exchange courtly indo
lence for sorae worthy action, had led him, in 1576, to
purpose going with Frobisher in search of a passage to
Cathay, and, in 1583, to obtain from Queen Elizabeth
authority to plant a colony in America — had, in 1584,
begun to think of following Drake's exaraple in attack
ing the West Indian colonies of Spain. He had dis
cussed the project, among others, with Ralph Lane, the
Governor of Raleigh's first unfortunate settlement in
Virginia, and Lane, writing to him from Virginia in
August, 1585, had urged him to take the work in hand,
adducing arguments in its favour frora his own expe
riences and observations. " I could not but write these
"" Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. clxxiii., No. 33.
t Hnd., vol. clxxxiv.. No. 6.

160 Drake's Expedition to the West Indies, [chap. xiv.
ill-fashioned lines unto you," he said, "to exhort you,
my noble general, by occasion, not to refuse the good
opportunity of such a service to the Church of Christ>
of great relief from many calamities that this treasure
in the Spaniards' hands doth inflict upon the members
thereof — very honourable and profitable for her Majesty
and our country, and most commendable and fit for
yourself to be the enterpriser of."*
Long before that letter arrived Sidney had started
the enterprise and had withdrawn from actual part in
it. During the summer of 1585 he was busily planning
with Drake an expedition to the West Indies and the
Spanish Main ; and Sidney appears to have done his
full share of the work. Besides giving all the money
that he could save from his own scanty resources, we
are told that he induced thirty gentlemen of good birth
and estate to provide 100?. apiece for fitting out a fleet
strong enough to act worthily in opposition to Spain ;
also that he used his influence in bringing together a
body of volunteers " chosen out of the ablest governors
of those martial times." The enterprise was to consist
of a strong body of ships and of soldiers for service on
land. Drake was to be coraraander of the fleet, Sidney
to be general of the little array ; and this arrangement
seeras to have been agreeable to both partners. But
while the preparations were being raade, Elizabeth's
treaty with the Low Countries was completed, and it
was the particular request of Williara of Orange, who
had long before discerned his worth, that Sidney should
* Recced Office MSS., Colonial, vol. i.. No. 5.

1585.] Sir Philip Sidney's Share in the Project. 161
be English governor of Flushing, and hold an im
portant place in the army sent to aid him from Eng
land. Sidney preferred this to sharing in Drake's
expedition, and therefore the fltting out of the fleet was
completed without hira. Elizabeth, however, who looked
upon Sidney as the special ornament of her Court, and
who was ignorant of his plot for going so far away as
Drake's fleet would take him, demurred even to his
employment in the Netherlands. Upon that he re
curred to the West Indian project, now aiming still
more to keep his purpose a secret frora the Queen.
Just as Drake was ready for starting he stealthily went
down to Plyraouth and clairaed the resumption of his
bargain. But Drake, who had calculated upon having
more complete authority than that bargain left him, while
receiving Sidney " with a great deal of outward pomp
and compliment," was by no means willing to have him
for a partner; and thereupon ensued a curious little
course of scheming. Drake caused a message to be
sent to the Queen, informing her of Sidney's intended
departure. In return a prorapt order was despatched
by her Majesty, to the effect that he was to be stayed :
if he refused, the whole fleet was to be kept back : on
no account was Drake to sail with him on board. That
order, however, was preceded by news to Sidney that it
was on its way, and he had tirae to dress up as sailors
two soldiers whora he could trust, who hurried off to
meet the courier, got into conversation with him, pur
loined the letter, and so prevented it from reaching its
destination. Yet that was not successful. Drake lin-
VOL. II. M

162 Drakes Expedition to the West Indies, [Chap.xiv.
gered, and intelligence of the plot reached Elizabeth
before he had set out. A more imperious mandate was
at once prepared, and this time care was taken to have
it properly conveyed. It was delivered into Sidney's
own hands, we are told, by a peer of the realm. It
carried with it " in the one hand grace, in the other
thunder." The thunder was a threat that, if he quitted
the Queen and her Court in this way, he should never
return. The grace was a pledge that he should have
employment under his uncle the Earl of Leicester, now
going into the Low Countries. Sidney accepted the
grace. He was sent to be governor of Flushing, and to
die of his wound at Zutphen ; and Drake went alone
to the West Indies.*
Drake's fleet consisted of twenty-five vessels, large
and small. In the largest of them, the Elizabeth
Bonaventure, Drake went as Admiral, with Thomas
Fenner for Captain. Under him, in charge of the
Primrose, was Blartin Frobisher, as Vice-Admiral,
allowed, after seven years spent in idleness or piracy,!
to share once more in memorable work. To Francis
Knollys, as Rear-Admiral, was entrusted the Leicester
Galleon ; and in the Tiger went, as Lieutenant-General
in coraraand of the soldiers, Christopher Carlisle, Sid
ney's old friend, lately further connected with him
through their raarriage to two daughters of Sir Francis
* See my Memoir of Sir Philip Sidney, pp. 459-469.
t The Netherlanders, even after their formal alliance with Elizabeth,
had to complain of the depredations committed upon their merchant
.-.hips by Frobisher and other Englishmen. — Motley, The United Nether
lands, vol. iii., pp. 173, 174.

1585.] The Fleet and its Setting Out. 163
Walsingham. Officers, soldiers, and seamen nurabered
in all 2,300 persons. The Elizabeth Bonaventure and
the Tiger, if none of the others, were ships of the
Queen's navy, and Drake and Carlisle bore coraraissious
frora the Queen. This expedition differed from all its
predecessors, not only in size, but also in being dis
tinctly authorized by the Crown to raake war upon the
King of Spain and his dominions. Drake, no longer a
pirate, was now an acknowledged privateer. His en
terprise was regarded by English Protestants and their
allies as a direct piece of public warfare on their behalf,
of extreme importance and wholly to be coraraended.
" Upon Drake's voyage, in very truth," wrote Walsing
ham to the Earl of Leicester, " dependeth the life and
death of the cause, according to man's judgment."*
The delays consequent upon Sidney's proposal to
accompany it having come to an end, Drake left Ply
mouth on the 14th of September, 1585.! Proposing
chiefly to attack Spain through her colonies, he was
ready also, if possible, to strike some blows nearer horae.
Therefore, after capturing a Spanish fishing vessel on
its way back frora Newfoundland, and putting into
Vigo, through stress of weather, on the 4th of October,
he turned into the Road of Bayona, on the 10th, in
tending, " with the favour of the Almighty," to attack
it. But the governor offered prompt submission, pro-
"¦ Leicester Correspondence, edited by Mr. Beuce for the Camden
Society (1844), p. 341.
t The following detaUs, where no other authority is cited, are drawa
from a narrative by Biggs, Cripps, and Gates, ia Hakluyt, vol. iii.,
pp. 534-548.

164 Drake's Expedition to the West Indies, [chap.xiv.
raising to liberate the persons and goods of English
raerchants that had been placed under arrest; and,
while Drake was considering how to act, a true Bis-
cayan storra arose, which partly dispersed his ships and
forced hira to lay out to sea. The storra lasted three
days, and then Drake sent Carlisle to pay a second visit
to Vigo.* Carlisle did daraage to the inhabitants
which it was thought 8,000?. would not recompense, but
captured nothing of much value, his chief prize being
" a cross of silver doubly gilt," belonging to the cathe
dral. Off the coast of Galicia the fleet appears to have
stayed some little time, thereby enabling the Spanish
authorities to send information concerning it to the
West Indies, and so cause some trouble in the ensuing
months. The first trouble thus caused was at Palma, one of
the Canaries, where, "by the naughtiness of the land
ing-place, well furnished with great ordnance," Drake
was prevented frora halting, and even driven off with
some injury. Off Cape de Verde, also, he was able to
procure very little of the booty which he sought. He
stayed there, however, frora the 14th to the 30th of
Noveraber, and there the raurder of one of his people
was visited with terrible retribution. " We consumed
with fitre," it is said, " all the houses as well in the country
as in the town of Santiago, the hospital excepted,
which we left unconsumed." Perhaps the hospital was
spared because the sickness that then began to show
itself araong the English inclined thera to some little
* Record Ofhoe MSS., Domestic, vol. clxxxiii.. No. 10.

1685-1536.] His Work on the Way to San Domingo. 165
mercy towards sick Portuguese and Spaniards even.
This sickness — consisting of " extreme hot burning and
continual agues, whereof very few escaped with life, and
those for the most part not without great alteration and
decay of their wits and strength for a long time after "
— lessened the force by more than two hundred men in
the course of the passage which, after two months of
loitering, was at length raade to the West Indies.
There Dominica and Saint Kitts were first visited, not
for war with Spaniards, but for refreshment obtained
from the Indians, who were still their only inhabitants.
Thence Drake sailed to Hispaniola, and on the 1st of
January, 1586, twelve hundred raen, apparently all
that were left of the land force, were put on shore about
a dozen miles frora San Domingo, " being the ancientest
and chief inhabited place in all the tract of country
thereabouts," founded just ninety years before by the
brother and deputy of Christopher Columbus. "Our
General," says the chronicler, " after seeing all landed
in safety, returned to the fleet, bequeathing us to God
and the good conduct of Master Carlisle, our Lieutenant-
General." Between eight o'clock and noon, on this New- Year's
Day, Carlisle's little army was marching up to San
Domingo. When the city was in sight a hundred and
fifty Spanish horse carae out to raeet the invaders, and
after some brave fighting were driven within the walls.
There were two seaward gates at which Carlisle resolved
to enter. He planted half of his ordnance and a small
force in front of each of them, and then, dividing the

166 Drake's Expedition to the West Indies, [chap.xit.
rest of his men into two parties, he intrusted one to
Captain Powell, with orders to pass through one gate,
while with the other, after vowing that, if God would
help them, they would meet in the market-place, he
forced his way through the other gate. The enemy,
though not unprepared, were soon driven back. The
English broke their ranks and " marched, or rather ran,
so roundly into them, that pell-mell they entered the
gates, and gave the Spaniards raore care every man to
save himself by flight than reason to stand any longer to
their broken defence." Carlisle was the first to reach
the market-place, " a place of very fair, spacious, square
ground," and thence before nightfall they scoured the
town sufficiently to find comfortable quarters for them
selves. Next day Drake brought his vessels into the
harbour, and landed raost of his raen to share in the
spoil. San Domingo was held for a month and leisurely
ransacked, though Drake was disappointed at the small
booty to be obtained in what had hitherto been sup
posed to be the richest storehouse of the exaggerated
riches of the Spanish Indies. " We found here," it is
said, " great store of strong wine, sweet od, vinegar,
olives, and such-like provisions, excellent white meal,
woollen and linen cloth, and sorae silks, all which served
us for great relief. Good store of brave apparel our
soldiers also found for their relief. There was but httle
plate, or vessel of silver, in comparison of the great pride
of other things in this town : yet some plate we found,
and many other things very gallant and rich, which had

1686.] His Spoliation of San Domingo, 167
cost thera dear, although unto us they were of small
importance." The Spanish governor and raost of the inhabitants,
with all the troops, had taken refuge in a stronghold
some three miles out of the town. Finding so little
treasure in it, Drake was anxious to treat for a ransom,
but the governor, hoping for the arrival of a fleet that
had been promised him frora Spain, was loth to treat.
Then Drake sent a Negro boy, with a flag of truce to
propose negotiations ; but the messenger was raet half
way and so beaten that he could only crawl back to
tell Drake how he had been handled, and then die at
his feet. Thereat, we are told, " the General, being
greatly passioned, coraraanded the provost marshal to
cause a couple of friars, who were among his prisoners,
to be carried to the same place where the boy was
stricken, accompanied with a sufficient guard of soldiers,
there presently to be both hanged ; despatching at the
instant another Spanish prisoner with the reason whereof
this execution was done, and with this message further,
that until the party who had thus raurdered the
general's messenger were delivered into our hands, to
receive condign punishment, there should no day pass
wherein there should not two prisoners be hanged until
they were all consumed which were in our hands."
The murderer was given up, and Drake caused him to
be hanged by some of his own countrymen; but the
governor refused to make any other concession. Drake
accordingly ordered the destruction of the town, which
was found to be " no small travail, being very mag-

168 Drake's Expedition to the West Indies, [chap.xiv.
nificently built of stone, with high lofts." Every morn
ing two hundred men were sent out to do this ugly
work. " Yet," says the chronicler, " did we not, and
could not, consume so much as one-third part of the
town ; and so, in the end — what wearied vrith firing,
and what hastened by some other respects — we were
contented to accept, and they at length to pay, 25,000
ducats " — about 7,000?. — " for the ransom of the
rest." Then Drake put to sea again and proceeded to Car
tagena, the best fortified place on the Spanish Main.
There the same course was pursued as at San Domingo,
though with somewhat tougher fighting and with some
what greater gain in raoney. Drake boldly entered
the harbour which he had not been afraid to skirt,
when a mere pirate, twelve years before. Carlisle and
the troops being landed at midnight, three miles away
from the town, pressed up to its walls, to find that
Drake and the fleet, approaching by sea, had already
done half of the fighting. Great wine butts, fiUed witb
earth, had been used for a barricade. " Notwithstand
ing it was well furnished with pikes and shot," says one
of the soldiers, "the assault was, M'ithout staying, at
tempted by us. Down went the butts of earth, and
peU-raeU carae our swords and pikes together after our
shot had first given their voUey, even at the enemy's
nose. Our pikes were somewhat longer than theirs,
and our bodies better armed, with which advantage our
swords and pikes grew too hard for them, and they
were driven to give place. In this fm-ious entry the

1586.] His Capture of Cartagena. 169
Lieutenant-General slew with his own hands the chief
ensign-bearer of the Spaniards, who fought very man
fully to his life's end." That was at the gates; and
the fighting was stoutly maintained at every street
comer and up to the raarket-place. The Spaniards,
braver than at San Doraingo, were also much helped by
some Indian archers, " with their arrows raost villain
ously erapoisoned, so that, if they did but break the
skin, the party touched, unless it were by great marvel,
died." Many Englishmen, too, " were mischieved to
death by small sticks, sharply pointed, of a foot and a
haK long, fixed in the ground, with the points poisoned,
right in the way frora the place where they landed to
the town," which produced all the raore harra because
the attack was made in the dark.
Cartagena was in the hands of the English at day
break, and they held it for six weeks. Much pillage
ensued; but Drake, respecting the bravery of his
enemies, treated them honourably. " There passed
divers courtesies between us and the Spaniards," it is
said, " as feasting and using them with all kindness and
favour." The feasting, of course, was with Spanish
dainties. In the end, on receipt of about 28,000?. as
ransom, less than a third of the sura he had originally
asked for, Drake restored the shattered town to its
inhabitants. To that moderation he was chiefly induced by the
illness that had afflicted his people ever since their
departure frora Cape de Verde. The crews were much
reduced, and of the fighting men only eight hundred

170 Drake's Expedition to the West Indies. [Chap. xiv.
and fifty reraained, a hundred and fifty of those being
too weak for any active service. Drake and his officers,
after much consultation and with many regrets, resolved
that it would be best not oidy to leave Cartagena with
smaller ransom than they expected, but also to give up
their plan of despoiling Norabre de Dios, and if possible,
even crossing the Isthmus of Darien and attacking
Panama. Leaving Cartagena on the 31st of March, and blowing
up its fort as a farewell show of power, Drake returned
to it for a few days on finding that a great Spanish
vessel which he had seized at San Doraingo had sprung
a leak and was in danger of foundering. He rearranged
his stores and then set sail, intending to return to
England with as little delay as possible. In that, how
ever, there was sorae difficulty. The fleet was in need
of fresh water, and for that it had to wander from one
point to another in the neighbourhood of Cuba. A
scanty supply was at length procured at San Antonio,
the western cape of that island. "Here," says the
chronicler, " 1 do wrong if I should forget the good
example of the General, who, to encourage others and
to hasten the getting water aboard, took no less pains
himself than the meanest. Throughout the expe
dition, indeed, he had everywhere shown so vigilant a
care and foresight in the good ordering ^of his fleet,
accompanied with such wonderful travail of body, that,
doubtless, had he been the meanest person, as he was
the chiefest, he bad deserved the first place of honour.
And no less happy do we account him for being asso-

1686.] His Work on the Way Home. 171
ciated with Master Carlisle, his Lieutenant-General, by
¦whose experience, prudent counsel, and gallant per
formance, he achieved so many and happy enterprises,
and by whom also he was very greatly assisted in set
ting down the needful orders, law and course of justice,
and the due administration of the sarae upon all occa
sions." From Cuba Drake sailed up to Florida and coasted
it to the northward, sacking and burning the new
Spanish settlements of San Juan de Pinos and St. Augus
tine on his way, until he arrived at the island of Roan
oke, containing Sir Walter Raleigh's luckless Virginian
colonists. Thera, as we have seen, he saved frora the
starvation that was irarainent. After that a month's
easy sailing brought hira back to Portsraouth, which he
reached on the 28th of July, after an absence of nine
and a half months from England.
The expedition was rauch less successful than Drake
and his friends had desired. Seven hundred and fifty
of his twenty-three hundred followers had died on the
way, chiefly of disease; and some of the principal
places marked out for attack had been undisturbed.
The gains, however, including two hundred and forty
pieces of artillery, amounted in all to 60,000?., of which
a third was given as prize-money to the soldiers and
sailors, and the other two-thirds yielded a rich return
to the fitters out of the fleet. Very great also was the
English gain in injury to Spain. So great was Philip's
alarm, when he heard of Drake's first coming to the
coast of Galicia, that he forbade the sailing of the

172 The Quarrel between England and Spain, [chap.xiv.
annual fleet for India or of any other trading ships
from Spanish or Portuguese ports.* " Drake has
played the dragon," was the cry of the frightened
Spaniards ; and the fright was steadily increased when
the fleet of sixteen stout ships sent out by Philip in
pursuit of Drake had to put back rauch daraaged by
a storra, and when every week brought some fresh
report of his fierce doings in the Portuguese districts
of Africa, in the Spanish Indies, and in the Spanish
Main of America, f " Sir Francis Drake is a fearful
raan to the King of Spain," wrote Lord Burghley in a
letter to the Earl of Leicester.!
England just then had raany fearful men to the King
of Spain. On returning from his nine months' absence,
Drake found that in the meanwhile great progress had
been made in the quarrel between the two countries.
Nearly every stay-at-home gentleman who had means
enough fitted out a ship or two for eraployment in
piracy or privateering against Spain. The European
seas were crowded with thera ; and distant enterprises
without number were projected, the raost successful out-
corae of which was in the voyage of Thomas Cavendish,
which has already been described. This was warfare
by which Englishmen derived little but profit, and
which brought upon Spaniards hardly anything but
trouble. Philip and all good Catholics were resolved
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. clxxxiii.. No. 28 ; vol. clxxxvi.,
No. 11.
t Ibid., vol. clxxxvi.. No. 19 ; vol. clxxxviii., Nos. 1, 8, 17, 53 ;
vol. clxxxix., Nos. 4, 23, 24, 26, 42 ; vol, cxci.. No. 35.
X Leicester Correspondence, p. 199.

1586.] Drake's Further Share in it. 173
that the insolent Protestant islanders must be punished
in their own home ; and to that end, even in the early
part of 1586, preparations had begun to be made for the
invasion of England. Drake found that counter-prepara
tions were busily being made by Hawkins and Winter, and
a hundred zealous subordinates in the oversight of ship
building and ship fitting, making of weapons, training
of soldiers and sailors, and the like. He took his share
in this work,* but he lost no tirae in 'planning other
work in which he was likely to be of greater service to
England and to Protestantism, — likely also to win for
himself a larger share of wealth and fame.
He had only been in England a few raonths when
he had perfected a plan for following up his raid upon
the Spanish colonies by a raid upon the richest parts
of Spain itself. English statesmen, gentlemen, and
merchants were ready enough to help hira in putting
it in force. But Drake wished that his next enter
prise should be rauch more than a privateering exploit.
He desired " to singe King Philip's beard " with a for
midable fleet of fighting ships, and was anxious, if pos
sible, that his fleet should be recruited frora the Nether
lands as well as from England. With that object he
proceeded to the Hague in November, and used the
best arguments he could with the States-General, the
burghers, and the searaen. The arguments had not
much effect. " He found no disposition in the States
and people," said one of Sir Francis Walsingham's
correspondents, " at all to assent of his raotions. They
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. cxciii.. No. 49.

174 Drake's First Expedition to Spain. cchap. xit.
cannot yield to assist his voyage with any general
contribution, but are content to deal with the inhabit
ants of the principal maritime towns, to furnish in
every of thera a ship or two."* But the maritime
towns were as backward as the States-General, and
Drake went disappointed back to England.
And in England he had not as rauch iraraediate
suppoj-t as he hoped for frora Queen Elizabeth. This
support was at last only given when the Queen had
been convinced that instant action on her part was
necessary. " Upon sundry advertisements and intelli
gences, very provably reported as well out of Spain as
frora other countries, of great provisions for the sea,
prepared by the King of Spain with intent to employ
the same in some attempt either against this realm of
England or the realm of Ireland," it was said in the
instructions given to Drake, " Her Majesty did think it
very convenient^ both for her honour and necessary
defence, to have sorae strength and shipping at sea, to
prevent or withstand such enterprises as mjght be
attempted against her realms or dominions."! Accord
ingly, on the 16th of March, 1587, the Queen formally
assigned to Drake, " by commission, covenant, promise
and grant," four ships and two pinnaces, and allowed
him to collect other vessels in any way that he could.
On the 16th of March he signed a closing contract with
sorae merchants of London, William Garway being
one of the number, who agreed to provide him with
* Motley, vol. ii., p. 103.
t Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. cc, No. 17.

1587.] The Fleet, and its Setting Out. 175
ten armed trading ships and pinnaces.* Nine or ten
more appear to have been furnished by other adven
turers. At any rate, by the end of March Sir Francis
Drake was in coraraand of about twenty-five vessels
of all sizes, which- he had used all the means in his
power to make ready for immediate and efficient service
at sea. "His commission," said Walsingham in a letter
to Sir Edward Stafford, " is to impeach the joining
together of the King of Spain's fleet out of their
several ports, to keep victuals frora thera, to follow
them in case they should be come forward "towards
England or Ireland, as also to set upon such as should
either come out of the West or East Indies into Spain,
or go out of Spain thither."!
Drake entered heartily into his work. On the 2nd
of April he wrote frora Plyraouth to Sir Francis Wal-
singhara, to say that the Queen's ships had just joined
the private vessels that had been waiting .for a week,!
and that all was now ready for starting. " We have
agreed upon aE conditions between us and them, and
have found them all so well affected and so willing iu
all our good proceedings, as we all persuade ourselves
there was never more likely in any fleet, or a raore
loving agreeraent than we hope one of the other. I
thank God I find no man but as all members of one
* British Museum MSS., Lansdowne, Ivi., No. 175, c.
t Record Office MSS., Foreign, cited by Mr. Hopper, in the Ap
pendix to his edition of Robbet Lenq's True Description of the Last
Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, -with his Service done against the Spam
(iu vol. V. of the Camden Miscellany), p. 29.
X Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. cc. No. 1 .

176 Drake's First Expedition to Spain. luhap.xpv.
body, to stand for our gracious Queen and country
against Anti-Christ and his members. I assure your
Honour there hath been no time lost, neither, with the
grace of God, shall be in any other place. I have upon
mine own credit supplied such victual as we have spent,
and augraented as much as I could get, for that we are
very unwilling to return errandless. If your Honour
did now see the fleet under sail, and know with what
resolution men's minds do enter into this action, as
your Honour would rejoice to see thera, so you would
judge a small force would not divide them. Let me be
seech your Honour to hold a good opinion, not of myself
only, but of all the rest servitors in this action, as we
stand nothing doubtful of your Honour ; but if there be
any ill affected, as there hath not wanted in other
actions, and it is likely this will not go free, we hope
that the parties may be known. If we deserve ill, let
us be punished. If we discharge our duties in doing
our best it is hard measure to be reported ill by those
which will either keep their finger out of the fire, or too
well affect to the alteration " — that is, overthrow — " of
our Government, which I hope in God they shaU never
live to see." Herein Drake alluded to some of his
followers who had run away : " we all think by some
practice of some adversaries to the action, by letters
written." These defections were easily supplied. Drake
closed his letter in " haste, frora aboard her Majesty's
good ship, the Elizabeth Bonaventure." " The wind
commands rae away. Our ship is under sail. God
grant we raay so live in his fear, as the enemy may

1687.] The Fleet, and its Setting Out. Ill
have cause to say that God doth fight for her Majesty
as well abroad as at horae, and give her long and happy
life, and ever victory against God's enemies and her
Majesty's. Let me beseech your Honour to pray unto God
for us, that he will direct us the right way. Then shall we
not doubt our enemies ; for they are the sons of men."*
The Queen's ships which Drake thus led out so de
voutly for spoliation of the Spanish Anti-Christ were,
besides the Elizabeth Bonaventure, which he hiraself
commanded, as he had done in the expedition of 1585,
the Golden Lion, entrusted to Captain William Burrows
as Vice-Admiral; the Dreadnought, under Captain
Thomas Fenner ; and the Rainbow, under Captain Bel-
lingham. The Merchant Royal, as its narae implies,
was the leading contribution of the London citizens.
The names of the other vessels are not recorded. The
four largest were of about 500 tons apiece : one was of
400 tons ; two were of 200 tons each ; seven of 150
tons, and the rest were barks, pinnaces, and frigates of
50 tons and under. The total burthen amounted to
4,975 tons, and the sailors and soldiers employed nura
bered in all 2,648.!
Drake had hardly passed out of Plyraouth Harbour
on a Sunday which was to have all the fancied luck of
a sailor's Sunday, when Elizabeth began to fear that
she had been overbold in sending him to make war
with King Phihp in his ovm waters. Therefore, on the
foUowing Sunday, the 9th of AprU, a fresh set of in-
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. cc. No. 2.
t Hopper, pp. 38, 53.
VOL. II. N

178 Drake's First Expedition to Spain, [chap.xiv.
structions was drawn up by her CouncU. " Since your
departure," it was said in these instructions, " her Ma
jesty being advertised that the preparations of the
King of Spain were not so great as was reported, and
further, that they are of late dissolved" — certainly a
false advertisement, — " and perceiving also by some
other matter that hath proceeded from the said King of
Spain and his ministers that he is desirous that the
unkindness and jars happened of late years between
her Majesty and hira might be in sorae honourable sort
compounded, her Majesty being, for her part, loth to
exasperate raatters further than they are, or to give
cause to the world to conceive, by anything that may
proceed from her or any of her ministers or subjects,
that the present altercation between the said King and
her is maintained or nourished by her, otherwise than
forced thereunto for her own defence, bath commanded
us to signify unto you, in her narae, that her express
will and pleasure is, you shall forbear to enter forcibly
into any of the said King's ports or havens, or to offer
violence to any of his towns or shipping within har
bour, or to do any act of hostility upon the land. And
yet, notwithstanding this direction, her pleasure is that
you should do your best endeavour "¦ — the words " as
well by force as otherwise" were inserted and after
wards struck out — " to get into your possession, avoid
ing as much as may lie in you the effusion of Christian
blood, such shipping of the said King's or his subjects
as you shall find at seas."*
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. cc. No. 17.

1587.] His Voyage to Cadiz. 179
These instructions, however, seem not to have reached
Drake until his return to England. Before they could
possibly have reached him he had done the work which
he was ordered not to do. Having started with a fair
wind on the morning of the 2nd of April, he fell in, on
the afternoon of the 3rd, with two pirate-vessels from the
Isle of Wight, which he attached to his fleet; and a few
other stray ships appear, by design or accident, to have
joined his force in the English Channel. Three days
of quick sailing brought hira within sight of Cape
Finisterre ; but then a violent storra arose which did
some damage and wasted some tirae. The ships were
driven out to sea and there dispersed during seven
days. When they met on the 16th of April, it was
found that the Dreadnought had been nearly wrecked
and that a pinnace had been lost. Then Drake shaped
his course to Cape Saint Vincent, which he passed on
the 17th, " divers of his sraall barks and pinnaces
shoring in and chasing within their bays their small
barks and caravels, whereof they took one."*
It was Drake's plan to go at once to Cadiz, the
greatest port of Spain, and there do as much mischief
as he could. .He reached its harbour on the 19th.
" There we found," Drake said in a letter to Wal
singham, " sundry great ships, some laden, some half
laden, and some ready to be laden with the King's
provisions for England. I assure your Honour the like
preparation was never heard of, nor known, as the
King of Spain hath and daily maketh to invade Eng-
* Lens, in Hopper, p. 14.

180 Drake's First Expedition to Spain. [Chap.xiv.
land. His provisions of bread and wines are so great
as will suffice forty thousand raen a whole year, which,
if they be not impeached before they join, flill be very
perilous. Our interest therefore is, by God's help, to
intercept their meetings by all possible means we may,
which I hope shall have such good success as shall tend
to the advancement of God's glory, the safety of her
Highness's royal person, the quiet of her country, and
the annoyance of the enemy."*
A good deal of annoyance was done to the enemy
during the two days which Drake spent in the Road
of Cadiz. In a sentence he himself described the most
daring exploit of English sea-fighting that had ever yet
been done. " We sank a Biscayan of 1200 tons, burnt
a ship of the Marquis of Sa.nta Cruz of 1500 tons, and
thirty-one ships more of 1000, 800, 600, 400, and 200
tons apiece, and carried away four with us laden with
provisions, and departed thence at our pleasure with as
much honour as we could wish, notwithstanding that
during the time of our abode there we were both often
tiraes fought withal by twelve of the King's galleys,
of whom we sank two and always repulsed the rest,
and were, without ceasing, vehemently shot at from the
shore ; but to our little hurt, God be thanked."! Some
of his comrades sent home fuller reports, differing
slightly as regards figures, which have come down to us.!
* Recoed Office MSS., Domestic, vol. cc. No. 46. No. 47 is a
similar letter written by Drake, on the same day, April 27, to Secretary
WoUey. t Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. cc. No. 46.
X Leng, pp. 14-16 ; Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., pp. 121-123 ; Newes
'Mt of the Coastes of Spain, attributed to Captain Fenner, and published

15S7.] His Exploits in Cadiz Harbour. 181
From thera we learn that it was on the afternoon
of Wednesday that the fleet carae within sight of Cadiz.
" So soon as we were descried," says one, " two of their
galleys raade towards us, and, judging what we were,
made haste into shore again, not offering to shoot
one shot at us. Yet before they could return, our
admiral, with others of our fleet, shot them through
and slew ten of their men. Presently there came forth
from the town ten other galleys and fought with us ;
but we applied them so well with our great ordnance
that two of thera were fain to be hauled up that night."
Very great was the consternation in the town at the
report of this English arrival. All the women and
children were hurried for safety into the fortress, twenty-
seven of them being crushed to death in the turmoil.
Every man who could and would handle a weapon made
ready to use it. A flying messenger was despatched to
the Duke of Medina Sidonia, in charge of the army at
San Lucar, for succour. Soldiers and volunteers
crowded the quay and all the seaward streets, and the
large guns of the fortress were prepared for service. But
the great galleys, sorae of them twice or thrice as large
as the largest of the English ships, and, with the smaller
fighting craft, making a force twice as great as Drake's in
number of vessels, four or five times as great in number
of men and guns, offered no resistance for that night

in 1587 ; British Museum MSS., Harleian, clxvii., fols. 104, 105 ; Ibid,,
Lamdowne, xc. No. 24 ; and a French account by a resident in the
town, copied from the Record Office MSS., Foreign, in the Appendix
to Leng, pp. 35-38,— from which the above extracts have been made.

182 Drake's First Expedition to Spain. [Ohap.xiv.
after the fiLrst defeat of the two scouts and the ten gal
leys that followed thera. In the dusk Drake quietly
sailed into the harbour with his four Queen's ships and
some of the lesser vessels, while the Merchant Royal
and several of the other merchants' ships, spreachng
theraselves from end to end of the little bay, forced
back a nuraber of Spanish, French, Italian, and other
sail, mostly trading vessels, that attempted to escape
at the first brunt of danger. Many of these were
boarded and despoiled, with no loss of life to either side,
save in the drowning of a few of the sailors who swam
towards the shore in hope of saving themselves.
Alraost as easy was Drake's greater victory. The
Spanish galleys were valiant only in show. They re
treated under shelter of the fortress and left Drake to do
as much mischief as he could while in pursuit of them
and in his subsequent seizure of the trading ships that
were in port. " The same night," says one of the company,
pious and patriotic as ever, " our General, having, by
God's favour and sufferance, good opportunity to punish
the enemy of God's true gospel and our daily adversary,
and further willing to discharge his expected duty
towards God, his prince, and country, began to sink and
fire divers of their ships." The chief of these was the
private property of the Marquis of Santa Cruz, Philip
II.'s High Admiral, — " a princely bark," said an English
Papist, who sympathized with Spain, " esteemed at the
value of 18,000 ducats ; which warmeth him, who, for
fear of losing his honour before, was always hanging
back from meddling or matching with English pirates."

1687.J His Exploits in Cadiz Harbo-ur. 183
We can well beUeve that it was burnt with special
pleasure by the prince of English pirates. A great
Genoese argosy, of 1,000 tons, was sunk, " sore against
aU their wills," because in it, besides rich stuffs of all
sorts, were thirty-six pieces of brass ordnance. Four
other ships almost as large were sunk, one frora Venice,
one frora Lucca, one frora Florence, and one of French
ownership, though all chartered by Philip for service in
his invasion of England. Five great Spanish carracks,
richly laden for the East Indian trade, and about
twenty other vessels of various size and value, were
also sunk, after being despoiled of the choicest portions
of their cargoes. All the injury done to Drake's fleet,
in return for this daraage, was in the loss of a little
Spanish caravel, captured the day before, with five
EngUshmen on board. " This caravel," it is said,
" being far astern, came in very late, so as the galleys
intercepted her with rauch shot and raany muskets, but
they would never strike and so were taken." Forty
galleys from neighbouring ports were sent to attack
Drake, and sorae of thera foUowed hira into the harbour ;
"but in vain, for their chiefest gain was expense of
powder and shot."
Drake herein certaiidy did work enough for one
afternooib and evening. Had he been able to land on
the same night he raight have made terrible havoc of
Cadiz, and even, perhaps, have seized its fortress ; but
he and his brave comrades were tired out for the tirae.
Therefore they kept on shipboard ; " in which," says a
Frenchman resident in the town, " God showed great

184 Drake's First Expedition to Spain, [chap.xiv.
favour to the people, for fear and confusion caused them
marvellous trouble." In the raorning arrived the rein-
forceraents that had been sent for, and then it was too
late for the little body of Englishmen to land with any
chance of success. In the harbour, however, they con
tinued their work of destruction all through Thursday
and for a great part of the following night. The
spoiling, sinking, and burning of the enemy's shipping
was carried on with terrible effect.* " The galleys made
divers bravadoes upon us," we are told. " The town
and their forts also played upon us all day long.
But they did us little hurt, saving that the master
gunner of the Golden Lion had his leg broke with a
shot frora the town." " During our abode," says another
of the party, " they gave us sraall rest, by reason of
their shot from the galleys, fortresses, and shore, where
continually they placed new ordnance at places con
venient to offend ; which notwithstanding, we continuaUy
fired their ships as the fiood came in, to the end to be
cleared of them ; the sight of which terrible fires were
to us very pleasant, and mitigated the burthen of our
continual travail ; wherein we were busied for two
nights and one day, in discharging, firing, and lading of
provisions, with reservation for good, laudable, and
guardable defence of the enemy. It raay seem strange,
or rather miraculous, that so great an exploit should be
performed with so small loss ; the place to endamage
* It is most likely that much of the spoliation attributed to the first
even lug belonged to the following day and evening ; but I have followed
the accounts, in which there is some discrepancy, natm-al where each
authority saw the occurrences from a different point of obsei-vation.

1587.] His Exploits in Cadiz Harbour. 185
us being so convenient, and their force so great, as
appeared, from whora were shot at us at the least two
hundred culverin and cannon shot. But in this, as in
all others our actions heretofore, though dangerously
attempted, yet happily performed, our good God hath
and daily doth make His infinite power manifest to all
Papists ; and His name by us His servants continually
honoured !"
The total amount of damage done by Drake is
variously reported. By an average of the conflicting
statements it would appear that he destroyed sorae forty
or fifty vessels, large and small, of about 9,000 or
10,000 tons in the aggregate. The loss of stores alone,
to King Philip and his subjects, was estimated at half a
million ducats, not far short of 150,000?. Among the
goods burnt and sunk were 4,000 pipes of wine, 20,000
quintals of biscuits, and 30,000 hundredweight of wheat
and other provisions.* Out of the destruction was
saved as much food as the English ships had room for.
" We rest victualled," it was said, " with bread and
drink for six raonths in our ships, and have besides two
fly-boats full laden with bread sufficient for a good
army for three raonths."
Having done as much mischief as he could in Cadiz
Harbour, Drake sailed out of it at two o'clock in the
morning of Friday, the 21st of April. " When we were
a little out," adds the chronicler, " we fell becalmed,
and ten galleys followed us and fought with us all that
forenoon. But, whether for lack of powder and shot,
* Lansdowne MS. in Hopper, p. 41.

186 Drake's First Expedition to Spain, [chap.xiv.
or by reason of the heat of the day, I know not, or
sorae of them shot through, which was most likeliest as
we judged, they lay aloof for the space of three hours,
and never after durst come within our shot. Which
our General seeing, that afternoon he sent to the
captain of those galleys to know if he had any English
men in the galleys as slaves there, as also to will him
to deliver unto him the flve Englishraen whom they
had taken at our coming into Cadiz ; and he would
deliver so many Spaniards or Portuguese for them. At
which time he sent his boat unto our General, presenting
him with sucket " — or sweetmeats — " and such other
novelties as they had, certifying him that they had
none, but only those whom they had taken with the
caravel, who were living and in the town at Cadiz : to
satisfy which, if it pleased him to stay until the next
day, they would raake his request known unto the
governor of the town, and would return to liira again
with answer." But, as Drake liad reason for supposing
that by another day's waiting off Cadiz he would expose
himself to a formidable attack frora a great fleet which
was being collected, he refused to assent to " their
devilish practice," and, " finding the wind for his pur
pose," put out to sea before night.
For ten days he loitered at sea, in the neighbourhood
of Cape Saint Vincent. On the 27th of April he sent
home a concise report of his achieveraents which has
been quoted from, and with his despatch went some of
the other letters which have supplied us with the
details of the raid on Cadiz. " We all remain in great

1587.] The Complaints of William Burroivs. 187
love with our general and in unity throughout the
whole fleet," it was said in one of thera. That state
ment was not correct. Drake deserved the love of his
comrades, and he generally obtained it. But, like other
brave and daring raen, he was soraetiraes imperious and
'always resolute in carrying out the plans that com
mended theraselves to his own judgraent, without much
regard for the opinions of others. Thereby offence was
given to sorae, and especially to WUliara Burrows,
the Captain of the Golden Lion and Vice-Admiral of
the whole fleet. On the 30th of April he wrote a
fooUsh letter to Drake, pouring out the grievances
which seem to have been troubling hira all through
the four weeks they had been at sea, and which had
become important during the attack on Cadiz. "I
have found you always so wedded to your own opinion
and will," he said, " that you rather disliked and showed
as though it were offensive unto you that any should
give you advice in anything, — at least I speak it of
myself. For which cause I have refrained often to
speak that which otherwise I would and in reason, in
discharge of the duty I owe to her Majesty and the
place I serve in, I ought to have done; which place
you make no account of, nay, you deal not so with me
as you do to others." Burrows represented that he
had all the more ground of complaint because his
slighted advice accorded more than Drake's practice, as
he supposed, with the instructions issued by the Queen.
Drake ought, he said, merely to have watched the
Spanish coast and attacked any hostile fleet that raight

1 88 Drake's First Expedition to Spain. [Chap. xn-.
have corae out to raeet him, instead of going, in excess
of boldness, to attack the shipping in the Spanish forts,
as had been done at Cadiz. Much more of that timid,
grumbling sort wrote Burrows.* Drake's answer to
the letter was, immediately upon receiving it, to place
the discontented Vice-Admiral under arrest. Burrows
was confined to his cabin for two days, and only rein
stated after he had written a penitent letter, promising
obedience in the future.! The breach was not healed,
but any serious hindrance of Drake's projects was
averted. Burrows' special ground of coraplaint had been a
plan propounded by Drake on the 29th of April, for
employing a thousand men upon a land attack on
Lagos. This plan he put in force, with nearly enough
failure to justify Burrows' objections, on the 4th of
May. The thousand men were disembarked five miles
from the town, and marched boldly up through corn
fields and vineyards. Four hundred horsemen, " bravely
horsed, but very ill manned," came out to meet them,
but ran away before they were within reach of shot.
The town, however, was too well guarded for its capture
to be possible, and the invaders had to retire after
sustaining considerable injury, which was feebly atoned
for by the distant bombardment of the fleet. The
English waited on the shore for two hours, hoping that
the Spaniards would corae out and fight. The chal
lenge being refused, they went back to their ships.
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. cc, Na 57.
t Ibid., vol. ccii.. No. 14.

1587.] His Exploits at Lagos and Sagres. 189
Better success attended an attack which was made
next day upon Sagres, half way between Lagos and Cape
Saint Vincent. " We landed about eight hundred men,
all musket, small shot, and pikeraen," says the chroni
cler of the expedition, " our General raeaning to satisfy
his valiant raind in doing some worthy exploits upon
our enemy's land. When we had landed our men, we
marched towards a fort called Avalera, upon which was
a flag; frora which fort, when they saw us so boldly
to approach thera, they fled unto their great fort or
castle Cape Sagres. The fort called Avalera, with cer
tain brass pieces we took; which with certain of our
men was kept. All the rest marched towards the castle,
the walls whereof were esteemed thirty foot high and
ten foot broad, and on the east, south, and west it is all
a main rock, without passage, at least thirty fathoms
high, and fifteen brass pieces were therein planted.
As we marched along by thera they shot at us, but
did us no hurt. And then and there, by the coraraand-
ment of our General, thirty musket shot went and
skirmished with them in the castle ; and, when they
had continued sorae tirae in skirraishing with them, and
spent most of their powder and shot, they all returned
to our main battle again, having no man slain, but some
a little hurt. Upon which our General summoned the
captain of the castle to a parley, commanding him to
yield it up, which he then utterly denied. Whereupon
our General sent for wood frora our ships to set on fire
the utterraost gate ; and he himself, to see the same
act performed, with great industry carried of the said

190 Drake' s First Expedition to Spain, xchap.xiv.
wood and other provision in person, and did help to set
it on fire, whilst the vanguard of our main battle skir
mished with them in their faces on the walls ; during
which tirae of fight with them we had two of our men
slain outright, and divers sore hurt. In which time, the
captain of the castle being sore wounded, and they all
within, to the nuraber of two hundred and forty, wonder
fully daunted with our bold enterprises, they put out
their flag of truce, and yielded ; when we entered, and
finding within the said castle the foresaid number of
two hundred and forty persons, our General most favour
ably licensed them to depart." From that fortress
Drake sent to the captains of the castle at Cape Saint
Vincent, quite as large as the one he had conquered,
and another fort in the neighbourhood, such messages
as led to the peaceable surrender of their keys and the
hasty retreat of the soldiers in charge of them. He
stayed on shore for the night, and next raorning, having
taken frora thera as raany of their guns as he could
carry away, he set both castles and both forts on fire,
and brought his fleet into the harbour of Cape Saint
Vincent.* There he halted for four days, destroying all the war
shipping that he could find. He had done the same
on his way from Cadiz, and he continued to do it for the
rest of his stay in Spanish waters. During the ten
days preceding, and the ten days following his an-ival at
Cape Saint Vincent, as he said in a letter to Walsing
ham, " we have taken forty ships, barks, and caravels,
* Leng, pp. 17, 18.

1587.] His Exploits near Cape Saint Vincent. 191
and divers other vessels raore than a hundred, raost
laden, some with oars for galleys, plank and timber for
ships and pinnaces, hoops and pipe-staves for casks, with
many other provisions for this great army," which was
to invade England. " I assure your Honour the hoops
and pipe-staves were above 16,000 or 17,000 tons in
weight; all which I coramanded to be consumed into
smoke and ashes by fire, which vrill be unto the King
no small waste unto his provisions, besides the want of
his barks."*
Part of this raischief was done after Drake had
quitted Cape Saint Vincent. Setting saU again on the
10th of May he went towards Lisbon, which by Philip's
seizure of Portugal in 1580 had become the greatest of
Spanish ports, intending to treat its shipping as he had
treated that of Cadiz. There and on the way thither,
however, the enemy's force was so great that even he,
with all his boldness, was deterred from causing very
much destruction. In one long day a favourable wind
took hira up to Cascaes, at the raouth of the Tagus ;
and there he lay at anchor, caring little for the shot that
was aimed at him frora the castle and from eight gal
leys in the harbour, and being little hurt by it. Thence
he sent a message to the Marquis of Santa Cruz, propos
ing to give up his Spanish captives for English pri
soners, man for man.! " The Marquis sent me word,"
he says, " that, as he was a gentleman, he had none, and
that I should assure myself that, if he had any, he
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. cci., No. 33.
t Leng, pp. 18, 19.

192 Drake's First Expedition to Spain, [chap.xiv.
would surely have sent thera rae ; which I knew was
not so, for I had true inteUigence by Englishmen and
Portuguese that the Marquis had divers Englishmen
both in his galleys and prisons. Whereupon it is agreed
by us all, her Majesty's captains and masters, that all
such Spaniards as it shall please God to send under our
hands, shall be sold unto the Moors, and the money
reserved for the redeeming of such of our countryraen as
raay be redeemed therewith."* Many fresh captures of
Spaniards he made with this handling of them in view,
and a great deal of further mischief he effected among
the smaller shipping that was to be found between
Cascaes and Lisbon and along the opposite shore. He
was anxious that the Marquis of Santa Cruz should
bring out his galleys, of which as many as twenty-four
were assembled near Lisbon, for open fight. But this
the Spaniards dared not do, and Drake durst not
attack them in harbour, where they were under cover
of the great artillery on land. So he returned to Cape
Saint Vincent on the 12th of May.!
There he waited for six days, intending to wait much
longer. He had done his utraost in fulfilraent of his
purpose "to singe King Philip's beard," and now he
paused in hopes that Phihp would send a fleet to resist
him, and be defeated by him, in open sea. He waited
also for instructions from home. " For the revenge of
these things," he said in a letter to Walsingham, dated
the 17th of May, " what forces the country is able to
* Recokd Office MSS., Domestic,vo\. cci., No. 33.
t Ibid, ; Le>-g, pp. 19, 20 ; Appendix to the same, p. 46.

1587.J His Opinions on the Work. 193
make, we shall be sure to have brought upon us, as far as
they may, with all the devices and traps they can devise.
When they come, they shall be but the sons of mortal
men, and, for the most part, enemies to the truth, and
upholders of baUs to Dagon's image, which hath already
faUen before the ark of our God, with his hands, arms,
and head stricken off. As long as it shall please God
to give us provisions to eat and drink, and that our
ships and wind and weather wiU permit us, you shall
surely hear of us near this Cape of Saint Vincent ;
where we do and wUl expect daily what her Majesty
and your Honours wUl farther coraraand. God raake us
all thankful that her Majesty sent out these few ships
in time. If there were here six more of her Majesty's
good ships of the second sort, we should be the better
able to keep their forces from joining, and haply take
or impeach their fleets from all places in the next
month, and so after, which is the chiefest tirae of their
return home, — which I judge, in ray poor opinion, wUl
bring this great raonarchy to those conditions which
are meet. God raake us all thankful, again and again,
that we have, although it be little, made a beginning
upon the coast of Spain. If we can thoroughly believe
that this which we do is in the defence of our religion
and country, no doubt but our merciful God, for His
Christ our Saviour's sake, is able, and will give us
victory. There raust be a beginning of any great
matter, but the continuing unto the end, until it be
thoroughly flnished, is the true glory.*
"¦ Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. cci,, No. 33.
VOL. II. O

194 Drake's First Expedition to Spain, [chap. xiv.
Drake waited in vain for instructions. Along with his
reports of his achievements, and his opinions thereupon.
Queen Elizabeth received letters from Spain and from
the Spanish authorities in the Netherlands, complaining
bitterly of the mischief that was being done in her
name, and demanding Drake's immediate recall and
punishment, unless she was prepared to receive in her
own seas and realm the direst vengeance that Spain
could bring upon her. To these her Council replied
that she had sent special orders to Drake forbidding
uch conduct as he was reported to have been guilty of,
but that the ship entrusted with these orders had been
driven back by contrary winds, so that they had never
reached hira. " And for the better manifesting of her
Majesty's disposition therein," it was added, "we can
assure you that her Highness, understanding of some
attempts of the said Drake's by land, is greatly offended
with hira for the same, and meaneth at his return to
carry hira to his answer ; which showeth raost appa
rently the continuance of her Majesty's good disposi
tion."* It is clear that Queen Elizabeth in her
heart approved of Drake's proceedings; but she still
wished to raaintain a show of friendliness towards King
Philip ; therefore, having equally good reasons for
neither recalling nor reinforcing hira, she prudently
abstained frora sending hira any communication at aU.
Nor did Drake wait long for a comraunication from
England. On the 17th of May he heard that ten
* Recced Office MSS., Flanders Correspondence, in Hoppee,
pp. 43, 44.

1687.J His Last Work on the Spanish Coast, 195
Spanish galleys, probably the ten that he had left at
Cadiz, had come to Lagos, intending, if possible, to join
the force of twenty- four ships at Lisbon. Next morn
ing he went in pursuit of them, and with a few vigorous
broadsides drove thera close into the harbour, where he
did not flnd it expedient to follow them. He therefore
returned to his halting-place, finding a little amuse
ment on his way in driving three small vessels aground.
On the foUowing day, for another small diversion, he
put four hundred men on land near Sagres, who despoiled
and set fire to a fishermen's village.*
That was ignoble work, and Drake seems to have
grown tired of it. It was wearisome also to the captains
of the raerchant ships who, being sent out with the
special object of acquiring rich booty, had not rauch
satisfaction in the destruction of property which, though
very ruinous to the Spaniards, yielded no direct profit
to the English. Therefore, a new series of exploits was
resolved upon, to be begun by an expedition to the
Azores, the usual halting-place of the richly-laden
carracks of Spain and Portugal coming from the East
and West Indies. With this object, Drake spent two
days in transferring most of the captured stores and all
his sick and wounded raen to five vessels which he had
taken frora the Spaniards at Cadiz and elsewhere. That
was done, and the detachraent started for England to
have a short and easy passage on the 22nd of May.!
Drake's new project, however, was in great part
frustrated. Directing his course on the sarae day for
* Leng, p. 20. t Ibid.

196 Drake's First Expedition to Spain, lchap. xiv.
the Azores, a terrible storra befell his fleet before mid
night. It lasted for three days, during which the
vessels were dispersed. The Elizabeth Bonaventure was in
sore danger of being wrecked, and all the other ships
were raore or less daraaged. When, on the 25th, Drake
proceeded to collect thera, he found that all his mer
chant auxiUaries had taken fright and made for Eng
land.* Nor was that his only trouble. The old discon
tent of William Burrows had never been really over
come. "Burrows hath not carried himself in this
action so well as I wish he had done for his own sake,"
Drake said in a letter to Burghley on the 21st of May
" and his persisting hath coramitted a double offence
not only against me, but it toucheth further."! Then
or before, he had been again superseded, and Captain
Marchant had been put in charge of the Golden Lion ;
but this change wrought no good. A mutiny broke out
in the ship on the 26th or 27th of May, and, deserting
Drake in his time of trouble, it followed the merchant
ships to England ; whence, on the 5th of June, Burrows
wrote to Lord Admiral Howard, detaiUng his account
of the affair.! This was followed, a month or two after
wards, by a long and lame contradiction of the charges
brought against him by Sir Francis Drake,§ which so
far succeeded as to save hira from a severe punishment.
* Leng, p. 21.
t Beitish Museum MSS., Cotton, cited by Baeeow, Life of Drake,
p. 229.
X Recoed Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccii.. No. 14.
§ Beitish Museum MSS., Lansdoicme, cited by Barrow, pp. 249-255.
See also Becord Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccii., Nos. 66, 67 ; vol ociii..
No. 1 ; vol. ccviii.. No. 77.

1587.] Losses and Gains on the Way to the Azores. 197
In 1588 he did some useful service in the Armada
Eight. After the defection of the Golden Lion and the raer
chant ships, Drake's fleet was reduced to nine vessels,
the three ships and two pinnaces furnished by the
Queen, and four others, which probably belonged to
himself and his friends. With this force he judged it
impossible to do more in attacking Spain in its own
waters, defended by galleys and other fighting craft
which, though individually no match for his vessels, were
numerous enough to overwhelm hira with ease. There
fore he determined to return promptly to England. First,
however, in accordance with his previous plan, he pro
ceeded, in search of booty, to the Azores. There, with
very Uttle difficulty, he had as rauch success as he could
have hoped for. On .the 8th of June, after sixteen days'
sailing, he came within sight of Saint Michael's Island.
"In the morning of the 9th," says the chronicler
of the voyage, " we descried a great sail, who, by our
judgment, raade towards us, and we, having a pretty
gale of wind, with aU speed raade towards her ; but by
the time we had sailed towards her about one league,
we might perceive her to be a mighty ship, which was
then called a carrack, having out a Portugal flag and
red cross. But we, knowing what she was, would put
out no flag until we were within shot of her, when we
hanged out flags, streamers, and pendants, that she
might be out of doubt to know who we were ; which
done, we hailed her with cannon-shot, and having shot
her through divers times, she shot at us, sometimes at

198 Drake's First Expedition to Spain, [chap. xiv.
one, soraetiraes at another. Then we began to apply
her hotly, our flyboat and one of our pinnaces lying
thwart her hawse, at whora she shot and threw fireworks,
but did thera no hurt, for that her ordnance lay so high
over them. Then, she seeing us ready to lay her on
board, all of our ships applying her so hotly and reso
lutely, determined to make short with her, six of her
raen being slain, and divers sore hurt, they yielded unto
us ; whom, when we boarded, we found to be the King
of Spain's own ship come frora the East Indies, called
by his narae, Philip, and the greatest ship in all Por
tugal, richly laden, to our happy joy and great glad
ness. There were also in her four hundred Niggers,
whora they had taken to make slaves in Spain and
Portugal, whom our General, with the captain and his
company, to the number of two hundred and forty, put
into our flyboat to go whither they Ust, and further
dealt most favourably with thera."*
Drake might well afford to deal favourably with the
crews and captives of the San Filipe, as the great
carrack was called. Guarding her with his little fleet,
he set sail at once for England, and reached Plymouth
on the 26th of June, just twelve weeks after his depar
ture.! His great achievements won for hira the enthu
siastic adrairation of all honest patriots, and, if Queen
Elizabeth ever meant to punish hira for going beyond
his instructions in the daring work that had done so
rauch harra and caused so rauch annoyance to the
Spaniards, she now no longer tliought of it.
* Leng, pp. 21, 22. t Lbid., p. 22.

1587.] The End of his Enterprise, and iis Gains. 199
Even greater, however, than the joy that arose frora
his great destruction of Spanish shipping, and his no
table wasting of the Spanish preparations for invading
England, seeras to have been the joy with which the
great prize that he brought home was regarded by both
Queen and people. No merchant ship so large or so
richly laden had ever before been seen in England. The
spices and drugs, sUks and taffetas, calicoes and carpets,
that it contained were valued at 108,049?. 13s. 11^.,
and by it alone were defrayed all the expenses of the
expedition, with surplus enough to give ample profit
both to Queen Elizabeth and to the other adventurers
who had embarked their ships and raoney in the work.*
But the gain in money to England and the loss in
money to Spain was as nothing in comparison with
England's gain and Spain's loss in credit. Sir Francis
Drake's great exploits probably did not delay the inva
sion of England, which PhUip was reported to be pre
paring for 1587, as the preparations were not completed
in time for that year; and they certainly gave an
immense stimulus to the further preparations which
issued in the despatchuig of the Invincible Armada in
1588. But they showed to English Protestants and
their friends upon the continent, that the reputation
acquired by Spain for superiority over all other nations
was only a pretence, and cleared the way for the much
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. cciv., Nos. 2, 8, 9, 27, 28, 30,
31, 33, 39, 40, 52; vol. ccv., Nos. 2, 12, 54, 55; vol. ccvi., No. 4. See
also an estimate of the value of the San Filipe and its cargo, differmg
from the amount stated above, in the British Museum MSS., La^nsdowne,
cxv.. No 89.

200 Drake's First Expedition to Spain, cchap. xiv.
completer spoiling of the delusion that was presently to
take place. Drake had succeeded very well in the
intention with which he had quitted England, " to singe
King Philip's beard." King Philip, irritated beyond
endurance by that last and greatest of a series of indig
nities that he had been receiving frora English seamen
during thirty years, put out all his strength to resent
it; but only to receive a yet greater indignity, which
was the turning-point in the crooked course of his
tyrannical rule, and also the beginning of the decadence
of Spain.

201

CHAPTER XV.
The Great Armada Fight.
[1588.]
If Sir Francis Drake's great exploits on the coast of
Spain and Portugal prevented Philip II. frora invading
England in 1587, they were certainly a great incentive
to the invasion that was atterapted in 1588. The pre
parations thereto which had been in process for sorae
years, and which Drake had so seriously retarded,
were continued with redoubled energy as soon as it was
known that he was once more in England. Pliilip's
eagerness to be revenged for that injury was further
quickened by the disgrace which it had brought upon
him and his forces among both enemies and friends.
Even Pope Sixtus V. is reported, when he heard of
Drake's successes, to have exclaimed " that the Queen
of England's distaff was worth more than Philip's
sword."* That taunt, and the hundreds like it that
* Motley, vol. ii., p. 461. Mr. Motley having said so much about
the history of the Armada Fight, aud the theme having been so often
handled by others, I have here made my account as brief as possible,
limiting myself almost entirely to such illustrations of English seaman
ship as seemed absolutely necessary to my subject, and drawing these,
aa far as possible, from new or little-used material.

202 The Great Armada Fight. [Chap. xv.
were rauttered or said openly in and out of Philip's
hearing, determined hira to do his utraost towards re
trieving his disgrace, and resenting the indignities that
had been accumulating for nearly thirty years, by one
decisive and overwhelming movement.
The moveraent was to be made by as formidable and
well-manned a fleet as PhUip could put upon the sea,
under the command of the Chief Admiral, the Marquis
of Santa Cruz, and send to the neighbourhood of Calais
for further augraentation by Alexander Farnese, Prince
of Parma, the Viceroy in the Netherlands in succession
to the Duke of Alva, who was to take coraraand of the
whole expedition. Fortunately for England and the
world, Santa Cruz was over- timid. The public indig
nities and the private losses that Drake had put upon
him in 1587 had only served to dishearten the Chief
Admiral, never very bold. He feared to place himself
in any fresh contact with Drake and Drake's country
raen, and, after repeated orders to coraplete his arrange-
raents and set sail, which he met with elaborate excuses
and elaborate delays, he died of worry and vexation.
Thereby the invasion, which had been planned for
January, was not entered upon until the middle of June,
and England had time to prepare for resisting it.
That resistance was made difficult through the dila-
toriness of Q,ueen Elizabeth and Lord Burghley. Re-
raerabering how easily Drake had damaged the Spaniards
off Cadiz, and hoping to the very last that their diplo
raacy would prevent Philip from putting his threats
in force, they showed a lack of foresight, and a bUnd-

1687-1688.] Preparations in Spain and England. 203
ness even to the plain tokens of the present, that were
a marvel to all but themselves and the few who thought
with them, and a source of honest annoyance, honestly
expressed, to every ardent patriot. " Since England
was England," wrote Lord Admiral Howard to Wal
singham on the 27th of January, with reference to
efforts on behalf of peace that were being made in
the Netherlands and ostensibly favoured by the Prince
of Parma, " there never was such a stratagem and mask
to deceive her Majesty as this treaty of peace. I pray
God that we do not curse for this a long grey beard
with -a white head witless" — the head and beard being
Burghley 's — "that wiU make all the world think us
heartless. For my part, I have raade of the French
King, the Scottish King, and the King of Spain, a Trinity
that I mean never to trust to be saved by, and I would
that others were of my opinion." *
Many others were of that opinion, and Elizabeth and
her temporising counsellors were forced to yield to it,
in part at any rate. Howard showed his wisdora in
adopting and proraoting the views of raen raore expe
rienced than hiraself. As heretofore Drake was raost
zealous in argument, Hawkins in such modes of action
as appertained to his multifarious duties as Comptroller
of the Navy. Throughout the later months of 1587
and the early part of 1588 Hawkins was doing his
utmost to see that all the Queen's ships were duly fitted
out for service, well victuaUed and properly manned.!
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccviii.. No. 30.
t Ibid., vol. ccvi., Nos. 30, 42, and other papers.

204 The Great Armada Fight. [chap. xv.
On the 21st of December, 1587, Howard, newly com
missioned as " liieutenaut-General and Commander-in-
Chief of the Navy and Army prepared to the seas
against Spain," went to Chatham to take charge of the
White Rear, a ship of 1,000 tons burthen, and next day
he reported that in it and in the other ships there sta
tioned were " as sufficient and able a corapany of sailors
as ever was seen."* This squadron was afterwards
entrusted to Sir Henry Palmer, soon to be superseded
by Lord Henry Seymour, and appointed to watch the
Narrow Seas.! Another squadron was being prepared
by Sir Francis Drake at Plymouth, for the protection
of the west coast.! Lord Howard, in the meanwhile,
went to superintend the further preparations that were
being made at Dover, Harwich, Portsmouth, and other
sea-towns.§ He found that there were twenty ships in
all, manned by two thousand and ninety-four sailors. ||
This was certainly no great armament. On the 1st of
February Howard wrote to Walsingham begging for
further strengthening of the fleet instead of the weak
ening of the force which was contemplated. "The
enemy now make but little reckoning of us," he said,
" and know that we are but like bears tied to stakes,
and that they raay corae Uke dogs to offend us." 1"
On the sarae day Hawkins wrote to urge that the only
way to gain solid peace was to enter upon a determined
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccvi., Nos. 41, 42, 43, 46.
t Ibid,, vol. ccviii., Nos. 6, 7. X Hid., vol. ccviii., Nos. 6, 8.
§ Ibid., vol. ccviii.. No. 14.' 1| Ibid., vol. ccviii., No. 27.
1[ Ibid., vol. ccviii., No. 46.

1587-1588.] Preparations and Protestations in England. 205
and resolute war. "We might have peace," he said,
" but not with God. Rather than serve Baal, let us die
a thousand deaths. Let us have open war with these
Jesuits, and every raan wUl contribute, flght, devise, or
do, for the liberty of our country." He begged to be
aUowed the use of six large and six small ships for four
months, with eighteen hundred mariners and soldiers,
to be employed in another raid upon the Spanish coast
and in aU sorts of hindering of the Armada, whether in
port or on its way. He promised that he would " dis
tress anything that went through the seas," and besides
the injury to PhiUp, that he would acquire booty enough
to pay four times over the cost of the expedition.*
That offer was rejected, as also was a more modest
and less useful one of Lord Howard's, to use the Narrow
Seas squadron in an attack upon Scotland, then in feeble
league with Spain.! But the sea force was steadily
augraented. By the raiddle of February the crews had
risen in nuraber to three thousand and fifteen.! " Our
ships do show Uke gallants here," wrote Sir Williara
Winter to Hawkins, on the 28th of the month. " It
would do a man's heart good to behold them. Would
to God the Prince of Parma were on the seas with all
his forces, and we in sight of them. You should hear that
we would raake his enterprise very unpleasant to him." §
Next day, in a letter to Burghley, Lord Howard,
StiU begging for reinforcements, expressed simUar con-
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccviii.. No. 47.
t Ibid., vol. ccviii.. No. 67. X I^-id., vol. ccviii., Nos. 65, 70.
§ Ibid., vol. ccviii.. No. 85.

206 The Great Armada Fight. cchap. xv
fidence. " Let rae have the four great ships and twenty
hoys, with but twenty men apiece, and each with but
two iron pieces, and her Majesty shall have a good ac
count of the Spanish forces, and I will raake the King
wish his galleys home again. Few as we are, if his
forces be not hundreds, we will raake good sport with
thera when they come."* The four ships asked for
were the White Bear, the Triumph, the Elizabeth Jonas,
and the Victory,^ which, as Howard bitterly complained
in a letter to Walsingham on the 9th of March, her
Majesty was keeping "to protect Chatham Church
withal, when they should be serving their turn abroad."
He complained also of the Queen's conduct to Drake,
by which he had been prevented from not getting his
Plyraouth squadron in coraplete order for sea-service.!
" The fault is not in hira," he added, two days later,
" but I pray God her Majesty do not repent her slack
dealing. All who come out of Spain must concur in
one to lie, or else we shall be stirred very shortly with
a 'heave ho !' I fear ere long her Majesty will be sorry
she hath believed some so much as she hath done." §
Her Majesty and her more cautious advisers, how
ever, persisted in believing, their belief being rauch
aided by a desire to spend as little money as possible in
the work of defending England frora the threatened
invasion. Araid a heap of docuraents showing how the
whole country was astu- with eager preparation — how
"^ Recoed Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccviii.. No. 87.
t Ibid,, vol. ccix.. No. 27. + lUd,, vol. ccix.. No. 12.
§ Ibid,, vol. ccix., No. 15.

1588.] The Economies of Queen Elizabeth. 207
every gentleman who had a bark or boat in any way
adapted for fighting was furnishing it anew, and how
rude fishermen all along the coast crowded up to offer
their services as sailors ; how the raerchants of London
and their apprentices met every Tuesday to exercise
themselves and the great body of the citizens in war
like practices, and how honest shopkeepers and shop-
boys, frora Exeter up to Hull, and frora Dover up to
Chester, were following their exaraple — it is curious to
find, with others of the sarae sort, calculations in Lord
Burghley's handwriting as to the economy of feeding
the saUors in the Queen's ships with fish on three days
and bacon once a week, instead of the usual ration of
fourpennyworth of beef each day.* ' And Queen Eliza
beth herself was of the same raind. The four ships
which Howard had asked for were ordered to be fur
nished for active service ; but the Queen was loth to
use any of thera, and especially the Elizabeth Jonas,
a stout vessel of 900 tons burthen, which carried more
guns and not fewer seamen than any of the other ships.
" Lord ! when should she serve if not at such a time as
this?" wrote Howard to Walsingham on the 7th of
Api-U. " Either she is fit now to serve or fit for the fire.
I hope never in my time to see so great a cause for her
to be used. The King of Spain doth not keep any
ship at home, either of his own or any other that he
can get for raoney. I ara sorry that her Majesty is so
careless of this most dangerous time. I fear rae much,
and with grief I think it, that she reUeth on a hope that
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccix., Nos. 16, 17.

208 The Great Armada Fight. [chap. xv.
wiU deceive her and greatly endanger her, and then it
will not be her money nor her jewels that will help.
WeU, weU, I must pray heartily for peace, for I see the
support of an honourable war will never appear. Sparing
and war have no affinity together."* And next day we
find Howard writing even raore boldly to Lord Burghley,
to coraplain of the way in which the ships were only
supplied with rations for a raonth at a tirae. " King
Harry, her Majesty's father, never made a lesser pro
portion of supply than six weeks." !
Yet Elizabeth was a true daughter of the great King
Harry, and she spoke no more than truth in the famous
words with wliich, before the fate of the Invincible
Arraada, aUeady vanquished, was known on land, she
encouraged the soldiers who, after three more months
of waiting and preparation, had little need of encourage
ment, in Tilbury camp. Some of her counsellors, dread
ing Catholic treachery, had begged her not to show
herself just then in public. " Let tyrants fear," she
said; "I have always so behaved myself that, under
God, I have placed ray chiefest strength and safeguard
in the loyal hearts and goodwiU of ray subjects ; and
therefore I ara corae araongst you, as you see, at this
time, resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to
live or die amongst you all ; to lay down for my God,
for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my
blood even in the dust. I know I have the body but
of a weak and feeble woman ; but I have the heart of a
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccix.. No. 74.
t Ibid,, vol. ccix., No. 78.

1588.] The Patriotism of Queen Elizabeth. 209
king, and of a King of England too, and think it foul
scorn that Parma, or Spain, or any prince of Europe,
should dare to invade the borders of my realm, to
which, rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I
myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general,
judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the
field."* There would have been no need for Elizabeth to head
her land-forces, few and feebly armed as they were, in
resisting the Spanish invaders on their first landing
upon English ground. There was no need even for
those forces to waste any of their scanty store of ammu
nition in anything but peals of rejoicing at the victory
won by their corarades on the sea.
The strongest body of those comrades, after the
squadron of the Queen's own ships, Avas the irregular
squadron prepared at Plymouth by Sir Francis Drake.
Drake, like Hawkins, had been anxious during all the
waiting time to go out and meet the Armada in Spanish
waters, or even hinder it from ever passing out of
Spanish harbours. " It wUl put great and good hearts,"
he said, writing frora Plymouth to the Lords of the
Council, on the 30th of March, " into her Majesty's
loving subjects both abroad and at home, for that they
will be persuaded in conscience that the Lord of all
strengths wiU put into her Majesty and her people
courage and boldness not to fear any invasion in her
own couhtry, but to seek God's enemies and her Ma
jesty's where they may be found ; for the Lord is on our
* Somers Tracts, vol. i., p. 429.
VOL. II. P

210 The Great Armada Fight. [chap. xv.
side, whereby we may assure ourselves our numbers are
greater than theirs. My very good lords, next under
God's protection the advantage and gain of time and
place will be the only and chief mean for our good.
With fifty sail of shipping we shall do more good upon
their own coast than a great many more wiU do here
at home, and the sooner we are gone the better we shall
be able to impeach them. As God in His goodness hath
put my hand to the plough, so, in His mercy, He will
never suffer me to turn back frora the truth."*
Queen Elizabeth so far heeded Drake's project as to
write and ask him how he proposed to deal with Philip's
forces. "If your Majesty," he answered, on the 13th
of April, " wiU give present order for our proceeding to
the sea and send to the strengthening of this fleet here
four more of your Majesty's good ships and those sixteen
sail of ships with their pinnaces which are preparing in
London, then shall your Majesty' stand assured, with
God's assistance, that, if the fleet come out of Lisbon,
as long as we have victual to live withal upon that
coast, they shall be fought with, and I hope, through
the goodness of our merciful God, in such sort as shall
hinder their quiet passage into England ; for, I assure
your Majesty, I have not in my lifetime Imown better
men and possessed with gallanter minds than your
Majesty's people are for the most part, which are here
gathered together voluntarily to put their hands and
hearts to the finishing of this great piece of work."
But Drake reminded the Queen that even God could
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. cix.. No. 40.

1588.] Drake's Plan for Anticipating Invasion. 211
not be expected to supply the mariners with victuals,
unless her Majesty consented to be His instrument, and
that, unless better care was taken of them than had
hitherto been done, everything might be lost " for the
sparing of a few crowns." " Whereof," he added, "I
most humbly beseech your most excellent Majesty to
have such consideration as the weightiness of the cause
requireth."* Drake's arguments, as regards the expedition against
Spain, though not as regards the increased issue of
victuals, prevailed with the Queen, but not soon enough
to be of any use. On the 21st of May, leaving with
Lord Henry Seymour a sufficient fleet to protect
the Narrow Seas frora any invasion that might be at
tempted by the Prince of Parma with the small naval
force at his command, Lord Howard left Dover with
the greater number of the Queen's ships and a great
many private vessels furnished by London and other
ports in the eastern counties, forty or fifty sail in all.
On the morning of the 23rd he entered Plyraouth Road,
and there was met by Sir Francis Drake and a goodly
fleet of sixty vessels, a few of them Queen's ships and
the rest stout barks and pinnaces fitted out by the
towns and private adventurers in the west country.!
There he intended to stay only two days, but he was
detained a week or raore by contrary winds. On the
28th he wrote two letters to Burghley, saying that his
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. oeix.. No. 89. No. 112 is a
similar letter from Drake to the Queen, dated the 28th of April.
t Ibid., vol. ccx.. No. 28.

212 The Great Armada Fight. [chap. xv.
fleet of about a hundred sail had only victuals for
eighteen days ; — " with the gallantest company of cap
tains, soldiers, and sailors ever seen in England it were
pity they should lack meat !" — but that at the first suit
able moment he should sail towards Spain to meet the
Armada, which was supposed to be on its way. Go out
they must, though they should starve — " the fault lay
not with him " — as it seemed to hira far better to con
quer the Spaniards away from England than off the
coast, where, even if they were beaten, they would be
likely to do rauch damage in their desperate struggle
for life.*
He did go out a day or two after thus writing, in
tending to take up his station off Bayona, and there
wait for the Spanish fleet, unless he met it on the way.
But before he had gone so far, a violent gale from the
south disarranged his plans. His ships were driven out
to sea, partly dispersed, and, through a three days'
storm, as he said, " danced as lustily as the gallantest
dancers in the Court." Fearing that thus the Armada
might pass him unobserved and reach England before
hira, he went back with the wind, and returned to Ply
mouth on the 13th of June.! There he found a letter
from Walsingham, reproving hira in the Queen's name
for having gone so far away, and leaving England almost
unprotected.! In his answer he justified his conduct. "It
was deeply debated," he said, " by those whom the
world doth judge to be men of the greatest experience
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccx., Nos. 35, 36.
t Ibid., vol. ccxi., Nos. 17, 18. J Ibid,, vol. ccxi., No. 8.

1588.] The First Movement of the English Fleet. 213
that this realm hath, which are these : — Sir Francis
Drake, Master Hawkins, Master Frobisher, and Master
Thomas Fenner ; and \ hope her Majesty will not think
we went so rashly to work, or without a principal or
choice care and respect of the safety of this realra. If
we found they did but linger on their own coast, or put
into the isles of Bayona or the Groyne, then we thought,
in all men's judgments that be of experience here, it
had been most fit to have sought some good way, and
the surest we could devise, by the good protection of
God to have defeated them." He added that he was
more likely to miss the enemy near home than off the
coast of Spain, seeing that they raust necessarily pass
Bayona and Cape Finisterre on their way from Lisbon,
but that after that it was uncertain whether they
would go eastward towards 'the Netherlands, coast the
west of Ireland, and land somewhere to the south of
Scotland, or try to secretly get possession of the Isle of
Wight, there to fortify themselves, and proceed to
invade England at leisure. "But," he said, "I must
and will obey."*
That move of Howard's was as bold as anything in
the history of saUor boldness under the Tudors. With
the scanty inforraation that has come down to us,
we can neither conderan nor justify it. It had this
advantage, at any rate, that it gave to Howard, Drake,
and the other leaders of the fleet an opportunity of
testing their powers in managing a force far greater
than had ever yet been under their command, its first
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxi.. No. 26.

214 The Great Armada Fight, [Chap. xv.
trial of strength being in contest with nothing but a
boisterous storm.
Only a narrow chance prevented the small battle
with wind and sea frora being simultaneous with a
great battle with the Spanish fleet. The storm that
gave annoyance to the English ships somewhere to the
north of the Spanish coast was causing serious damage
to the Armada off Cape Finisterre, and a few hours'
delay of the gale would probably have brought them
within sight of one another.
The Most Fortunate and Invincible Armada, after
waiting a month at Lisbon for fair weather, had passed
out of the Tagus on the 20th of May.* It comprised a
hundred and thirty-two ships of various sizes, entrusted,
after the death of the Marquis of Santa Cruz, to the
Duke of Medina Sidonia as Captain- General or Lord
Admiral. Its total tonnage was about 60,000. Its
cannon and demi-cannon, culverins and demi-culverins,
and other kinds of great guns, numbered 3,165 in aU.
Besides 8,766 sailors it gave employment to 2,088
galley-slaves, and it conveyed 21,855 soldiers, officers,
and volunteers for the invasion of England, besides about
300 monks, priests, and functionaries of the Inquisition,
who were to take spiritual charge of the heretic island
as soon as it was conquered. There was room also for
sorae 17,000 soldiers to be taken on board with the
Prince of Parraa, as Coramander-in-Chief, somewhere
near to Calais. The entire fighting force at sea was
* The 30th of May is tlie date usually given from Spanish authorities.
Spain then used the new style ; England adhered to the old. I have
therefore followed throughout the English mode of reckoning.

The Spanish Fleet.

215

thus about 50,000 strong ; though only half that nuraber
could leave the ships, and raarch up to London.*
To withstand this great arraament, Queen Elizabeth
had only thirty-four of her own ships, with an aggre
gate tonnage of 11,850, containing in all 837 guns, and
6,279 sailors and soldiers, less in nuraerical strength
than a fourth of* the Spanish force. But London and
all the seaports from Bristol round the coast to Hull,
wealthy noblemen and patriots of all grades, as we

* These are the official statistics of its size and composition : —

No. of

12 16
11 1414 10
2324 4 4
132

The Squadron of Portuguese Gal
leons, tmder the Duke of Medina
Sidonia 
The Fleet of Castile, under Don
Diego de Valdez 
The Fleet of Andalusia, under Don
Pedro de Valdez 
The Fleet of Biscay, under Don
Juan Martinez de Ricalde .
The Fleet of Guipuzcoa, under Don
Miguel de Oquendo ....
The Eastern or Italian Fleet, under
Don Martin de Bartendona .
A Squadron of Hulks or Store
Ships, under Don Juan Gomez
de Medina 
A Squadron of Tenders and Cara
vels, under Don Antonio Hur-
tado de Mendoza 
A Squadron of Neapolitan Ga-
leasses, under Don Hugo de
Moncada 
A Squadron of Portuguese Galleys,
under Don Diego de Medrado .

Ton3.

7,739 8,0548,692 5,86,17,192 8,632
10,860 2,090

59,120

Guns.

389474 315302 296 319
466 204200 200
3,165

Sailors.

Soldiers.

1,242 1,793 776906 608844950 746477424
8,766

3,086 2,924 2,3592,117 2,1202,7924,170 1,103 744 440
21,855

216

Tlie Great Armada Fight.

[Chap, xv

have seen, helped to swell the force.* Twenty barks,
the largest of 85 tons burthen, were contributed by the
Netherlanders, who had only just begun to build war-
* Some scores of more or less conilicting statements are among the
Record Office MSS. and elsewhere. The numbers given in Murdin's
Stcde Papers give about the average of them, and are, therefore, pro
bably tolerably correct :—

34 10
32
38 20
23 1815

197

Her Majesty's Sbips, under the Lord High
Admiral 
Chartered Ships under the Lord High Admiral .
Volunteers serving with Sir Francis Drake .
Shijas fitted out by the City and Merchants of
London 
Coasters with the Lord High Admiral .
Coasters with Lord Henry Seymour ....
Volunteers with the Lord High Admiral
Victuallers 
Other Vessels not described 

12,250 6,279
750 239
5,120 2,348
6,130 2,710
1,930, 993
2,248 1,073
1,716 859

30,144

810
474

15,785

The details of the Queen's own Navy are as

follows

—

Names of the Stiips.

Names of the Captains.

Tons.

Men.

Guns.

Ark Boyal

Lord Charles Howard,

Lord High Admiral .
800
425
55
Bevenge
Sir Francis Drake, Vice-
Admiral ....
500
250
40
Victory
Sir John Hawkins, Rear-
Admiral ....
800
400
42
Elizabeth Bonaventure
Earl of Cumberland . .
600
250
34
Bainbow ....
Lord Henry Seymour
500
250
38
Golden Lion .
Lord Thomas Howard .
500
250
38
White Bear . .
Lord Edmund Sheffield .
1,000
500
40
Vanguard ....
Sir WilUam Winter .
500
250
40
Elizabeth Jonas .
Sir Robert Southwell
900
500
56
AnteJope ....
Sir Henry Palmer
400
160
30
Triumph ....
Sir Martin Frobisher
1,100
500
42
Dreadnought . . .
Sir George Beiton . .
400
200
32
Mary Bose
Edward Fenton . . .
600
250
36
Nonpareil ....
Thomas Fenner .
500
250
38
1588.]

The English Fleet.

217

ships for themselves ; and the whole fleet commanded
by Lord Howard comprised about two hundred vessels,
large and sraall, raore in mere numbers than the
Spanish fleet, with an aggregate of about 30,000 tons
burthen, and containing some 16,000 mariners and flght-
ing men, each about half as numerous as those of the
Spaniards. Under Howard, Sir Francis Drake served
as Yice-Admiral, and Hawkins as Rear-Admiral. Lord
Henry Seymour was still employed, with three or four
of the Queen's ships, and raost of the Dutch reinforce
ments, in watching the Narrow Seas, and seeing that
Parma made no attempt to cross thera with any part of
his army. The rest of the ships had Plymouth for
their head-quarters.

Names of the Ships.

Names of the Captains.

Tons.

Men.

Guns.

Hope 

Robert Cross ....

600

250

48

Bonavolia .

William Burrows.

9
250
9
Svriftsure .
Edward Fenner .
400
200
42
Swallow .
Richard Hawkins
360
160
8
Foresight .
Christopher Baker
300
160
37
Aid . .
William Fenner .
250
120
18
Bull , .
Jeremy Turner .
200
100
?
Tiger . .
John IJostock .
200
100
22
Tramontana
Luke Ward . .
120
70
21
Scout . .
Henry Ashley
120
70
10
Achates
Henry Rigges
100
60
13
Charles
John Roberts .
70
40
16
Moon .
Alexander Clifford
60
40
9
Adince .
John Harris .
50
41)
9
Spy . .
Ambrose Ward .
50
40
9
Martin
Walter Gower
50
35
7
Sum,
Richard Buckley .
40
30
5
Cygnet . .
John Shrive . .
30
20
9
Brigantine
Thomas Scott .
?
35
?
George-a-Hoy
Richard Hodges .
120
24
?
12,220
6,279
835
218 The Great Armada Fight. [chap. xv.
There Howard, with Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, and
Fenner for his chief advisers, watched eagerly for the
coming of the Armada, and, during five weeks of further
waiting, did his utmost to prepare for the struggle that
was impending. Hardly a day passed without his
sending to the Queen or her ministers sorae fresh letter
of entreaty and persuasion for support in his work.
" For the love of God," he wrote to Walsingham on
the 19th of June, " let her Majesty care not now for
charges."* " For the love of Jesus Christ," he wrote
to the Queen on the 23rd, " I implore your Majesty to
awake thoroughly and see the villainous treasons j-ound
about you."! " Let her Majesty trust no more to
Judases' kisses," he wrote to Walsingham on the same
day. " Let her defend herself like a noble and mighty
prince, and trust to her sword and not to their word, and
then she need not to fear, for her good God will de
fend her."! In tlie same strain he wrote over and over
again during the ensuing weeks.
In the meanwhile the Arraada was slowly working
its way to England. Bad weather, the clurasiness of
the great gaUeons and galeasses, and the incompe
tence of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, made the voyage
a very long one. Three weeks were spent in passing
from Lisbon to Cape Finisterre, and there the fieet,
being overtaken by the storra that drove Howard back
to England, was seriously damaged. One of the largest
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, voL ccxi.. No. 37.
t Ibid., vol. ccxi.. No. 50.
X Ibid,, vol, ccxi.. No. 51.

1588.] The Approach of the Armada, 219
of the gaUeys was wrecked. Two others, in the confu
sion, were carried out of reach by their gaUey-slaves,
some of thera being Englishmen and aU haters of
Spain, headed by David Gwynn, a Welshman, who
slew the Spaniards and took the vessels and their
cargoes to France. Many others were so rauch disabled
by the storra that they had to put in for safety at various
ports of Galicia, and finally to asserable and spend a
month in repairing their injuries at Corunna, then
generally known to EngUshmen as the Groyne. On
the 12th of July, reinforced with men and stores from
Lisbqn, they again set saU. Towards evening on Friday,
the 19th, they had sight of Lizard Point. Thence they
lay out to sea for the night, intending to surprise the
English fleet at Plymouth, and begin their possession
of England on the following morning.*
But they had been descried early on that Friday,
somewhere between Scilly Islands and the Lizard, by a
Cornish pirate named Fleming. Putting out all saU,
he hurried off to Plymouth, and reported the enemy's
approach. There is a tradition that Howard, Drake,
and several other officers were on shore just then, play
ing at bowls on the Hoe. When Fleraing's news
arrived raost of the players were for returning to their
ships at once, but Drake objected. "Nay," he said,
"let us play out our match. There will be plenty of
time to win the game and beat the Spaniards too."!
We can well believe, however, that the game was
* Motley, vol. ii., pp. 470-473 ; Soutblet, vol. ii., p. 349.
t Tytlee, Life of Baleigh.

220 Tlie Great Armada Fight. [chap. xv.
quickly ended. Howard and his chief advisers lost no
time in getting the ships ready for the work that was
before thera. All hands were brought on board, and
set to work in overhauling the sails and rigging, seeing
that guns, ammunition, and war-gear of all sorts were
in good condition, and ranging the vessels in order for
passing out of the harbour in the morning. Every
thing was ready for this soon after daybreak, when
sixty-seven vessels, a third of the whole available ship
ping of England — the rest being either with Lord
Henry Seymour off -Dover, or keeping watch and ward
at various points along the south coast — enterec^ Ply
mouth Road. By nine o'clock they were in the open
channel, and there Howard judged it best to wait,
feeUng sure that the Armada would make its way
direct to Plymouth, or that, if a landing at any inter-
raediate place was atterapted, his scouts would bring
the news soon enough for him to go to the rescue.*
He had to wait all day. The Spanish fleet did not
corae in sight till three o'clock in the afternoon. It
showed itself to the English on-lookers like a vast array
of floating castles, arranged in the shape of a half-
raoon, with a space of seven railes between the extre-
raities of the crescent. Its ships, we are told, ap
proached "very slowly, though with full sails, the
winds being, as it were, weary with wafting thera, and
the ocean groaning under their weight."! Its lazy pomp
Howard did not atterapt to disturb during the short
* Recoed Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxii.. No. 80.
t Camden, vol. iii., p, 411.

1588.] The Hostile Fleets at Bay. 221
remainder of that day, especially as the wind was
against hira. And the Spaniards, seeing to their great
regret that their hope of surprising Plyraouth had
been vain, were glad enough to anchor for the night in
the Uttle bay off Looe.
Next raoriung, being Sunday, the 21st of July, they
weighed anchor betimes. Having failed in his plan of
seizing Plyraouth at once, and so entering England, the
Duke of Medina Sidonia and the more experienced
Admirals who did their best to make up for his incom
petence, he being a skilful soldier upon land but quite
unpractised in seamanship, seem to have resolved to
fight their way to the Isle of Wight, there, if possible,
to find a harbour and effect a landing, or, failing in that,
to go on to the Hague, and take on board their ap
pointed chief, the Prince of Parma. Howard so far
acceded to this plan as to let the Armada get ahead
of him, determining, without coming to a full engage
ment, to harass it in the rear, until, having collected
his dispersed ships, and corae within reach of Seyraour's
squadron, he could be strong enough to attack the
enemy in both front and rear, and win a thorough vic
tory. Therefore, keeping his sixty or seventy ships in
the haven, he allowed the Spanish armament to come
within sight of Plymouth.*
That was done by nine o'clock on the Sunday morning.
Then Howard weighed anchor and hoisted sail. "We
diyst not adventure to put in araongst thera, their fleet
being so strong," he said in his brief report of the first
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxii.. No. 80.

222 The Great Armada Fight, cchap. xv.
day's work.* But he managed to do them considerable
injury. A swift pinnace, fitly named the Defiance,
fired the first shot. " Fire, smoke, and echoing cannon
begun tlie parley," says the old historian ; " and bullets,
most freely interchanged between them, were messengers
of each other's mind."! The rest of the English fleet
carried on the fierce dispute. Howard, in the Ark Boyal,
singled out a great galley which he supposed to be the
Admiral's flag-ship, but which proved to belong to the
Vice-Admiral in charge of the northern wing, and
forced her to retreat. Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher
beat the Admiral of the rear squadron. Then, with
threescore other brave sea-captains, they sailed round
and round the unwieldy mass of Spanish shipping, like
bees around a furious bull, pausing often to inflict their
sting, and then darting off before they could be
punished for their boldness. The huge galleons and
galeasses poured out their artillery, only to pass over
the low barks and pinnaces, and sink into the sea.
This unequal struggle lasted for six hours. " We had
some small fight with them that Sunday afternoon,"
said Hawkins.! By three o'clock the great Spanish
fleet was in utter confusion, and the Englishraen, tired
of fighting for the present, paused to eat their suppers,
say their prayers, and write their letters. " I will not
trouble you with any long letter," said Howard in his

* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxii.. No. 80.
t Speed (ed. 1632), p. 1181. Some authorities call this pinnace
Disdain ; an apt name, too.
X Recoed Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxiii.. No. 71.

1588.] The First Sundays Work. 223
report to Walsingham. " We are at this present other
wise occupied than with writing. Sir, the captains in
her Majesty's ships have behaved themselves most
bravely and like men hitherto, and I doubt not wUl
continue to their great coraraendation. There shall
nothing be either neglected or unhazarded that may
work the Spaniards' overthrow. And so, commend
ing our good success to your godly prayers, I bid you
hearty farewell." " Sir," he added in a postscript, " for
the love of God and our country, let us have, with some
speed, some great shot sent us of all bigness, for this
service will continue long, and some powder in it."*
Drake's letter was to Lord Henry Seyraour, informing
him of the Armada's arrival. " We had them in chase,
and so, coming up unto thera, there hath passed some
common shot between our fleet and theirs, and, as far
as we perceive, they are determined to sell their lives
with blows." Drake never doubted that the Spaniards'
Uves would be sold, and he urged Seymour to prepare
his squadron without delay for taking part in the pur
chase. The superscription of his letter was "To the
Lord Henry Seymour or, in absence, to Sir Williara
Winter, give these with speed — haste, haste, haste !"!
The spoiling of the Arraada did not pause while the
English rested. As soon as he had brought his fleet
into some sort of order, the Duke of Medina Sidonia
proceeded to scold his gunners for having spent their
powder and shot in vain. Thereat the master gunner
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxii., No. 80.
t Ibid,, vol. ccxii.. No. 82.

224 The Great Armada Fight. [chap. xv.
of the flag-ship of the Guipuzcoan squadron, a Dutch
man, whose wife had been abused by a Spanish officer
on board, determined that some powder, at any rate,
should not be spent in vain. Laying a train to the
ship's raagazine, he fired it and then juraped overboard.
In the explosion two hundred men were blown into the
air and lost ; fifty, who remained in the shattered hull,
and some treasure, which was thought more valuable
than the men, were with difficulty saved. Many of the
"scorched Spaniards" were afterwards brought into
Weymouth, " to the great joy of the beholders," and a
quantity of gunpowder which, by a lucky accident, had
not shared in the general explosion, rescued from the
wreck, was employed with much satisfaction by Howard
against its forraer possessors.*
The Spanish fleet was in fresh confusion consequent
on that occurrence when the English returned to the
pursuit. The flag-ship of the Andalusian squadron,
under Don Pedro de Valdez, who had been a chief ad
viser in the expedition, came in collision first with one
and then with another of the Spanish vessels that were
hurrying hither and thither. Thereby her foremast was
carried away and her mainmast was crippled. She
could not keep up with the rest, and was therefore
quietly abandoned by the Duke of Medina Sidonia.
" He left me comfortless in sight of the whole fleet,"
said Don Pedro in his letter of complaint to Philip IL ;
" and greater inhumanity and unthankfulness was never
* Camden, vol. iii., p. 412 ; Speed, p. 1182 ; Recced Office MSS.,
Domestic, vol. ccxiii., Nos. 42, 43.

1583.1 The First Sunday's Work, 225
heard of among men." * The Duke's apology for this
conduct was that by halting for Don Pedro's assistance,
instead of making good use of the night-time in escaping
from the English fleet, the whole Armada would in all
likeUhood have been sacrificed.! Therefore Don Pedro
was left to be attacked by Frobisher in the Triumph
and Hawkins in the Victory, He defended hiraself
bravely and successfully through the night ; but in the
morning Drake carae up in the Revenge. "Espying
this lagging galleon," says the quaint chronicler, " Sir
Francis sent forth a pinnace to command them to yield,
otherwise his bullets should force thera without further
favour. Valdez, to seem valorous, answered that they
were four hundred and fifty strong, that hiraself was
Don Pedro, and stood on his honour, and thereupon pro
pounded certain conditions. The knight sent his reply
that he had not leisure to parley ; if he would yield,
presently do it ; if not, he should well prove that Drake
was no dastard. Thereupon Pedro, hearing that it was
the Fiery Drake, ever terrible to Spaniards, who had
him in chase, carae on board Sir Francis's ship with
forty of his foUowers ; where, first giving hira the conge,
he protested that he and all his were resolved to die in
defence had they not fallen under his power, whose
valour and felicity was so great that Mars and Neptune
seemed to attend him in his attempts, and whose gene-
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxv.. No. 26.
t Baeeow, Naval Worthies of Queen Elizabeth's Beign, p. 263, citing,
an interesting Spanish narrative by an ofHcer in the Duke's flag-ship,
which passed from the Simancas Collection into private hands in England
during the Revolutionary War.
VOL. II. Q

226 The Great Armada Fight. [Chap. xv.
reus mind towards the vanquished had often been
experienced even of his greatest foes. Sir Francis,
requiting his Spanish compliments with honourable
English courtesies, placed him at his own table and
lodged hira in his own cabin. The residue of that com
pany were sent unto Plymouth, where they remained
eighteen months until their ransoms were paid ; but Sir
Francis's soldiers had well paid themselves with the
spoil of the ship, wherein were 15,000 ducats in gold,
which they shared merrily among them."* After keep
ing Don Pedro and the other chief prisoners on board
the Reveyige for ten days, Drake sent them up to London,
begging Queen Elizabeth to accept the ransom they
were willing to pay as a present from himself!
By taking this galleon Drake gave great offence to
Frobisher, who had hoped to make the capture and
seize the spoil himself Of Frobisher's hot temper we
have already had sorae proof. "He thinketh to cozen
us of our shares of the 15,000 ducats," he is reported to
have said of Drake on the 10th of August, when all the
Spanish fighting was over, and Englishmen had time to
quarrel with one another ; " but we will have our share,
or I will make hira spend the best blood in his belly,
for he hath done enough of those cozening cheats
already." But the quarrel ended in words.!
Drake's capture had been made on the Monday morn
ing. He and the two or three ships that were with
* Speed, pp. 1181, 1182.
t Recoed Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxiii.. No. 73.
X Ibid,, vol. ccxiv., Nos. 63, 64.

1555.] The First Monday's Work. 227
him soon overtook the fleet with which through the
night Lord Howard had been dogging the path of the
Armada. But nothing of importance was done through
that day, save that the Duke of Medina came to a
standstill on part of it, not, as Howard supposed, to
offer battle, but to rearrange his ships and try to lessen
their unfitness, already becoming apparent to hira, for
the work before thera. Three galeasses, four galleons,
and three dozen smaller vessels, were entrusted to Don
Alonzo de Leyva for the special task of resisting the
flying attacks of the English barks and pinnaces, while
the main body of the Armada crawled superbly along
the Channel. At the same time, in consequence of
mutinous threatenings that had already reached him,
the Duke appointed a serjeant-major to each ship, with
instructions to hang at once any captain or subordinate
who made the least objection to the orders transmitted to
him.* In the evening he despatched a sloop with let
ters to the Prince of Parma, asking when and where he
was to take on board the forces waiting for him in the
Netherlands; begging also for some pilots acquainted
with the British waters. " In case of the slightest gale,"
he said, " I know not how or where to shelter such large
ships as ours."!
On Tuesday, the 23rd of July, at five o'clock in the
morning, great ships and small were a little past Port
land, stretching out in the direction of St. Alban's Head,
the English fieet being close behind them, when the
* Spanish Narrative in Baeeow, p. 264
t Ibid. ; iUoTLEY, vol. ii., p. 478.

228 The Great Armada Fight. [ohap. xv.
wind changed from north-west to north-east. This
caused sorae confusion, in the course of which a group
of London volunteers was surrounded by Don Alonzo de
Leyva's squadron. Thereupon ensued a long day of
vigorous fighting. "This was the raost furious and
bloody skirraish of all," said the Dutch chronicler, "in
which the Lord Admiral of England continued fighting
amidst his enemy's fleet."* " We had a sharp and long
fighting," said Hawkins.! ^ et it was only skirmishing.
Neither party wished for a regular battle. The Duke of
Medina Sidonia desired to press on till he could effect a
junction with Parma's forces. Howard thought it best
to wait for Seyraour's squadi-on and other reinforce-
raents. Many reinforceraents he received during this Tues
day's fighting. A famous crowd of courtiers, hearing of
the arrival of the Arraada, had hurried frora London down
to the various ports at which they had appointed their
little pinnaces and frigates to be in waiting. Sir Walter
Raleigh, and the Earls of Cumberland, Northumber
land, and Oxford were among the number. " Out of
all havens of the realm resorted ships and men," it is
said ; " for they ^U with one accord came flocking thither
as unto a set field, where immortal fame and glory was
to be attained and faithful service to be performed unto
their prince and country."! The EngUsh force, which
had numbered sixty sail on Saturday, had been in-
* Meteken, in Hakluyt, vol. i., p. 599.
t Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxiii.. No. 71.
J Hakluyt, vol. i., p. 599.

15S3.] Tuesday's and Wednesday's Work. 229
creased to a hundred by Tuesday afternoon, when the
fighting was abandoned, with the sullen consent of both
sides. It was only resumed on Wednesday by a few ships of
either fleet, which, coraing within gun-shot of one
another, expended a few rounds of artillery apiece.
Howard's ships had none to spare. Towards afternoon
they were obliged to hang back and send to every town
and fishing village that they passed, begging for every
ounce, and every pound, and every hundredweight of
powder that could be procured from cottage, hunting-box,
or castle. Howard employed the waiting-time also in
holding a raore deliberate council of war than there had
lately been leisure for. The result was the redistribu
tion of the English fleet into five squadrons. The first
was to be under the Lord Adrairal himself, the second
under Drake, the third under Hawkins, and the fourth
under Frobisher : the fifth • was to be formed of Sey
mour's little fleet when it arrived. " Out of every
squadron small vessels were appointed to give the onset
and attack the enemy on all sides simultaneously in the
dead of night."*
On Thursday, the 25th of July, there was some sharp
fighting off the Isle of Wight. The Santa Anna, a great
Spanish hulk, and a Portuguese galleon, being some
what apart from the rest, were singled out by Frobisher
for attack by his little squadron. Don Alonzo de Leyva,
with a large force, hurried out to relieve them, and
Frobisher found it hard work to defend himself, until
* Hakluyt, vol. i., p. 599.

230 The Great Armada Fight. [chap. xv.
Lord Admiral Howard, in his Ark Royal, with the
Golden Lion, under Lord Thomas Howard, and four
other large ships, came to the rescue. They opened out
upon the Spanish flag-ship, and in a short time so cut
up her rigging and her crew that she was forced to re
tire. Howard thus diverted frora Frobisher raore force
of opposition than he could withstand. Then he gave
the order for retreat, and his ships were out of reach of
the Spaniards before they had tirae to retaliate. " These
two ships, the Ark and the Golden Lion,'' we are told,
" declared this day to each fleet that they had most
dUigent and faithful gunners. The galeasses, in whose
puissance the greatest hope of the Spanish fleet was
founded, were never seen to fight any more : such was
their entertainment that day." In the evening the
Duke of Medina wrote to the Prince of Parma, begging
him to send him thirty or forty small fighting ships, if
such could be procured in the Low Countries — "the
heaviness of our ships," as he said, " compared with the
lightness of theirs, rendering it irapossible in any
manner to bring thera to close action." *
On Friday Lord Adrairal Howard knighted Fro
bisher, Hawkins, and sorae others for their valiant
conduct in the previous day's engagement.! Unless
compelled thereto by some unlooked-for occurrence, he
resolved to have no more fighting until he was joined by
the squadron of the Narrow Seas, and, as the Spaniards
* Peteuccio Ubaldino, a Discourse conceming the Spanish Invasion
in the Harleian Miscellany, vol. i., pp. 127, 128 ; Spanish Narrcdive in
Barrow, p. 267.
f Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 599.

1588.] Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. 231
also wished to pass on without delay, the two fleets
proceeded quietly along the coast of Sussex as far as
Dungeness, and thence across the Straits of Dover
towards Calais. There the Spaniards anchored on
Saturday evening, and the English stationed themselves
within gunshot.
Not far from Calais, Howard was overtaken by
Seymour's force of about twenty ships, which, sorely to
the regret of Seymour and Sir WilUam Winter, who
was second in command, had been prevented from
earher joining in the struggle by the need of a force in
the Downs to avert any invading movement that might
be made separately by the Prince of Parma.* There,
with some private reinforceraents, he raised the entire
number of the fleet to about a hundred and forty sail,
and made it as strong as Howard could hope to have it,
the fifty or sixty other vessels completing the naval
force of England being only small craft required for
the defence of special points. This statement of the
number of Howard's fleet, however, is soraewhat decep
tive. Every man on board was a brave and honest
patriot, eager to work miracles in defence of his country
and his creed. But raany of thera were landsmen, who
could do no work at all on shipboard, unless by a
miracle ; and many of the vessels were as useless as
their masters. " If you had seen the simple service
done by the merchants' and coast ships," wrote
Winter to Walsingham, " you would have said we had
¦* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxiii., Nos. 30, 49, 50, 53 ;
vol. ccxiv., Nos. 2, 5, 6, 7.

232 The Great Armada Fight. [chap. xv.
been little holpen by them, otherwise than that they
did make a show."*
Yet the show was worth making, and worth seeing.
A rare spectacle was offered to the throng of French
men who looked, out to sea from Calais, and the dozen
mUes of shore on either side of Calais, through the
moonlit night of Saturday, and the brilliant Sunday
morning. To the left lay the greatest fleet that Eng
land — already, though unknown, the strongest maritime
nation in Europe — ^had ever launched. To the right
lay the greatest fleet ever constructed by the proud
Spaniards who openly aspired to the empire of the
world. And, stupendous as was the English armament,
the Spanish arraaraent far outshone it in splendour.
" Fleraings, Walloons, and French," we are told, " came
thick and threefold to behold it, admiring the exceed
ing greatness of the ships and their warlike order."!
They did well to look without delay and wonder with
out restraint. It was a sight to be seen only for a
day. Througli that bright Sunday, the 28th of July, both
fleets remained in eager suspense. On his arrival off
Calais, the Spanish Admiral was met by messengers
who informed him that the Prince of Parma was making
all possible preparations for debarkation at Dunkirk,
but that he could not be ready for a dozen hours or two,
and that, until further orders were given, the Armada
was to remain at Calais, that being a safer halting-
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxiv.. No. 7.
t Stow, p. 748.

1588.] The Second Sunday's Work. 233
place. Howard knew of this, and knew that the great
battle which had been delayed for a week raust not be
delayed for an hour after the Spaniards had weighed
anchor. They must be beaten before reaching Dun
kirk if they were to be beaten at all.
He had little doubt of success ; but his week's ex
perience had taught hira that, though it was easy to
annoy the great galleys, galeasses, and galleons of
Spain, it was not easy to demolish them with the
smaller ships which formed the great body of his fleet.
At nine o'clock on Saturday evening, in the midst of
his uncertainty as to the best way of proceeding, he
was visited on board the Ark Royal by Sir William
Winter, who had only joined the fleet some two hours
before. "Considering their hugeness," Winter said in
answer to Howard's request, " 'twill not be possible to
remove them but by a device." The device was not
wanting. Winter communicated it that night to
Howard, and next raorning it was decided in a council
of war that Sir Henry Palmer should hasten across
to Dover, and there procure thirty boat-loads of faggots,
pitch, sulphur, and other combustibles. Sir Henry
Palmer did his errand ; but he had not long been gone
when the EngUsh leaders judged that it would be better
not to wait for his return, which, the wind being
southerly and therefore against him in each passage,
could not be counted upon before Monday. Therefore
they determined to raake shift with such materials as
they had among thera. Six of the oldest vessels were
emptied of all that was valuable in them, replaced by

234 The Great Armada Fight. [chap. xv.
the worst guns that the fleet contained, all loaded to the
mouth with bullets, old iron, and every sort of destruc
tive implement that could be collected. The hulls also
were laden with combustibles of all sorts, and smeared
with pitch. Twelve hours were thus employed with as
much secrecy as possible, and at midnight the fire-ships
were conducted within bow-shot of the Invincible
Armada. Then a carefully-laid train was fired and
the bold convoys rowed quickly back to the English
fleet. Fortune favoured the rough expedient, which Winter
had borrowed from an Italian narhed Gianibelli, who
had practised it with great success in aid of the Nether
landers' defence of Antwerp from Parma's siege three
years before. In the evening a storm had succeeded
the calm of the three previous 'days. The full moon
was eclipsed, and amid pelting rain, and in utter dark
ness, a fierce south-west wind bore the rude fire-ships
into the centre of the crescent-grouped fleet of Spain.
A sudden blaze, a series of explosions, and an outpour
ing of the stuffing of the cannons threw it into instant
and hopeless consternation. " The fire of Antwerp !"
exclaimed the Spanish sailors and soldiers. " Cut your
cables ! get up your anchors !" shouted the captains of
the six-score vessels. The direct injury done by the
fire-ships was slight. But a panic ran through all
the fleet. In their efforts to get out of dano^er the
Spaniards beat against one another, and, hurrying out
into the open channel, with sails ill set and crews un
nerved, they were driven by wind and tide into the

1588.] The Second Sundays Work, 235
more angry sea of Ostend, and up to the mouth of the
Scheldt.* Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen, according to the
tradition cherished by the hearty Protestants of Tudor
times, were engulphed in a moment by the waters of
the Red Sea. The angel of death passed over the hosts
of Sennacherib, and in an hour they were all dead men.
The God of the Calvinists dealt raore slowly, but hardly
less surely with the Invincible Armada of Philip IL
" God hath given us so good a day in forcing the
enemy so far to leeward," said Drake, in a hurried letter
to Walsingham, "as, I hope in God, the Prince of
Parma and the Duke of Sidonia will not shake hands
these few days ; and, whensoever they shall raeet, I
believe neither of thera will greatly rejoice of this day's
service. God bless her Majesty, our Gracious Sovereign,
and give us all grace to live in His fear. I assure your
Honour, this day's service hath much appalled the
enemy."! Sunday night's rough work was followed by rough
work on Monday and for many days to come. The
English fleet entered on speedy pursuit of the frightened
Spaniards. Most of them had fled, but a great Neapolitan
galeass, the Capitana, "the very glory and stay of the
Spanish navy," having lost her rudder, and being other
wise much damaged, was still beating about in Calais
harbour. Howard sent his long-boat and a small pinnace
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxiii.. No. 32 ; vol. cxiv..
No. 7 ; Hakluyt, vol. i., p. 601 ; Camdex, vol. iii., p. 415.
t Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxiii., No. 65.

236 The Great Armada Fight. [chap. xv.
belonging to the raerchants of London, to seize her.
" We had a pretty skirmish for half an hour," says one
of the hundred Englishraen, armed slightly with mus
kets and swords, who bravely attacked the huge craft
of 1,200 tons burthen, possessed of forty guns and with
nearly seven hundred men on board : " they seemed
safe in their ship, while we in our open pinnaces, and
far under them, had nothing to shroud and cover us."
The captain, Don Hugo de Moncada, smiled when
called upon to surrender. The smUe had hardly passed
away when a bullet struck hira in the forehead and he
fell dead upon the deck. Thereupon his crew and
soldiers, all but about twenty, threw themselves into the
sea, to sink at once, or to sink when they were too tired
to swim, and the English captors, scaling the high
bulwarks with difficulty, had an hour and a half of
welcome plunder. They took 50,000 ducats, more than
10,000?., "a booty weU fitting the English soldiers'
affections." The great ship was claimed by the
Governor of Calais; but the English were content,
seeing that she was lost to Spain.*
In the meanwhile, on Monday, the 29th of July,
there was yet raore memorable fighting off Gravelines,
fighting which decided the fate of the Armada. While
Howard waited to watch the capture of the Capiia-na,
the main force of the English sped on in pursuit of the
main force of the Spaniards. A battle, which men who
had served in both declared to be far more fierce and
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxiii,. No. 67 ; Harleian Mis
cellany, vol. i., p. 141 ; Motley, vol. ii., pp. 493-498.

1585.] The Second Monday's Work. 237
energetic than that of Lepanto, was fought between ten
in the morning and four in the afternoon. At about
nine o'clock the fleetest of the English ships, with
Drake's Revenge, Frobisher's Triumph, and Hawkins's
Victory, representatives of the revenge, the triumph,
and the victory of all England, in the van, came within
sight of the enemy, whom they found painfully
struggling, against the fears of the raen and a strong
north-west wind and heavy tide, which threatened to
strand them all on the Flemish shoals, to recover
their customary arrangement in the shape of a half-
moon. Without loss of tirae, and taking upon him
self the responsibiUty of beginning the fight before the
Lord Admiral's arrival, Drake, followed by Hawkins,
Frobisher, Thoraas Fenner, and raany others, bore
down upon the middle of the crescent, there to work
terrible mischief araong the Spanish flag-ships and to
^cause hopeless confusion through the whole fleet.
Many ships were disabled by dashing against one
another in their efforts to escape, where there was
small chance of escape. Some pressed out to sea, to
be further harassed by the angry waves. Some sought
the protection of the shore, to run iraminent peril of
wreck upon the sands. And in either direction there
was peril also from the English. Lord Henry Seyraour
in his light Rainbow, Sir Henry Palraer in his swift
Antelope, and sorae others, took charge of the larboard
wing and the coast line, first spoiling three great gal
leons and then attacking other ships that carae in their
wav. Sir WilUam Winter in the Vanguard, and a great

238 Tlie Great Armada Fight. [Ohap. xv.
number of barks and merchant ships, kept out to sea
and did most injury of all. " I tell you on the credit
of a gentleman," he wrote to Walsingham, " that there
were five hundred discharges of demi-cannon, culverin
and demi-culverin from the Vanguard; and when I
was farthest off in firing my pieces, I was not out of
shot of their harquebus, and most time within speech
one of another."*
Throughout six hours the English carried on their
work of havoc. " And albeit there were many excel
lent and warlike ships in the English fleet," it was said
and must be remembered, " yet scarce there were two
or three and twenty among them all which matched
ninety of the Spanish ships in bigness, or could con
veniently assault them. Wherefore, using their pre
rogative of nimble steerage, whereby they could turn
and wield themselves with the wind which way they
listed, they came oftentiraes very near upon the,
Spaniards, and charged them so sore that now and
then they were but a pike's length asunder; and so,
continuaUy giving them one broadside after another,
they discharged all their shot, both great and small,
upon them, spending a whole day in that violent kind
of conflict."! Every ship in the Spanish fleet received
its share of injury. A great Biscayan galley and a
great galleon went down during the fight. Another
great galleon, after desperate fighting, was captured
* Spanish Narrative in Baerq-w; Record Office MSS., Dom,estic,
vol. ccxiii.. No. 71 ; vol. ccxiv., Nos. 2, 3, 7, 27.
t Hakl"Uyt, vol. i., p. 601.

1583.1 The Second Monday's Work. 239
and taken into Flushing. A third great galleon, dis
masted and riddled, was borne along by the wind and
sea and wrecked near Ostend.* A score of others were
made ready for shipwreck during the next few days.
Drake estimated their deaths by gunshot and by
drowning at five thousand.! No English ship was lost
or seriously daraaged, and certainly not more than a
hundred men were killed and wounded. " God hath
mightily preserved her Majesty's forces with the least
losses that hath ever been heard of, being within the
compass of so great volleys of shot, both small and
great," wrote Fenner to Walsingham. " I verily believe
there is not threescore men lost of her Majesty's forces."!
" Their force is wonderful great and strong," wrote Lord
Admiral Howard, who, hurrying up from Calais, joined in
the battle when it was nearly over; "but we pluck
their feathers by little and little. "§ There had been
very considerable plucking of the Armada's peacock
feathers during those six hours of fighting. But, as
it seems, nothing save Queen Elizabeth's and Lord
Burghley's parsimony hindered the victory from being
complete. The Duke of Medina Sidonia, it was re
ported, was so disheartened with the day's work that
such further havoc as Howard, Drake, and all the brave
sea-captains were eager to make would have forced him
to capitulate or even to make unlimited submission. ||
* Harleian Miscellany, vol. i., p. 141.
t Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxiv.. No. 65.
I Ibid., vol. ccxiv., No. 27.
§ Ibid., vol. ccxiii.. No. 64.
II MoNSON in Churchill's Collection of Travels, vol. iii., p. 159.

240 The Great Armada Fight. [chap. xv.
But the scant supplies of ammunition which, with
daily entreaties, Howard had been able to procure from
home, were nearly exhausted by four o'clock, and the
English had to stay their hands for the present. Their
firing abated, and the Spaniards taking advantage of
this, gathered together their shattered forces and,
favoured by a change of wind towards the south, sped
northward in full sail. " Notvrithstanding that our
powder and shot was well near all spent," said Howard,
" we set on a brag countenance and gave them
chase."* The chase lasted through Monday night and Tues
day and Wednesday and Thursday and part of Friday.
" We have the army of Spain before us," wrote Drake
to Walsingham, on Wednesday, " and mind, with the
grace of God, to wrestle a pull with him. There was
never anything pleased me better than seeing the
enemy flying with a southerly wind to the northwards.
God grant you have a good eye to the Duke of Parma,
for, with the grace of God, if we live, I doubt it not but
ere long we shall so handle the matter with the Duke
of Sidonia as he shall wish himself at St. Mary's Port
among his orange trees. God give us grace to depend.
upon Him, so shall we not doubt victory, for our cause
is good."! The rest of the victory, however, was not of Drake's
or Howard's winning. On Tuesday afternoon the Lord
Admiral, being off the coast of Holland, sent Seymour
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxiv., No. 42.
t Ibid., vol. ccxiii.. No. 73.

"88-1 The Great Armada Flight. 241
and Winter back to England with the Narrow Seas
squadron, there to be prepared for any further attempt
at invasion that might be raade by the Prince of Parraa,
and many of the sraaller adventurers' ships returned
with them. The rest of the fleet followed the flying
Spaniards, [driven by a strong wind and their own
fears, through nearly the whole length of the North
Sea. On the morning of Friday, the 2nd of August, when
midway between the Frith of Forth and the Skager
Rack, Howard was forced to abandon the pursuit "As
well to refresh our ships with victuals, whereof most
stood in wonderful need, and as also in respect of our
want of powder and shot," he said, " we made for the
Frith and sent certain pinnaces to dog the fleet until
they should be past the Isles of Scotland."* That
move was ' fortunate. After a day's waiting in the
Forth, the English fleet sailed southwards, and on
Sunday was overtaken, as Howard averred, by " a more
violent storm than was ever seen before at that time
of the year."! By it the ships were dispersed and,
though very little injured, prevented frora appearing
in warUke trim again until Friday, the 9th of August,
by which tirae they had all or nearly all asserabled
in Margate Road. Howard then found hiraself in com
mand of a hundred and nineteen ships, including
Seymour's squadron, with 11,120 saUors and fighting
men on board. J This force, in spite of Lord Burghley's
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxiv.. No. 42.
t Tbid,, vol. coxiv., No. 50. J Ibid., vol. ccxiv.. No. 60.
VOL. II. R

242 The Great Armada Fight. [chap. xv.
proposal that, now that the great danger was over, the
ships should be at once discharged,* he maintained
for a little time, to be in readiness for any return of the
Armada, or any separate attempt of the Prince of
Parma's. The very parsimony which caused Burghley to wish
for the imraediate discharging of the men caused their
retention in service longer than was necessary, and
throws some ugly shadows over the last page of the
story of England's victory over the Great Armada.
During the months of preparation for that victory. Sir
John Hawkins, as Treasurer of the Navy, by the Queen's
directions, had induced sailors and fighting men to
do their work to a great extent on credit. When the
time came for their discharge he had to make urgent
demands for money with which to pay them. At the
end of August, writing to Burghley for advances, he
reported that a sum of 19,000Z. was due for the time
previous to the great fight off Gravelines, besides all
the claims for the subsequent period. " Mr. Hawkins
cannot make a better return," added Howard in a post
script ; " God knows how the lieutenants and corporals
wUl be paid."! Instead of being paid off, they were
kept hanging on, with such scanty allowance of food,
such miserable supplies of clothing, and such unhealthy
housing, that they died by hundreds. The raen who
had saved England in its time of greatest peril were
left to perish like vagabonds and outlaws. " 'Tis a most
* Recoed Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxiv.. No. 54.
t Ibid,, vol. ccx-i'., No. 56.

1588.] The Troubles of the Victorious English. 243
pitiful sight," wrote Howard to Burghley on the 10th
of August, "to see how the men here at Margate,
having no place where they can be received, die in the
streets. The best lodging I can get is barns and such
outhouses, and the reUef is small that I can provide
for them here. It would grieve any man's heart to see
men that have served so valiantly die so miserably."*
WhUe on shipboard, pursuing the Armada with " a brag
countenance," they had been reduced by want of food
and other necessaries to such extremities as it is not
possible to describe in decent English, and had suffered
terribly in consequence.! Their sufferings continued,
with only partial abatement, when they were again in
port. " They sicken one day and die the next," said
Howard in a letter to the Queen, on the 22nd of Au
gust. J Receiving no money frora London for the
assistance of these poor fellows, Howard was obliged to
appropriate some that was on its way thither as a con
tribution to the Queen's Exchequer. " By the Lord
of Heaven," he said, writing to Walsingham on the
subject, on the 27th of August, " had it not been mere
necessity I would not have touched one crown ; but if I
had not some to have bestowed upon some poor and
miserable men I should have wished myself out of the
world."§ On the following day Hawkins wrote in a
similar strain to Burghley, who had just written down
to reprove him for having asked for raoney when the
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxiv.. No. 66.
t lUd., vol. ccxiv., Nos. 50, 53. X Ibid., vol. ccxv.. No. 40.
§ Ibid,, vol. ccxv.. No. 59.

244 The Great Armada Fight. [Chap. xv.
Exchequer was so erapty.* Slowly and with diffi
culty, however, the sick were healed, and both sick and
weU were paid their due and put in readiness for other
patriotic work.
In the meanwhile the Invincible Armada was beiug
finally vanquished. The storra of the 4th of August
that had harassed the English ships on their return to
the Downs brought terrible misfortune on the Spanish
ships in the North Sea. Some were wrecked on the
shores of Norway; sorae on the shores of Scotland;
sorae on the shores of Ireland. The story of all the
grievous troubles and disraal adventures of the Spaniards
who came out to conquer England would fiU a volume.
Early in October a, shattered remnant of the famous
fleet found its way back to Spain, — fifty-three ships out
of the hundred and thirty-two that had at first com
posed it; ten thousand spiritless men out of the thirty
thousand who had embarked.
Hardly even then could Philip II. beUeve that his Ar
mada had been defeated. For many weeks Catholic Eu
rope had been cheating itseU with the beUef that already
England was being restored to the true faith and had
been brought under subjection to the Caesar of the six
teenth century by Spanish soldiers and by the agents of
the Holy Inquisition. " They were not asharaed," as Sir
Francis Drake said in a very meraoraTjle letter, which
sums up the whole story in one long sentence, " to
publish in sundry languages great victories in words,
which they pretended to have obtained against this
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxv., No. 63.

1688.] The Troubles of the Vanquished Spaniards. 245
realm, when, shortly after, it was happily manifested
in very deed to all nations how their Navy, which they
termed Invincible, consisting of one hundred and forty
saU of ships were, by thirty of her Majesty's own ships
of war and a few of our merchants, by the wise, valiant,
and advantageous conduct of the Lord Charles Howard,
High Admiral of England, beaten and shuffled together
even from the Lizard to Calais, and frora Calais, driven
with squibs from their anchors, were chased out of the
sight of England round about Scotland and Ireland;
where, for the syrapathy of their religion hoping to find
succour and assistance, a great part of thera were
crushed against the rocks, and those other that landed,
being very raany in number, were notwithstanding
broken, slain and taken, and so sent from vUlage to
village, coupled in halters, to be shipped into England ;
where, her Majesty disdaining to put them to death and
scorning either to retain or entertain them, they were
all sent back again to their countries to witness the
worthy achievement of their Invincible Navy. With
all their great terrible ostentation, they did not, in
all their sailing round about England, so rauch as sink
or take one ship, bark, pinnace or cockboat of ours, or
even burn so much as one sheep-cot on this land."*
* Stow, p. 750.

246

CHAPTER XVI.
The Sequel to the Great Armada Fight.
[1588—1603.]
" Great thanks," PhiUp II. is reported to have said,
when intelUgence of the entire overthrow of his In
vincible Armada was brought to hira — " great thanks do
I render to Alraighty God, by whose generous hand I
am gifted with such power that I could easily, if I
chose, place another fleet upon the seas. Nor is it of
very great importance that a running stream should
be soraetiraes intercepted, so long as the fountain from
which it flows remains inexhaustible."* But Philip
overrated his own power. The fountain from which,
through thirty years, had flowed the poisonous stream
of Spanish aggrandizement and tyranny was beginiung
to fail. Tokens of failure had appeared even before
the tirae of the Great Arraada Fight, and during every
one of the next twelve years, until haughty PhiUp was
forced to seek relief from the injuries brought upon
him by the open warfare and the privateering enter
prises of England by virtually giving up the contest, it
was made raore and more apparent. Throughout those
twelve years Spain and her possessions were the sport and
* Motley, vol. ii., p. 535.

¦ 1588.] The Results of the Armada's Defeat. 247
the prey not only of hardy English seamen and single-
hearted English patriots, but even of inexperienced
adventurers highly born or highly placed, who set
themselves herein to relieve the monotony of courtly
avocations and to acquire wealth that should help them
to shine with freshened splendour in the showy Court
of Queen Elizabeth.
While the defeated Armada was being wrecked upon
the shores of Scotland and Ireland, Englishmen were
planning further retribution upon Spain for her inso
lent atterapt to conquer England. Uncertainty as to
the whereabouts of the Arraada and the expedience of
maintaining a strong force in the Narrow Seas to be on
the watch for any invasion that might be attempted by
the Prince of Parma, prevented Lord Admiral Howard
from giving it any further chase. He also prudently dis
countenanced a project which seeras to have been
advanced by Queen Elizabeth herself or by sorae of her
courtiers, more zealous than wise, for utilizing a part
of the naval force then stationed off Dover in an expe
dition to the Azores, there to wait for the passing of a
fleet of Spanish and Portuguese trading ships on their
way back frora the Indies. " Upon your letter," he
wrote to Walsingham on the 27th of August, " I pre
sently sent for Sir Francis Drake, and showed him the
desire that her Majesty had for intercepting of the
King's treasure from the Indies ; and so we considered
it, and neither of us find any ships here in the fleet
anyways able to go such a voyage before they have
been ao-round, which cannot be done in any place but

248 Drake's and Norris's Expedition to Spain, [ohap.xvi.
at Chatham, and it will be fourteen days before they
can be grounded. BeUke it is thought the islands be
but hereby," he added, with a touch of scorn : " it is not
thought how the year is spent. I thought it good,
therefore, to send with all speed Sir Francis Drake,
although he be not very weU, to inforra you rightly of
all. He is a man of judgment and acquainted with
it, and will tell you what must be done for such a
journey."* The result of Drake's visit to Court was the partial
abandonment of the intended expedition to the Azores
and the planning of a much raore formidable expedition
against Spain to be sent out next spring, with Drake
himself for leader. The other project issued only in
the lending of two ships to George Clifford, Earl of
Cumberland, for such work as he could manage to do
with it. This nobleman, born in 1558, had won fame
for himself in earlier years as the best filter in Eng
land, and in all courtly tournaments he appeared as the
Queen's champion. Following the tide of seafaring
zeal, he had in 1586 sent out two barks. Sir Walter
Raleigh contributing a third, under Robert Withrington,
for voyaging in the South Sea. Withrington reached
Brazil and then, proving coward, returned to England,
when all men grieved " to see my Lord's hopes thus
deceived and his great expenses cast away."! In 1587
the Earl of Cumberland took a small part in the war in
the Netherlands, and during the Armada Fight he
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxv.. No. 59.
t Hakluyt, voh iii, pp. 769-778.

1588.] The Earl of Cumberland's Privateering Exploits. 249
distinguished himself as captain of the Elizabeth Rona-
venture. Anxious to do further service, he obtained
from Queen Elizabeth in the following October per
mission to fit out at his own expense the Golden Horn
and the Scout, and employ them in fighting against
PhUip.* He captured a Spanish vessel in the EngUsh
Channel or near [it, but, before he could reach Spain,
a storm split the larger ship's mainmast and he had to
abandon his intended work.f A contemporary project
of Sir Walter Raleigh's for leading a few of the Queen's
ships to the coast of Ireland and there adding to the
troubles of the Armada and its shipwrecked crews,
troubled enough in other ways, was also entered upon
and abandoned without any noteworthy result.! The
next great work was that undertaken by Sir Francis
Drake and Sir John Norris.
The work was first discussed in the middle of Sep
tember, 1588 ;§ and on the 11th of October a com
mission was issued by the Queen to Drake and Norris,
entrusting thera with " the whole charge and direction
of an enterprise to invade and destroy the powers and
forces of all such persons as had in that past suraraer,
with their hostile arraadas, sought and attempted the
invasion of the realra of England and the dorainions of
the sarae." They were also instructed, if possible, to place
Don Antoiuo, the claimant of the crown of Portugal,
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxvii.. No. 32 ; vol. ccxxxvii.,
No. 34. t PtiBOHAS, vol. ii., p. 1142.
t Recoed Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxv., No. 64 ; vol. ccxvi.,
Nos. 2, 24, 28 ; vol. ccxvui.. No. 8.
§ lUd,, vol. ccxvi., Nos. 32, 33, 59.

250 Drake's and Norris's Expedition to Spain, [chap.xvi.
which had been seized by Philip IL, in the way of raaking
good his claira.* Drake was to organize an efficient fleet,
coraposed of Queen's ships and private ships, and to
see that they were well officered, well raanned, and well
furnished : Norris was to make proper arrangements for
the organizing of a little array to be conveyed and landed
by Drake in any parts that might be fixed upon. This
was in fact, with far greater force than Drake had had
at his disposal in 1587, and with far less pomp than
had been shown in the preparation of the Arraada, to
be a vigorous piece of retaliation upon Spain.
All through the auturan and winter the joint com
manders were busy with their work, and prompt and
hearty assistance was afforded to them by Queen and
statesmen, courtiers and comraoners, parsons and sea
men.! Queen Elizabeth contributed ships worth
16,000?. ; and the requisite funds for fitting them out
were furnished by private adventurers, 2,000Z. by
Drake; 6,0001. by Drake's friends; 20,000Z. by Norris
and his friends ; 15,000Z. by the City of London and its
leading merchants.! Each party was to look for pay
ment of these outlays, and as much profit as could be
acquired, frora an equitable division of the rich prizes
that were to be taken in Spain and in Spanish
waters. Vague promises of recompense were made by
Don Antonio, and much actual assistance was ren
dered by the people of the Netherlands.§ On the
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxvii.. No. 15.
t Ibid., vol. ccxvii., Nos. 23, 25.
X Ibid., vol. ccvii., Nos. 56, 57; vol. cexviii.. No. 56; vol. ccxix..
No. 45 ; vol. ccxxiii.. No. 56. § Camden, vol. iii., p. 428.

1688-1689.] Its Preparation and its Early Troubles. 251
23rd of February, 1589, when the arrangements were
nearly completed, a fresh commission was issued to
Drake and Norris, with detailed instructions appointing
them in the first place to attack the shipping of the
King of Spain on his own coasts, and afterwards to
seize some of the Azores and there lie in wait for the
trading fleets coming from both the East and the West
Indies.* Drake and Norris were at Plymouth with their ships
and men, ready for departure, early in March. But
they were detained for nearly a raonth by bad weather,
and during that tirae was consumed a great part of the
scanty supply of provisions that was to last out during
the voyage. The raoney which Lord Burghley should
have sent down by the end of March for the purchase
of a further store did not arrive until the 26th of April ;t
and in consequence there ensued raany desertions, and
much trouble to the whole corapany. "I did never
write to your Lordship with so discontented a mind
as I do now," said Drake in a letter to Burghley on
the 8th of April. " We have used our best means as
long as we could to uphold the service, as far as our
own abilities and the credit of our friends could any
way be stretched to serve our turns ; but, for that the
numbers of our men are so many and our daily charge
so great by reason of our stay, we are no further able to
continue the same as we have done. If this action
should now be dissolved by any particular wants, the
* Recoed Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxxiii., Nos. 88, 89.
t Ibid., vol. ccxxiii., Nos. 101, 10.i.

252 Drake's and Norris's Expedition to Spain, [chap.xvi.
dishonour must needs be great to her Majesty, the loss
not a little to us and such as are adventurers, and the
clamour of the numbers which raust be discharged most
intolerable."* " What misery the detracting of the time
of our setting out did lay upon us," says one of the
adventurers, " too many can witness, and what extremity
the want of that month's victuals, which we did eat
during the raonth we lay at Plyraouth, raight have
driven us unto, no raan can doubt of that knoweth what
men do Uve by, had not God in the end given us a
more prosperous wind and shorter passage unto Galicia
than hath been often seen, where our own force and
fortune revictualled us largely ."f
Drake and Norris did not wait for the provisions that
Burghley and his agents were so tardy in procuring.
Judging that they could not possibly have greater
troubles than befell them while they were waiting at
Plymouth, and leaving directions that the food should
be sent after thera, they set sail on Friday, the 18th of
AprU.! Contrary winds, however, detained them at the
entrance to the harbour for a day and a half longer,
and, during that fresh waiting time, several of the
volunteer- ships, containing three thousand raen, turned
deserters, and had made good their escape before their
absence was discovered. What was the precise force of
the fleet that actually proceeded to Spain is not clear.
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxxiii.. No. 70.
t WmopEELD, A True Discourse of the Voyage to Spain and Portugal^
1589, in Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., pp. 134^155, which is the authority
for the ensuing details when no other is given.
X Recoed Office MSS,, Domestic, vol. ccxiii., No. 95.

1589.J From Plymouth to Corunna. 253
It included six of the Queen's ships ; the Revenge, with
Drake and Norris on board; the Nonpareil ; the Dread
nought under Thomas Fenner ; the Swiftsure , the Fore
sight, under Sir WilUam Winter ; and the Aid, under
WiUiam Fenner. These ships had an aggregate burthen
of 2,350 tons, and contained 1,500 seamen. There
were also said to be 11^000 soldiers, and a large number
of saUors, on board private barks and pinnaces, variously
estimated at eighty and a hundred and forty sail, though
after all the desertions the "number was probably much
less than the smaller estiraate. The entire company
was reported to consist of 23,000 persons, frora which
number also must be made a large deduction for the
deserters. Eifty or sixty vessels of all sorts and about
15,000 raen of all ranks probably formed the ultimate
strength of the expedition.*
AU its early troubles being overpassed, it sailed out
of Plymouth waters at eight o'clock on Sunday morn
ing, the 20th of AprU, and, favoured at last by a brisk
and steady north wind, sighted Cape Ortegal at four
o'clock on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday it
passed into the haven of Corunna, then, as now, com
monly called the Groyne. Four great Spanish ships
were burnt before dark, after the taking of sixty-eight
brass pieces of cannon from one of thera, and under
cover of the night all the soldiers were landed about a
mile from the town.
Upon that foUowed a fortnight's siege of Corunna,
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxxiii.. No. 102 ; H.akluyt,
vol. ii., part n., p. 133 ; Bareow, Life of Drake, p. 338.

254 Drake's and Norris's Expedition to Spain, [chap.xvi.
then one of the strongest cities in Spain. Sir John
Norris put to good use all the fighting experience that he
had acquired in France under CoUgni, in Ireland under
Walter, Earl of Essex, and in the Netherlands under
William of Orange, and Drake was land-soldier enough
to render him efficient service. On Friday, the 25th of
April, three parties raade a siraultaneous attack upon
different sides of the lower town, and it was soon
captured with a loss of twenty Englishmen against
five hundred Spaniards.* There all the raen who could
be spared frora the ships took up their quarters, feast
ing upon the food that they found in it, and turning it
and all the towns and villages round about into ruins.
To the upper town of Corunna, very well fortified, they
laid siege, but without any real success. The gates
were once entered, but the assailants were driven back.
A breach was made in the wall, but the mine laid by
the English effected more than was intended : just
as they were entering a tower fell and crushed nearly
three hundred of them, leaving time to the Spaniards to
construct fresh fortifications out of the fragments before
another onset was attempted. A second breach was
made ; but the besieged, led by a brave woman named
Maria Pita, precursor in very similar circumstances of
the Maid of Saragoza, offered a resistance too fierce to
be overcome.! After that the siege was abandoned.
It vras followed by a battle in open field, consequent
on the arrival of 15,000 fresh Spanish troops for the
-* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxxiv., No. 24.
t Southey, vol. iii., p. 212.

1589.] At Corunna and at Puente de Rurgo, 255
relief of the town. IntelUgence was brought of their
being encamped at Puente de Burgo, five miles from
Corunna. " Whereupon, on Tuesday the 6th of May,"
wrote Drake and Norris in their report to the Queen's
Council, " we marched towards them with 7,000 sol
diers, leaving the rest for the guard and siege of the
town. Encountering them, they continued fight the
space of three-quarters of an hour ; and then we forced
them to retire to the foot of a bridge, whereon not
above three could march in rank, and from whence,
although they were there defended by some fortifica
tions, and had the benefit and succour of certain houses
and other places adjoining, they were followed with
our shot and pikes, with such courage and fierceness as,
after sorae few volleys on both sides, they entered the
bridge, whence, with the push of the pike, they were
forced to raake retreat into their trenches to the further
foot of the bridge, which also, being pursued, they for
sook and betook theraselves to flight, abandoning their
weapons, bag and baggage, and lost about 1,000 in skir
mish and pursuit."* " How many 2,000 men, for of so
many consisted our vanguard, might kill in pursuit
of four sundry parties, so many, you may imagine, fell
before us that day," says one sharer in this cruel
butchery ; " and to make the nuraber more great, our
men, having given over the execution and returning to
their stands, found many hidden in the vineyards and
hedges, whom they despatched."! Of the EngUsh, it
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxxiv.. No. 15.
i Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., p. 142.

256 Drake's and Norris's Expedition to Spain, [chap. xvi.
is said, only two common soldiers and one corporal
were killed, and four officers were wounded.*
For their stay at Corunna Drake and Norris were
greatly blamed by Queen Elizabeth. Writing to them
on the 20th of May, she charged thera with allowing " a
haviour of vain-glory to obfuscate the eyes of their
judgment," and bade thera lose no further tirae in
coraplying with her forraer instructions to thera to
spoil the King of Spain's navy, and then seize his
Indian treasure-ships off the Azores.! Their excuse
was that, having left Plyraouth with hardly a week's
store of provisions, it was absolutely necessary they
should pillage the flrst port they could arrive at, and
that this they had done with all possible prudence and
despatch. They left Corunna on the 8th of May, and proceeded
to the neighbourhood of Lisbon. Adverse winds and an
angry sea, however, raade the voyage a very long one.
They were troubled also by rauch sickness, induced by
over-eating and over-drinking at Corunna. On the
13th they fell in with the promised transports, bring
ing wholesomer food from Plyraouth, with which came
as a convoy the Swiftsure, which, by accident or plan,
had failed to accompany them at starting. In the
Swiftsure was an unwelcome volunteer, Robert, Earl of
Essex. The young Earl — Sidney's successor, and with
far less merit, in Queen Elizabeth's especial favour — had
attempted to join the fleet in England. Not yet two-
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxxiv.. No. 15.
f Ibid., vol. ccxxiv., No. 53.

1589.] Robert, Earl of Essex. 257

-twenty, being born in 1567, he had spent all
his slight patriraony, and 23,000?. lent him by his
royal mistress, in dalliance at Court. " Her Majesty's
goodness hath been so great," he now said, "as I
could not ask raore of her. No way left but to repair
myself by mine own adventure, which I had rauch rather
undertake than to offend her Majesty with suits, as
I have done heretofore."* But the generally penurious
Queen was more ready to lend raoney to the young
spendthrift than to do without his gay society. Hear
ing that he desired to go with Drake and Norris, she
had written to them, bidding thera, at the risk of her
eternal displeasure, prevent his project, and, if they
found hira, send him back to Court without an hour's
delay.! Their vigilance had kept hira back at Ply
mouth ; and now that he joined them off the coast of
Spain, they wrote specially to excuse theraselves to the
Queen. "As soon as we raet with the Earl of Essex,"
they said, "we did our endeavours for his Lordship's
present return; but we doubted whether we might
spare out of the fleet a ship of so good service as the
Swiftsure," which would have been needed to take hira
home.! Therefore they helped him to become a sea
man as weU as a courtier.
Halting at Peniche, sorae forty miles from Lisbon, on
the 16th of April, Drake landed Sir John Norris and
the soldiers. With most of the ships he proceeded to
the raouth of the Tagus. Without difficulty he seized
* Deveeeux, Lives of tlie Earls of Essex, vol. i., p. 206.
t Ibid., p. 200. X Ibid; p. 202.
VOL. II. S

258 Drake's and Norris's Expedition to Spain. [Ohap. xvi.
the fort of Cascaes and sixty vessels, chiefly laden with
corn, that lay in its harbour, and there he waited for
Norris's army, which, after marching up to Lisbon, and
attempting to besiege it during three days, had aban
doned the undertaking as impracticable vrith so small a
force. The detaUs of its work,* being soldiers' and not
seamen's work, need not here be given.
Nor is there much more to be chronicled concerning
this expedition. Meeting at Cascaes on the 1st of June,
Drake and Norris found that there was so much sick
ness araong their men, and so much defection among
their volunteer shipping, that it was irapossible to make
any useful effort at further spoUation of the Spanish
coast. They returned to Galicia, and there divided
their fleet. Norris, with most of the merchant vessels,
went homewards as quickly as he could, though with
much hindrance on the way. Drake, with the Queen's
ships and some others, attempted to fulfil the instruc
tions for proceeding to the Azores, there to lie in wait
for prizes. But a violent storra proved to him that his
worn-out crews were unfit for further service. He
therefore set sail for England, and reached Plymouth
about the 22nd of June, twelve days before Norris.
The undertaking had been to a great extent a failure.
By it had been done much less injury to Spain than
had been hoped for : very Uttle booty had been taken ;
and there had been terrible loss of life. But PhiUp H.
had been insulted in his own land : a Spanish army had
been defeated in Galicia : Cascaes had been forced to
* Record Office MSS.. Domestic, vol. ccxxiv., Nos. 77-79.

1589.] Their Last Exploits and Return to England. 259
surrender; and the English, after showing their con
tempt for the power of Spain, had returned home
conquered by nothing but sickness and incapacity in
their own ranks. If, compared vrith previous exploits
of Drake's, the expedition of 1589 had been unfortunate,
it had been a brilUant success in comparison with the
failure of the Great Armada of 1588. Sir John Norris,
writing frora Plyraouth on the 4th of July, to deprecate
the Queen's conderanation of his proceedings, said truly
that " had the enemy done as rauch against the English,
they would have made bonfires in most parts of Chris
tendom."* Queen Elizabeth, in her reply, instead of
scolding, acknowledged herself " infinitely bound to
Alraighty God for the success it had pleased Him to
give to their attempts in Spain and Portugal," and
hardly less indebted to Drake and Norris for their
hearty and valiant services.!
Drake had not been in England a fortnight, and his
mariners had not yet been paid off, when Sir John Haw
kins, on the 6th of July, submitted to Lord Burghley
a scheme for staying his fleet, and sending it back in
September, with reinforcements in ships and men, and
ample supplies of food and ammunition, to capture
Cadiz and sink all the Spanish galleys to be found in
its harbour and the neighbourhood. " It is not honour
able," he said, " for her Majesty to seem to be in any
fear of the King of Spain."! That project was not
heeded, and no iraportant work was given to Drake
* Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxxv.. No. 5.
t Ibid., vol. ccxxv.. No. 15. X Ibid., vol. ccxxv.. No. 14.

260 The Progress of England's War with Spain, [uhap, xvi.
for four years and more. He even fell so far, after his
good friend Walsingham's death, into disgrace with
Queen Elizabeth, that King Philip was foolish enough
to make overtures to him, in the spring of 1590, for
the transference of his services to SjDain.* We can
understand with what scorn those overtures were re
jected. In the meanwhile England's war with Spain was
carried on without abatement. On the 18th of June,
1589, a few days before Drake's arrival at Plymouth,
the Earl of Cumberland, unsuccessful in his earlier
privateering projects, had started from it on a new
enterprise, " his spirit reraaining higher than the winds,
and raore resolutely, by storras, corapact and united in
itself."! At his own cost he had fitted out the Victory,
one of the largest of the Queen's ships, which she had
lent to him for this purpose, two barks, the Meg and
the Margaret, and a sraall pinnace. The Margaret was
found unfit for the hard work in store for her, and soon
sent horae. With the other vessels, committing some
piracies on French and Dutch traders on the way, the
Earl proceeded to the Azores. There four other barks
and pinnaces joined his force. He was a few days
too late for the East Indian fleet ; and, though just in
tirae for the West Indian fleet, consisting of fifteen
richly-laden vessels, his pursuit of it was futile. But
there were other treasure-ships to come. Meeting two
great hulks from BrazU, he captured one of them, with
* Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxxxi., No. 94.
t Puechas, vol ii., p. 1142.

1589.] The Earl of Cumberland and other Privateers. 261
a loss of eighty raen, and this he sent home at once
with the Meg. Soon afterwards he fell in with another
galley, coraing from San Juan de UUoa, and made an easy
capture of it, and its stores of silver, cochineal, sugar,
and hides, valued in all at 100,000?. According to one of
his party, however, " these summer services and ships of
sugar proved not so sweet and pleasant as the winter was
sharp and painful."* His great prize, with all its cargo,
was wrecked off Cornwall, and he himself had difficulty
in escaping frora drowning and starvation on his way
back to England, which he reached on the 20th of
December. His other prizes yielded a hundred per
cent, upon the outlay of the voyage, and with this he
had to be content.!
In spite of their raisfortunes the English found ad
vantage enough, both in the value of their captures
and in the patriotic satisfaction which they derived
from the spoUation of Spanish and Catholic possessions,
to continue their fierce warfare upon the seas. Half
a dozen volumes would be needed for a full rehearsal
of the work done by commissioned officers and by
private adventurers, by Queen's ships, and pirate barks,
and merchants' vessels, during these twelve busy years.
King Philip's beard, according to Drake's favourite
expression, having been singed and puUed, English
men of all ranks felt it their bounden duty to God,
their country, and themselves, and certainly raade it
their great delight, to swarm around hira, like an army
* MoNSON, in Ghuechill's Collection, vol. iii., p. 181.
t lUd., p. 184.

262 A Fight between TenEnglish Merchantmen [chap. xvr.
of elves, and pluck it out, hair by hair, or in handfuls
together, by the roots. The more he winced, the more
he swore, the raore he uttered vows of vengeance
which he was unable to perforra, the better they were
pleased. The raost memorable of these exploits alone can
here be recounted, and these but briefly. But some
of the smaUest enterprises, by reason of their wonderful
daring and their wonderful success, are as raemorable
as the greatest. Of this sort was a fight between ten
English raerchant ships' and twelve Spanish galleys that
took place in the Straits of Gibraltar in 1590. These ten
merchantmen had gone for trade to Venice, Constanti
nople, and other ports in the Mediterranean and the
Levant, and in returning home had met for mutual
protection near the coast of Barbary. Immediately after
this raeeting, on Easter Monday, the 23rd of AprU,
they descried twelve great galleys, " bravely furnished
and strongly provided with men and araraunition,"
lying in wait for any English ships that raight pass Gib
raltar. Let the story be told in the words of one of the
party. " In the raorning early," he says, " being the
24th of AprU, according to our usual customs we said
service and made our prayers unto Almighty God,
beseeching Him to save us from the hands of such
tyrants as the Spaniards, whom we knew and had
found to be our raost mortal eneraies upon the sea.
And having finished our prayers, and set ourselves in
readiness, we perceived thera to corae towards us, and
that they were indeed the Spanish galleys that lay under

1590.] and Twelve Spanish Galleys off Gibraltar. 263
the conduct of Andrew Doria, who is Viceroy for the
King of Spain in the Straits of Gibraltar, and a notable
eneray to all EngUshmen. So when they came some
what nearer to us, they waved us araain for the King of
Spain, and we waved them araain for the Queen of
England, at which tirae it pleased Almighty God
greatly to encourage us all in such sort, as that the
nearer they came the less we feared their great multi
tudes and huge nuraber of men, which were planted in
those gaUeys to the number of two or three hundred men
in each galley. And it was thus concluded araong us,
that the four first and tallest ships should be placed
hindraost, and the weaker and smallest ships foremost,
and so it was performed, every raan being ready to
take part of such success as it should please God to
send. At the first encounter the galleys came upon
us very fiercely, yet God so strengthened us, that, if they
had been ten times more, we had not feared thera at
aU. Whereupon the Solomon, being a hot ship, and
having sundry cast pieces in her, gave the first shot in
such a sour sort as that it sheared away so raany men as
sat on the one side of a galley, and pierced her through
in such maimer as that she was ready to sink, which
made them to assault us the more fiercely. Whereupon
the rest of our ships, especially the Margaret and John,
the Minion, and the Ascension, followed, and gave a hot
charge upon thera, and they at us, where began a hot
and fierce battle with great valiancy the one against
the other, and so continued for the space of six hours.
About the beginiung of this our fight there came two

264: A Fight between Ten English Merchantmen [chap. xvi.
Flemings to our fleet, who seeing the force of the gaUeys
to be so great, the one of thera presently yielded,
struck his sails, and was taken by the galleys, whereas,
if they would have offered themselves to have fought
in our behalf and their own defence, they needed not to
have been taken so cowardly as they were to their cost.
The other Fleming, being also ready to perforra the Uke
piece of service, began to vail his sails, and intended to
have yielded immediately. But the trumpeter in that
ship plucked forth his falchion, and slipped to the pdot
at the helm, and vowed that if he did not speedily put
off to the English fleet, and so take part with them, he
would presently kill him ; which the pUot, for fear of
death, did, and so by that means they were defended
from present death, and frora the tyranny of those
Spaniards, which doubtless they should have found at
their hands. Thus we continued in fight six hours
and somewhat raore, wherein God gave us the upper
hand, and we escaped the hands of so raany enemies,
who were constrained to flee into harbour and shroud
theraselves from us, and with speed to seek for their
own safety. This was the handiwork of God, who de
fended us frora danger in such sort as that there was
not one raan of us slain. And, in aU this fierce assault
made upon us by the Spanish power, we sustained no
hurt or damage at all more than this, that the shrouds
and backstays of the Solomon, who gave the first and
last shot, and galled the enemy shrewdly all the time
of the battle, were clear stricken off. After the battle
was ceased, which was on Easter Tuesday, we stayed

1590.] and Twelve Spanish Galleys off Gibraltar. 265
for want of wind before Gibraltar until the next raorn
ing, where we were becalraed, and therefore looked
every hour when they would have sent forth some fresh
supply against us, but they were far unable to do it,
for aU their galleys were so sore battered that they
durst not corae forth of the harbour, by reason of our
hot resistance, which they so lately before had re
ceived."* Nearly every year there were fights as valiant as
that. English raerchant ships generally held their
own, in Spanish waters, against the once formidable
galleys of Spain, and Spanish raerchant ships and
galleys alike were over and over again beaten, burnt, or
captured, and always held in awe, by privateering fleets
sent out from England. Even failures, as they were
esteemed by Queen Elizabeth and the private adven
turers who hoped in these ways to raake profits larger
than the raost prosperous trade could yield, were great
successes as far as injury to Spain was concerned.
So it was vrith an expedition conducted by Sir John
Hawkins in this same year. A scheme proposed by
hira to Lord Burghley in July, 1589, has been referred
to. That scherae was rejected, but soon afterwards
Hawkins produced another, which caused some stir,
though its nature has not been recorded. It was talked
of in February, 1590 ; and apparently had for its object an
attack upon Spain, quite as formidable as that atterapted
by Drake and Norris in the previous year.f It also,
' Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., pp. 167, 168.
t Recced Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxxx., Nos. 79, 80, 94, 99.

266 Sir John Hawkins's Expedition to Spain, [chap. xvi.
however, was abandoned. On the 1st of March,
Hawkins wrote disconsolately to Burghley on the
subject, saying that now he was out of hope that he
should be allowed to perform " any royal thing."* He
was so disheartened that on the 16th of April he wrote
again, begging, since her Majesty was not satisfied with
him, that he raight be reUeved frora " the importable
care and toil " of his duties as Treasui-er of the Navy.
"No man living," he said, "hath so careful, so
miserable, so unfortunate, and so dangerous a Iffe."!
He was not permitted to retire, and in May a modifi
cation of his project was adopted. He was sent, with
Sir Martin Frobisher for his Vice-Admiral, at the head
of either twelve or fourteen ships, with about fourteen
hundred men on board, to do as much raischief as he
could on the coast of Spain, and to try and intercept
the fleet of Portuguese carracks coming from India.!
For five months Hawkins and Frobisher applied them
selves heartily to their work, but without much profit.
They kept Spain in such awe that, we are told, every
valuable that could be removed was taken from
Corunna, Lisbon, Cadiz, and other ports to inland
towns, and all the Spanish galleys were lodged in the
safest corners that were open to them.§ But they had
no orders, and were not in sufficient force, to attack
Spain itself, and therefore there was nothing there for
thera to do. The trading fleets also had been warned
* Recoed Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxxxi.. No. 2.
t Ibid., vol. ccxxxi.. No. 83.
X Ibid., vol. ccxxxii., Nos. 13-15, 18 ; vol. ccxxxiv.. No. 9.
§ Ibid,, vol. ccxxxii. No. 17.

1590-1591.] The Earl of Cumberland's Third Expedition. 267
of their presence, and, by Philip II.'s directions, were
kept back.* So, after crmsing about for five months,
the adventurers had to return at the end of October,
empty handed or with so few prizes that they did not
pay for the fitting out of the expedition.! Very great,
we are told, was Queen Elizabeth's indignation at the
result. Hawkins tendered an elaborate apology. " Paul
might plant, and ApoUos raight water," he said in its
conclusion, "but it was God only who gave the
increase." The quotation was not soothing to the
Queen. " God's death !" she exclairaed, " this fool
went out a soldier and is come home a divine !"!
Unprofitable, also, was a third privateering enterprise
in which the Earl of Cumberland erabarked in the
spring of 1591. With one of the Queen's ships and
four smaUer vessels, he took many prizes, frora hostile
Spaniards and friendly Dutch alike, during a few raonths'
cruise off the coast of Spain ; but he was unable to hold
the best of them. His chief adviser, the faraous
Sir Williara Monson of Stuart times, was taken
prisoner, and after that, says Monson, "the Earl durst
not abide the coast of Spain, and thought it raore
discretion to return to England, having taken nothing
whatever toward defraying the charges of his outfit."§
Conteraporary with that expedition of the Earl of
Curaberland's to the neighbourhood of Spain, was one,
yet more faraous, led by Lord Thomas Howard and
* Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., p. 183.
t Record Office MSS., Domestic, vol. ccxxxiii.. No. 118.
J Southey, vol. iii., p. 223.
§ Ihid., vol iii., pp. 9-17.

268 Lord Thomas Howard's Expedition, [chap. xvi.
Sir Richard Grenville against the Spanish ships coming
from the West Indies. Lord Thoraas Howard, bom in
1561, and the eldest son of Thomas, fourth Duke of
Norfolk, had only been released in 1585 from the
attainder consequent on his father's conspiracy in
favour of Mary Queen of Scots. Immediately after
that he began to take a prominent share in public
movements. In 1588 he had distinguished himself
under his cousin, the Lord Admiral, in the Armada
Fight; and in 1591 he determined to win further
renown in an independent exploit. With him was
associated Sir Richard Grenville, whora we have
already seen in his connection with Raleigh's Virginian
colony, and who had for many years worked heartily,
and very much to his advantage, in the trade of piracy
and privateering against Spain. Their especial object
was to try and seize the West Indian fleet which had
escaped the search of Hawkins and Frobisher in 1590
by lying in concealment at Havannah, where it waited
all through the winter, " choosing rather to hazard the
perishing of ships, raen, and goods, than that they should
becorae the prize of the English."
Seven of the Queen's ships, the Defiance, the Revenge,
the Nonpareil, the Elizabeth Bonaventure, the Lion, the
Foresight, and the Chase, six victualling ships, and the
Bark Raleigh, which was Sir Walter Raleigh's contribu
tion to the enterprise, with two or three pinnaces, made
up the fleet.* It left Plymouth soon after the 10th of
March, proceeded to the Azores, and there waited for
* Raleigh in Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., p. 170.

1591.] • Spanish Preparations against it. 269
about five months, making a few small captures, but
watching in vain for the expected West Indian treasure-
ships. PhiUp, on hearing of Lord Thomas Howard's
designs, had ordered the further detention of these
ships at Havannah, and had also ordered the prepara
tion of a formidable fleet to go out and to conduct
them horae, and, if possible, to defeat the English at
the same time.
This was the greatest fleet sent out of Spain since
the defeat of the Armada. It comprised over fifty
sail ; — ^thirty great Portuguese, Biscayan, and Andalusian
galleys, ten Dutch fly-boats that had been seized near
Lisbon, and a dozen or more of miscellaneous craft.*
Howard was informed of its setting out, on the 30th
of August, by a raessage from the Earl of Cumberland.
His own ships, said Sir Walter Raleigh, were "all
pestered and rummaging, everything out of order, very
light for want of ballast, and, what was most to their dis
advantage, half the men of every ship sick and utterly
unserviceable." He had hardly had a day in which to
try and put things in order, however, when, on the 31st
of August, the Spanish fleet, coraing towards hira at
once, either by accident or by a change in plan,
appeared in sight. Taken by surprise, he put out to
sea, designing thus to get more tirae in which to prepare
for battle. But Grenville, in the Revenge, was unable
to do this before the Spaniards came within gun-shot,
and in consequence a battle was fought at once.!
* Raleigh in Hakluyt, p. 173 ; Linschoten in the same, p. 185.
+ Raleigh in Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., p. 170.

270 Lord Thomas Howard's Expedition, [chap. xvi.
It was a battle eminently characteristic of the daring
seamanship of England under the Tudors. Sir Richard
Grenville, finding himself, in a single vessel, face to
face with fifty Spanish ships, nearly all of them twice or
thrice the size of the Revenge, might easily have
retreated, getting out of reach of the enemy's guns
before they had done much harra. "But," says Sir
Walter Raleigh in a vivid description of the fight,
" Sir Richard utterly refused to turn frora the enemy,
alleging that he would rather choose to die than to
dishonour himself, his country, and her Majesty's ship,
persuading his corapany that he would pass through
the two squadrons and enforce the Spaniards to give
hira way." Applying hiraself to that bold plan, he
pressed into the crowd of Spanish galleys. The first
four or five that gathered round him he bravely defied ;
but he was soon overwhelmed. " The great San Felipe"
says Raleigh, "being in the wind of him, and coming
towards him, becalraed his sails in such sort as the ship
could neither make way nor feel the helm, so huge and
high-charged was the Spanish ship, being of 1500 tons,"
just thrice as large as the Revenge. The San Felipe
and the other great Spanish ships easily closed upon
the Revenge ; but they did not find it easy to board her.
From three o'clock in the afternoon till daybreak
next raorning, Grenville and his few followers fought
as even Englishmen had rarely fought before. Troops
after troops of Spaniards, attempting frora their high
bulwarks to make what seemed an easy descent upon
the deck of the Revenge, were driven back. Galley after

1591.] Sir Richard Grenville's Fight in fhe Revenge. 271
galley, riddled through and through by English cannon-
balls, was forced to retire ; some to founder, all the
rest to need much tinkering before they were fit for
further service. "The Spanish ships," says Raleigh,
" were filled with companies of soldiers ; in sorae two
hundred, besides the raariners, in sorae five, in others
eight hundred. In ours there were none at all beside
the mariners, save the servants of the commanders,
and some few voluntary gentleraen. But they were
stiU repulsed again and again, and at all tiraes beaten
back into their own ships, or into the seas. As they
were wounded and beaten off, so always others came
in their place, the Revenge having never less than two
mighty galleys by her side. Ere the morning, from
three o'clock of the day before, there had fifteen several
armadas assailed her ; and all so ill approved their
entertainment as they were, by the break of day, far
more wiUing to hearken to a composition than hastily
to make any more assaults. But as the day increased,
so our raen decreased, and as the light grew raore and
more, by so rauch more grew our discomforts. For
none appeared in sight but eneraies, save one sraall
ship called the Pilgrim, who hovered all night to see
the success; but in the raorning, bearing with the
Bevenge, she was hunted like a hare araongst many
ravenous hounds, but escaped."
The heroes of the Revenge were too proud to escape,
as even now they might have done. They fought on
to the last. " All the powder, to the last barrel," says
Raleigh, " was now spent, all the pikes broken, forty of

272 Lord Thomas Howard's Expedition, [ohap. xvi,
the best men slain, and most part of the rest hurt. In
the beginning of the fight she had but one hundred free
from sickness, and fourscore and ten sick, laid in hold
upon the ballast. A small troop to man such a ship ! a
weak garrison to resist so mighty an army ! By those
hundred aU was sustained, the volleys, boardings, and
enterings of fifteen ships of war, besides those which
beat her at large. The Spaniards were always sup-
pUed with soldiers brought from every squadron, all
manner of arms, and powder at will : unto ours there
remained no comfort at all, no hope, no supply either
of ships, men, or weapons; the masts all beaten
overboard, all her tackle cut asunder, her upper-work
altogether rased, and she, in effect, evened vrith the
water, nothing being left but the very foundation or
bottom of a ship, not able to raove one way or other,
but as she was moved with the waves and bUlows of
the sea."
Then, after fifteen hours' fight, and the spending of
eight hundred charges of great artillery and rounds of
sraall shot without number, GrenvUle resolved, not to
surrender to the Spaniards, but to cease fighting with
thera. "He persuaded the corapany," says Raleigh,
" or as raany as he could induce, to yield themselves
unto God, and to the raercy of none else ; but, as
they had, like vaUant and resolute raen, repulsed raany
enemies, they should not now shorten the honour of
their nation by prolonging their own lives for a few
hours, or a few days. The master gunner readily
consented, and divers others ; but the captain and the

1591.] Sir Richard Grenville's Fight in the Bevenge, 273
master were of another opinion, and besought Sir
Richard to have care of them, alleging that the
Spaniards would be as ready to entertain a composition
as they were wiUing to offer the sara'e, and that, there
being divers sufficient and valiant men yet living whose
wounds were not mortal, they might do their country
and prince acceptable service hereafter. And, whereas
Sir Richard had alleged that the Spaniards should
never glory to have taken one ship of her Majesty's,
seeing they had so long and so notably defended them
selves, they answered that the ship had six foot of water
in hold, and three shot under water, which were so
weakly stopped as, with the first working of the sea,
she raust needs sink, and was besides so crushed and
bruised, as she could never be removed out of the place.
As the matter was thus in dispute, and Sir Richard
refusing to hearken to any of those reasons, the master
of the Revenge, while the captain won unto hira the
greater party, was conveyed aboard the General Don
Alonzo Bazan " — who was a brother of the Marquis of
Santa Cruz — "who, finding none overhasty to enter
the Revenge again, doubting whether Sir Richard would
have blown thera up and himself, and perceiving by the
report of the master of the Revenge his dangerous dis
position, yielded that all their lives should be saved, the
company saU for England, and the better sort to pay
such reasonable ransom as their estate would bear, and
in the mean season, to be free frora galley or imprison
ment. To this he so rauch the rather condescended, as
well, as I have said, for fear of further loss and mischief
VOL. IL T

274 Lord Thomas Howard's Expedition, [chap. xvi.
to themselves, as well as for the desire he had to recover
Sir Richard Grenville, whom for his notable valour he
seemed greatly to honour and admire. When this
answer was returned, and that safety of life was promised,
the comraon sort being now at the end of their peril,
the raost drew back from Sir Richard and the master
gunner, being no hard matter to dissuade men from
death to life. The master gunner, finding hiraself and
Sir Richard thus prevented and raastered by the greater
number, would have slain himself with a sword, had he
not been by force withheld and locked into his cabin.
Then the General sent raany boats aboard the Revenge,
and divers of our raen, fearing Sir Richard's disposition,
stole away aboard the general and other ships. Sir
Richard, thus overmatched, was sent unto by Alfonso
Bazan to remove out of the Revenge, the ship being
marvellous unsavoury, fiUed with blood and bodies of
dead and wounded raen, like a slaughter-house. Sir
Richard answered that they raight do with his body
what they list, for he esteemed it not, and, as he
was carried out of the ship, he swooned, and, reviving
again, desired the company to pray for him. The
General used Sir Richard with all humanity, and left.
nothing unatterapted that tended to his recovery," — he
had been grievously wounded about twelve o'clock the
night before, — "highly coraraendiug his valour and
worthiness, and greatly bewailing the danger wherein
he was ; being unto him a rare spectacle and a resolu
tion seldora approved, to see one ship turn toward so
many enemies, to endure the charge and boarding of so

1591.] Sir Richard Grenville's Fight in the Revenge, 275
many huge armadas, and to resist and repel the assaults
and entries of so many soldiers."*
A rare spectacle indeed! "I account," said Sir
Richard Hawkins, the only other Elizabethan English
man who yielded to the Spaniards, and who did so
almost as gloriously as Grenville, "that he and his
country got much honour in that occasion ; for one ship,
and of the second sort of her Majesty's, sustained the
force of all the fleet of Spain, and gave thera to under
stand that they be impregnable; for, having bought
dearly the boarding of her, divers and sundry times,
and with raany jointly, and vrith a continual fight of
fourteen or sixteen hours, at length leaving her without
any raast standing, like a log in the seas, she made
notwithstanding a most honourable composition of life
and liberty for above two hundred and sixty raen, as by
the pay book appeareth ;t aU which may worthily be
written in our chronicles in letters of gold, in meraory
for aU posterities, some to beware, and others, by their
exaraple in Uke occasions, to iraitate, the true valour of
our nation in these ages."!
Sir Richard GrenvUle died of his wound two or three
days after his surrendering. " Here die I," he is
reported to have said to the Spanish hidalgos, who,
forgetting every aniraosity in their honour of his
* Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., pp. 171, 172.
t This is nearly double the number given by Raleigh. Hawkins
adds, that " Her Majesty, of her free grace, commanded, in recompense
of her service, to be given to every one his six months' wages."
X The Observations of Sir Richard Ha-wkms in his Voyage into the
South Sea (Hakluyt Society, 1847), pp. 20, 21.

276 Lord Thomas Howard's Expedition, [ohap. xvi.
excellent bravery, vied with one another in striving to
comfort hira in his hours of pain, and who treasured up
his dying words with reverent adrairation, — " Here die
I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and a quiet raind,
for that I have ended my life as a good soldier ought to
do, who has fought for his country and his Queen, for
honour and religion. Wherefore my soul joyfuUy de-
parteth out of this body, leaving behind it an everlasting
farae, as a true soldier who hath done bis duty as he
was bound to do. But the others of ray corapany have
done as traitors and dogs, for which they shall be
reproached all their lives, and have a sharaeful name
for ever."*
That bitter condemnation was not quite undeserved.
Had even two or three of his consorts who watched
Grenville's desperate fight frora a safe distance, shared
his valour, though in hurabler sort, they might have
worsted the whole Spanish fleet. Lord Thomas Howard,
it is said, desired to atterapt this, or at any rate to
rescue the Revenge frora the fiftyfold force in number
of ships, more than a hundredfold in number of men
and guns, with which she was mated. But his crews
refused : his own master gunner vowed to throw himself
into the sea rather than do work which raust certainly
end in the ruin of the Queen's ships and his own
punishraent as a galley-slave under the Spaniards.
Therefore, after two hours of desultory fighting on the
outskirts of Grenville's battle scene, the main body of
the EngUsh fleet disgracefuUy retired. Captain Thomas
* Linschoten, cited by Southey, vol. iii., p. 337.

1591.] The Conduct of his other Ships. 211
Vavasor, in the little Foresight, fought on and worked
his way very near to the Revenge ; but his bark was
disabled before night time, and he barely managed to
save himself from capture by the Spaniards. Yet
bolder was the bearing of the little Pilgrim, as we have
seen, and of a sraall raerchant vessel, the George
Noble, which pressed right up to the Revenge, and
only retired when Sir Richard Grenville, thanking her
captain for his bravery, told him that the vessel was too
small and, with nothing but sraall guns, too poorly
armed to be of service in such a contest, and begged
him to save himself while he could.*
Lord Thomas Howard's fieet did nothing else of note.
Lying in wait for the passing of the West Indian
treasure-ships, which came up a few days afterwards,
it allowed thera to get under protection of the Spanish
fleet, and then, capturing one or two of their outlying
nurabers, but not daring to engage in a general battle,
it returned to England. The East and West Indian
treasure, which Philip had been so anxious to keep
out of English hands, however, was not saved thereby.
The ships and their convoys, galleys and galleons,
merchant vessels and sloops, when all had been collected
at the Azores, nurabered a hundred and forty sail.
They had just started for the Tagus, Avhen a hurricane
drove thera back among the rocks, and caused such
fearful havoc that, out of the hundred and forty vessels
only forty escaped wreck. The Revenge, which had
been patched up for a trophy, with two hundred
" Haklutt, vol. ii, part ii., pp. 171, 173.

278 The Progress of England's War with Spain, [chap. xti.
Spaniards on board, went down. It was reckoned that
ten thousand men, in all, were lost, and the loss in
treasure, of more value to Philip than men, coidd not
be reckoned up.*
It is hardly to be wondered at that the English,
seeing how strangely wind and water sided with them
in their warfare with the Spaniards, should have fancied
that they were the especial favourites of the Almighty,
and that Jehovah was fighting as stoutly for them as in
former tiraes He had fought for the chosen race of Israel.
And, seeing how much cruelty was supposed, in Jewish
times and circumstances, to be of Divine appointment,
it is not strange that Christian Englishmen should also
hold themselves both authorized and bound to do many
cruel and unworthy things in the name of God. The
marvel is rather that, with so many precedents and
opportunities for wrong-doing, so little of it was done.
The English fought with Spain in order that they
might have their share of the wealth of the Indies,
arrogantly and covetously clairaed by Spain as its
peculiar property ; but they fought much more against
the tyrannical and bigoted principles which were the
foundation and the superstructure of Spain's dominion,
and they generally demeaned theraselves as became the
champions of a good and honest cause.
The raan who in the later years of Elizabeth's reign
held these views most persistently, and held them
worthily in spite of some personal characteristics which
were not altogether worthy, was Sir Walter Raleigh.
* Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., p. 187.

1692.] Sir Walter Raleigh's Share in it. 279
Not hiraself much of a seaman, we have seen how rauch
he did to foster searaanship by his experiment of the
first EngUsh colony in America. Virginia failed through
the vices of subordinates which he is to be blamed for
not using more effort than he did use to correct. When
Virginia was abandoned, he applied himself yet more
earnestly to work which was quite as helpful to the
progress of EngUsh seamanship and to the general
well-being of England. He had no objection to the
winning of Spanish treasure for its own sake ; but he
saw with regret that the energies of his countrymen
were, in these later years, becoming too exclusively
devoted to this object. He therefore, both in writing
and in his speeches in Parliament, earnestly advocated
the continuance of pubUc war with Spain, having for
its primary object the crippling of her forces instead of
the seizing of her precious goods. Zeal in that object
had taken hira as a volunteer in the great expedition of
1589 under Norris and Drake. Zeal in that object
caused him in ParUament to urge, with all the eloquence
that he possessed, and urge successfully, the carrying
of war into the eneray's new place of lodgraent in
Brittany, a lodgraent which, Raleigh represented, made
the attitude of Spain, in spite of aU her naval reverses,
more formidable than it had been even in 1588.
While that project was being slowly adopted, Raleigh
applied himself to another bold enterprise against
Spain. Procuring two ships frora the Queen, and fit
ting out thirteen others, he planned an expedition to
the Spanish Main, and especially to the Isthmus of

280 Sir Walter Raleigh's Expedition. [chap. xvi.
Darien, where there was good hope of securing the
annual store of treasure coming home, through Panama
and Nombre de Dios, from ChUi and Peru.* With
this fleet he put to sea on the 6th of May, 1592. On
the following day he was overtaken by Sir Martin
Frobisher coming in a swfft pinnace with a letter from
Queen Elizabeth, bidding him return at once to be
punished for making love to her pretty maid-of-honour,
Elizabeth Throgmorton. It is not clear that this
recall had not been preriously arranged with Raleigh,
and it is even possible that he never intended to go
with the fleet himself, seeing that there was talk of his
being brought home and replaced by Frobisher two
months before he started, f At any rate, he did return,
after conducting the fleet only so far as Cape Finis
terre. There, on the 11th of May, he divided his ships into
two squadrons, entrusting one to Frobisher, the other to
Sir John Burroughs. Frobisher he directed to cruise
about the coast of Spain, " thereby to amaze the Spanish
fleet ;" Burroughs was to go to the Azores, and thence
to the West Indies, unless he raet the Panaraa fleet on
the way.!
The squadrons had not fairly separated before a
great Biscayan ship, with a valuable cargo, carae in
sight, to be easily captured and sent horae. This was
" Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., p. 194 ; Monson, in Churchill, vol. iii.,
p. 156.
t I shall not attempt to explain his famous letter to Sir Robert Cecil,
for which every one of his biographers has a separate explanation.
X Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., p. 195.

1592.] The Earl of Cumberland's Fourth Expedition. 281
all the good fortune that fell to Frobisher. His small
force, though it may have amazed the Spaniards, was
not strong enough to frighten them, and, after sailing
up and down for a little time, he found it expedient to
go home. Sir John Burroughs was more successful.
SaiUng towards the Azores, he heard that PhiUp II. had,
upon intelligence of Raleigh's project, ordered that no
treasure should be sent home that year from Panama ;
but at the same time he heard that a fleet of East
Indian carracks was on its way to Lisbon. On that
account he partly altered his course, and in doing so he
feU in with five other English ships, which proved to
be a little fleet fitted out by the Earl of Cumberland
on a fourth privateering expedition.*
Cumberland, Uke Raleigh, had conducted his ships
into Spanish waters and then returned to England.
Captain Norton, who was left in charge of them, being
at the Azores, had also heard of the approach of the
East Indian carracks. Meeting Burroughs, he placed
his ships under his command, and the combined fleets,
nurabering ten or eleven vessels in all, lay in wait for the
East Indiamen. They soon fell in with one, the Santa
Cruz, and gave her chase till she ran against a rocky
island among the Azores. Then, having saved as much
of her cargo as they could, they watched for other
carracks, spreading out in a line which extended over
nearly a hundred miles frora north to south. After
four days of watching, a huge carrack, called the Madre
de Dios, of about 1,600 tons burthen, carae in sight.
* Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., p. 195 ; Purohas, vol. ii., p. 1145 .

282 Sir Walter Raleigh's Expedition. [chap. xvi.
Thereupon they soon closed round her. The only
Queen's ship, the Foresight, pressing up to her side,
was caught by her grappling-irons, and borne along,
Uke a ship's boat, for a little distance, while she
atterapted, in full sail, to outstrip her other smaU
pursuers. But they soon pressed up, and about mid
night the Tiger, a merchantraan of 600 tons, twice as
large as any of the others, began to board her on one
side, while the Foresight and another belaboured her
on the other. A tough struggle ensued, "the fore
castle being so high that, without any resistance, the
getting up had been difficult; but here was strong
resistance, some irrecoverably falling by the board, and
the assault continued an hour and a half, so brave a
booty making the men fight like dragons." The
dragons won, although their work was nearly spoilt by
a fire which broke out through the upsetting of some
candles in the turmoU. Captain Norton put out the fire,
and, 'before raorning, so raany as survived of the seven
hundred sailors, soldiers, and officers of the huge Madre
de Dios had been raade prisoners, and the captors were
able leisurely to inspect their prize, by far the largest
that had ever fallen into English hands.*
" The true proportion of the vast body of this car-
rack," says the narrator of the exploit, " did then, and
still raay, justly provoke the admiration of aU raen not
forraerly acquainted with such a sight. But albeit this
first appearance of the hugeness thereof yielded sights
enough to entertain our raen's eyes, yet the pitiful
* Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., p. 197.

1592.1 The Capture of the Madre de Dios. 283
object of so many bodies slain and dismembered could
not but draw each man's eye to see, and heart to
lament, and hands to help, those miserable people,
whose limbs were torn with the violence of shot. No
man could alraost step but upon a dead carcase or a
bloody floor ; for, the greatness of the steerage requiring
the labour of twelve or fourteen raen at once, and
sorae of our ships beating her in at the stern with their
ordnance, oftentiraes with one shot slew four or five
labouring on either side of the helra, whose roora being
still furnished with fresh supplies, and our artUlery
still playing upon them with continual volleys, it could
not but be that rauch blood was shed in that place."*
With coramendable humanity Sir John Burroughs
caused the wounded Spaniards and Portuguese to be
tended by his surgeons, and then, placing both whole
and lamed in one of his smaller craft, he sent them
back, with a fair allowance of their own provisions, to
their native country. On the way, however, they fell
araong other English privateers, who despoiled them
of "nine hundred diaraonds, besides other odds and
ends," which they had concealed about their persons.
Burroughs also hurried horae, anxious to have his rich
prize safe in English waters. When its riches were
distributed, soon after his arrival at Dartmouth, near
the end of August, they were found to consist of spices,
drugs and dyes, silks, calicoes and damasks, pearls,
jewels, and the like, worth in all 150,000?., " which," it
is said, " being divided among the adventurers, whereof
* Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., p. 198.

284 The Earl of Cumberland's Later Expeditions, [chap. xvi.
her Majesty was the chief, was sufficient to yield con
tentment to all parties."* The Earl of Curaberland,
who seems not to have been content, received as his
share 36,000?.! Raleigh had certainly not less.
This capture of the Madre de Dios added greatly to
the privateering enterprise that had already been
entered upon so zealously as to need no further sti
mulus. Frora Plyraouth, from Exeter, frora Bristol,
and from a dozen other trading towns expeditions were
every year sent out which, being soraetiraes disastrous,
were at other tiraes successful enough to pay for the
failures and yet leave large profits. And gentleraen
and noblemen were as eager as the traders by pro
fession. The Earl of Curaberland, lordliest of pirates
and privateers, equipped nine ships, two of them bor
rowed frora the Queen's navy, in 1593, and with them
captured, besides some French vessels, twelve great
Spanish hulks off Portugal, and several other Spanish
ships in the West Indies, all of which brought him in
more wealth than could be told.! In 1594, with five
ships, he attacked the Cinco Chagos, a carrack much
larger than the Madre de Dios, almost the largest ever
sent from Portugal to the East Indies; which, how
ever, caught fire, at the moment of capture, and, with
all its treasure and its crew of eleven hundred men, was
lost. In attacking another carrack he was defeated, so
that he had to return to England, " having done much
* Hakluyt, vol. ii., part ii., p. 198. t Puechas, vol. ii, p. 1145.
X Hakluyt, vol. il, part ii., pp. 199-201 ; Monson, in Churchill,
vol. iii., pp. 157, 158.

1690-1694.] Drake's Correspondence with Henry IV. 285
harra to the eneray and little good to hiraself."* Yet
in 1595, out of his spoils, and with a view to winning
yet raore, he built " the best ship that had ever before
been built by any subject," which he called the Scourge
of Malice ; and of this he raade rauch subsequent use.!
But we have worthier work to chronicle.
Among the worthiest fighting work done during these
years, although we have not much to do with it, it
being chiefly carried on by soldiers on dry land, was the
war against Spain in Brittany, of which Sir Walter
Raleigh was almost the chief advocate. Its flrst promoter,
as it seeras, was Sir Francis Drake, who, in Noveraber,
1590, wrote to Henry of Navarre, asking whether he
would approve of EngUsh efforts to oust the forces of
PhUip II. frora the lodgment, which, taking advantage
of the troubles in France incident on the War of the
League, they had begun to make in Brittany.! Henry
promptly wrote back to welcome the offer of assistance
frora " a man so celebrated by farae and noble deeds,"
as he said. " I have sent a letter to the Queen, your
mistress, earnestly entreating for auxiliary forces," he
added ; " and I eagerly entreat you, most excellent Sir,
that you will strengthen ray petition before the Queen,
as much as possible, by your authority aud favour."§
English reinforceraents were sent, though in a niggardly
way, and apparently without much help frora Drake's
» Southey, vol. ui., pp. 27-33.
t Monson, in Chuechill, vol. iii., p. 189.
X Rymee, Fcedera, cited in Baeeow, Life of Drake, p. 381.
§ Ibid,, p. 382.

286 Sir Martin Frobisher's Last Work, ichap. xvi.
" authority and favour," which, just then, were small at
Court. That help consisted only of land-soldiers, till the
auturan of 1594, when, the arguraents of Raleigh and
others having prevailed so far, Sir Martin Frobisher was
sent with a sraaU force of ten vessels, four being Queen's
ships and the other 'six volunteers, to prevent Brest
from falling into the hands of the Spaniards. The
neighbouring port of Crodon was already in Spanish
hands. Sir John Norris, then at the head of the Uttle
English army, was ordered to invest it by land ; Fro
bisher to attack it frora the sea. The siege, begun on
the 1st of Septeraber, was hotly continued until the
garrison, being forced to sun-ender, was all put to the
sword, and the fort reduced to ashes. But in the last
fight Frobisher was wounded in the hip, and he died
a few days after he had been conveyed to Plymouth ;
his death, it is said, being more due to the bad handling
of the surgeon than to the wound itself.*
That was the first and last of Queen Elizabeth's
naval fighting with Spain on the coast of France. She
thought it better to send her searaen to harass Philip
in Spanish waters, and best of all to encourage them
to take the war into then- own hands, themselves de
fraying the expenses of their privateering enterprises,
while, if they were successful, a part of the profits
was assigned to her on account of the empty ships
which they were allowed to borrow from her navy.
* Monson, in Chuechill, vol. iii, p. 158 ; Camden, vol. iii., pp. 486,
487.

1693-1594] Sir Richard Hawkins's Voyage. 287
Most of these privateering expeditions, as we have
seen, had for their objects the wasting of Philip's and
his subjects' shipping off the coast of Spain, near the
Azores, and in the neighbourhood of the West Indies.
But more distant enterprises were not wanting. The
luckless undertaking of Thomas Cavendish in 1591,
designed to surpass his former voyage round the world,
has already been described. A simUar undertaking,
also unfortunate, was entered upon in 1593, by Sir
Richard Hawkins, Sir John Hawkins's only son. Now
about forty years old, he had been weU trained by his
father in searaanship, and, as his record of his voyage
shows, in many other sorts of knowledge.* He had
served in the Great Arraada Fight, and had been, as
he says, a sailor during twenty years. But all we
know of him in detail has to do with the voyage which
he projected for saUing, as Drake and Cavendish had
done before him, through the Straits of Magellan,
and round the Pacific Ocean to China and the East
Indies. He left Plyraouth on the 12th of June, in the Dainty,
a new ship built for the work, of between 300 and 400
tons burthen, attended by a bark of 100 tons, and a
pinnace of 60 tons. "I luffed near the shore," he says,
" to give my farewell to all the inhabitants of the town,
whereof the raost part were gathered together upon the
* Tlie Observations of Sie Richard Hawkins in his Voyage into the
South Sea in 1593 (Hakluyt Society, 1847)— a work full of shrewd and
useful obsei-vations on many points having nothing to do with this
voyage. A first part waa published shortly before his death in 1622.
He never issued the second part.

288 Sir Richard Hawkins's Voyage. [chap. xvi.
Hoe, to show their grateful correspondency to the love
and zeal which I, ray father and predecessors, have
ever borne to that place as to our natural and raother
town. And first with my noise of trumpets, after with
ray waits and then with my other music, I raade the
best signification I could of a kind farewell. This they
answered with the waits of the town, and the ordnance
on the shore, and with shouting of voices, which with
fair evening and silence of the night, were heard a great
distance off."
Contrary winds raade the voyage to Brazil a long
one. In the course of it sorae of Hawkins's men died
of scurvy, and nearly all the rest fell sick. Other
troubles befel him as he trd,versed the coast to the
south. Near Rio de la Plata, not having men enough
to work all his three vessels, he burnt the bark, and a
few days afterwards the pinnace deserted him in a
storra. The Strait of Magellan was not reached till the
19th of February, 1594. Hawkins passed out of it, and
entered the South Sea on the 29th of March. Thence
he sailed slowly along the western side of South Ame
rica. At Valparaiso he captured five small Spanish
vessels, the crews of which he treated with rare modera
tion — moderation for which even the Spaniards blamed
hira. Had he, they said, like Drake and Cavendish,
burnt all the ships he seized, intelligence of his coming
would not have been conveyed to other ports. As it
was, he deserved to suffer as a coward.
Suffering soon came to hira, if it had not come
long before, though not from cowardice. Near Lima,

1594.] His Fight with the Spaniards off Peru. 289
three strong ships carae out to raeet him. Frora thera
he escaped ; but at the raouth of Guayaquil Bay, or a
smaller bay near it, on the 23rd of June, two other ships
and a bark approached him. Hawkins saw at once that
they had hostile intentions, and were too strong to court
a battle with. His sailors, declaring that they were
Panaraa treasure-ships, were eager to fight. "They
altogether," he says, " without reason, or against reason,
broke out, sorae into vaunting and bragging, sorae into
reproaches for want of courage, others into wishings
that they had never corae out of their country, if they
should refuse to fight with any two ships whatever.
The gunner, for his part, assured me that with the first
tire of shot he would lay one of them in the suds, and
our pinnace " — a small Spanish prize had been turned
into an indifferent pinnace a month or two before —
" that she would take the other to task. One promised
that he would cut down their mainyard, another that he
would take their flag. To sorae I turned the deaf ear.
With others I disserabled, soothing and animating them
to the execution of what they promised."
In the end, having the weather-gauge of the eneray,
Hawkins resolved to meet thera, and he passed out of the
bay in order that he " raight have sea room to tight." The
Dainty and the pinnace had in all seventy-five raen.
The force in the three Spanish vessels was thirteen
hundred. As the ships approached one another, raore-
over, the vrind changed and forced the EngUsh to lee
ward. " The admu-al," says Hawkins, " weathering us,
came down upon us; which, being within musket-
VOL. II. U

290 Sir Richard Hawkins's Voyage. [chap. xvi.
shot, we hailed first with our noise of trumpets, then
with our waits, and after with our artillery ; two for one,
for they had double the ordnance we had. Imme
diately they came shoring aboard of us, upon our lee-
quarter, contrary to our expectations, and the custom of
men-of-war; and doubtless, had our gunner been the
man he was reputed to be, and as the world told him to
me, they had received great hurt by that manner of
boarding; but, contrary to all expectation, our stern-
pieces were unpinned, and so were aU those which we had
to leeward." The master gunner proved, in Hawkins's
opinion, the raost boastful and useless man in the world.
His guns were out of gear, and rauch of his araraunition
was spoiled by sea-water, through the carelessness of
his stowage. He was even supposed to be in treacherous.
league with the Spaniards. " Whether this were true
or no," says Hawkins, " I know not ; but I am sure all
in general gave him an ill report, and that he in whose
hands the chief execution of the whole fight consisted
executed nothing as was promised and expected."
Thereby the ruin of the English was nearly insured from
the first.
Yet they fought bravely through two days and two
nights. During the first day, which was Sunday, the
enemy was twice driven off; and on the first evening, upon
a third attempt beiug made by the Spaniards to board
the Dainty, one of the assailants was so disabled that,
if he could only have spared a dozen men from the
defence against the others, Hawkins says he might
easily have taken her. After that the Spaniards dared

1594.] His Fight with the Spaniards off Peru. 291
make no further attack in close quarters. They in
vited Hawkins — who already had received six wounds,
" one in the neck, very perillous ; another through the
arm, perishing the bone and cutting the sinews close by
the arm-pit " — to surrender according to the usages of
good war. A few of the English wished to accept this
offer. But Hawkins indignantly resented it, and in
terms so eloquent, that he convinced even the raost
wavering. " AU who were present," he says, " vowed
either to reraain freeraen or to sell their lives at a
price which the enemy would not be willing to pay.
Both captain and company took their leave of me,
every one particularly, and the greater part with
tears and erabracings, as though we were forthwith to
depart this world, and never see one the other again
but in heaven, proraising never raore to speak of
surrendry." Failing in that, the Spaniards determined to ply their
artillery from a distance, trusting to sink the Dainty
or to exhaust her araraunition. This they did through
Sunday night, firing on till an hoilr before daybreak,
when they held off for a few hours, " to breathe, and
reraedy such defects as were amiss." The interval the
English spent " in repairing their sails and tacklings,
stopping their leaks, fishing and woolding their masts
and yards, mending their pumps, and fitting and pro
viding theraselves for the day to corae." But for that
work the Dainty could not have kept above water
raany raore hours.
Early in Monday's fight one of Hawkins's guns carried

292 Sir Richard Hawkins's Voyage. [chap. xvi.
away the mainraast of the smaller Spanish ship, and
called off the attention of all his assailants. Had he
not been "in a manner senseless with his wounds,"
he might have tried to escape, or at any rate might
have got the weather-gauge of the eneray. " But this
occasion was let slip," as he says, and no other occasion
came to him. The fighting was resumed and continued
through all that day and all the ensuing night, untfl,
as on the previous raorning, both sides found it neces
sary to ma.ke a few hours' pause. Then they set to
work again.
But the English could not work on much longer. By
Tuesday afternoon nearly half their men were killed. The
other half were all more or less wounded. Their ship
too was a wreck. " The Dainty," says Hawkins, " had
fourteen shot under water, seven or eight foot of water
in the hold, the sails all torn, the masts all perished,
and the puinps shot to pieces." Hawkins, unless he
resorted to the desperate expedient planned by Sir
Richard Grenville in like case, had to choose between
a conditional surrender or capture without conditions.
Believing that he hiraself had not many hours more to
live, he chose the former for the sake of his comrades.
Hoisting a flag of truce, he offered to surrender if " life,
liberty, and erabarcation to England " were accorded to
all his corarades. The terms were accepted, the
Spanish commander sending his glove as a pledge that
they should be honourably observed. The commander
was not at fault ; but Spanish honour, as interpreted
by his superiors, showed itself in eight-and-twenty years

1690-1591.] Sir John Hawkins's Last Employments. 293
of hardship and iraprisonraent to Hawkins, who did not
reach England till 1622. Of the fate of his comrades
we are not informed.
Long before Sir Richard Hawkins returned to Eng
land his father had left it, never to return. After the
failure of his prize-himting expedition in 1590, Sir
John Hawkins had resumed his onerous duties as Trea
surer of the Navy. " I account myself raost unhappy,"
he said, in a letter to Lord Burghley, on the 8th of
July, 1592, " that it is my lot to follow so unpleasant a
service as is the calling upon such excessive payraents
as do daily grow; for, if it had pleased God to have
appointed rae to have served her Majesty in any other
calUng, I ara sure I should have raade my service very
acceptable to her Majesty, and ever stood in your Lord
ship's good liking and good opinion. But this endless
and unsavoury occupation in calling for raoney is
always unpleasant."* In spite, however, of the annoy
ance that he gave to the penurious Queen and the
penurious Lord Treasurer by his deraands for expendi
ture necessary 4;o the raaintenance of the navy in an
efficient state, Hawkins was too good a servant to be
dispensed with. Though considerably over seventy
years of age, he continued in office till the auturan
of 1595, when he entered on his last seafaring exploit,
being chiefly driven thereto, apparently, by a desire to
rescue his son if he was yet alive, or, if he was dead, to
take vengeance on the Spaniards.
In this exploit Sir Francis Drake was his partner.
* Baeeow, Naval Worthies of Queen Elizabeth's Beign, p. 89.

294 Drake's and Hawkins's Last Expedition, [chap. xvi.
Both men entered heartily into a project for winning
fresh spoil from the Spanish colonies in the West
Indies, which had been not only their own school in
fighting seamanship, but also the beginning of Eng
land's private and public war with Spain, now more
than twenty-five years old. Queen Elizabeth, we are
told, readily acceded to the project, and more volun
teers than they required clamoured for employment
under the oldest veteran and the raost daring hero
in the English navy.
The project was talked of in the suraraer of 1594 ;
but nothing was done till the following year. Then,
after some months of zealous preparation, on the 28th
of August, a fleet of twenty-seven ships, containing
about twenty-five hundred men, left Plymouth. Of
these ships, six were the Queen's: the Defiance, in
which Drake went as Admiral ; the Garland, under
Hawkins as Vice-Admiral ; the Hope ; the Bonaventure ;
the Foresight ; and the Adventure. Their mission was
to do as much mischief, and seize as much treasure as
they could in the Spanish Main.* The voyage was
most luckless. The fleet proceeded to the Canaries,
and there, in a warlike raid upon the principal island,
resorted to in search of food, it only succeeded enough
to take in a fresh supply of water. Thence crossing to
the West Indies, it reached Guadaloupe on the 29th of
September. Next day a straggling bark, the Francis,
* Maynardb, Sir Francis Drake his Voyage, 1595 (Hakluyt Society,
1849), p. 41 ; Monson, in Chuechill, vol. iii., p. 159 ; Baeeow, Life of
Drake, pp. 386-391.

1694-1595.] The Death of Sir John Hawkins. 295
was captured by five Spanish ships, on their way to the
Isthraus of Panama for the yearly cargo of treasure.
Imraediately after that, we are told, " Sir John Haw
kins was extrerae sick ; which his sickness began upon
news of the taking of the Francis."
That, indeed, had worse issue than the loss of the
bark and its crevr. The prisoners, being put to the
torture, revealed the object of the English expedition,
and thus in great measure spoilt it. When San
Juan de Porto Rico was reached on the 12th of No
veraber, it was found to be weU prepared for the attack
which was intended to be raade in secret. "We
received from their plants and fortresses, where they
planted ordnance," says the chronicler, " sorae twenty-
eight great shot, the last of which struck the Admiral
through the raizen, and the last but one struck through
her quarter into the steerage, the General being there
at supper, and struck the stool from under him, but
hurt him not." .
While Sir Francis Drake thus narrowly escaped death,
Sir John Hawkins was dying. He had been ill for six
weeks, and, though his illness was attributed to the loss
of the Francis, we can easily suppose that it resulted
frora the unwonted fatigues and troubles of the work to
which he had returned after raany years of quieter
occupation. His long, eventful, and raost serviceable
life, not least serviceable in those respects which were
least admirable, came to an end on the evening of this
12th of November, 1595, when he was about seventy-
five years old.

296 Drake's and Hawkins's Last Expedition, [chap. xvi.
Sir Francis Drake only survived him by eleven
weeks. After vainly attempting during a fortnight
to capture Porto Rico, he passed on to Rio de la
Hacha, which, after some parleying and treachery on
the part of the inhabitants, he stormed and burnt
wholly to the ground. He then sacked and burnt
Santa Marta and several smaller towns on the way
to Norabre de Dios. This he easily captured on the
27th of December, and here he halted with the fleet,
while Sir Thomas Baskerville attempted to conduct seven
hundred and flfty raen across the Isthmus to Panama.
Baskerville found the rough road and the opposition of
the Spaniards too troublesome and returned, after eighty
or ninety raen had been lost.
The failure, coming after other failures, and after the
death of his old friend, is reported to have broken
Drake's heart. He and Hawkins had hoped so much
frora this enterprise ; and every hope was being
foiled. On the 15th of January " he began to keep
his cabin, and to complain of a flux." Each day he
became worse, and on the 27th of January he was
almost too ill to move. Soon after midnight he started
from his bed, talked incoherently, and attempted to
dress himself. His friends led hira back to his couch,
and tried to corafort hira. At four o'clock next morn-
ning, when hardly raore than flfty years of age, he
passed out of reach of all corafort, and of all discorafort.
In the Bay of Porto Bello, within sight of Nombre de
Dios, where his prowess had been flrst largely displayed,
his body, cased in a leaden coffin, was dropped into the

1595-1596.J The Death of Sir Francis Drake, 297
sea, while all the guns and all the rauskets of his ships
gave solerau echo to the solemn words of his burial.
" The waves became his winding-sheet, the waters were his tomb ;
But for his fame the ocean sea was not suflScient room," *
So ran the shortest of a hundred poems written in
his honour, when Baskerville, returning to England
with the fleet, in May, 1596, after having had a tough
fight with the Spaniards off Cartagena, made known to
England the great loss it had sustained. The longest
poem was a fulsome epic by Charles FitzGeoffrey,
styled ' Sir Francis Drake ; his Honourable Life's Cora
raendation and his Tragical Death's Lamentation,' —
a poem not so long and not so poetical as Lope de
Vega's scurrilous ' Dragontea.' But Drake's character
was nowhere better reflected than in the sonnet which
he preflxed to a treatise written by his friend and
rival in worth, though not in success, Sir Huraphrey
GUbert. " Who seeks by worthy deeds to gain renown for hire.
Whose heart, whose hand, whose purse is pressed to purchase his
desire.
If any such there be that thirsteth after fame,
Lo, here a mean to -win himself an everlasting name.
Who seeks by gain and wealth to advance his house and blood,
Whose care is great, whose toil no less, whose hope is aU for good.
If any one there be that covets auch a trade,
Lo, here the plot for common wealth and private gain is made.
He that for virtue's sake wOl venture far and near.
Whose zeal is strong, whose practice truth, whose faith is void of fear,

* Peince, Worthies of Devon. Most of the foregoing account of
Drake's last expedition is condensed from Maynaede. Drake's
will is in .4 Selection from the Wills of Eminent Persons, 1495-1695
(Camden Society, 1863), pp. 72-79.

298 The Services of Sir Walter Raleigh, [chap. xvi.
If any such there be, enflamed with holy care.
Here may he flnd a ready mean his purpose to declare.
So that, for each degree, this treatise doth unfold
The path to fame, the proof of zeal, and way to purchase gold."
Drake was dead, and Hawkins was dead, and
Frobisher was dead, — all three deaths occurring within
a space ^of sixteen raonths. The old race of Eliza
bethan heroes on the sea was quickly dying out. But
smaller men could carry on the work they had begun.
And there were great men yet alive, — none greater,
in this respect, than Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh was
not a seaman, but he had caught the spirit of English
searaanship, and he was, especially, an excellent advo
cate of that patriotic resistance of Spain which gave
schooling and life-work to nearly every English sailor.
And he did more than advocate. While Drake and
Hawkins were planning and executing, with such poor
execution as sickness and death allowed to thera, their
last expedition, he was planning and executing a new
and famous enterprise. In his Virginia he had tried to
rob Spain of its exclusive possession of the wealth of the
New World north of Darien. In his scheme for finding
El Dorado he tried to rob Spain of its exclusive possession
of the wealth of the New World in its southern districts.
This scheme had been growing in his mind for many
years. He, like every other Englishraan, had been
attracted by the fables of the Golden City of Manoa
and the Golden Lake of Parima. Columbus had started
the fables, or at any rate had favoured the traditions
out of which they grew. Vasco Nunez de Balboa had
first been led by thera in quest of the glittering

1695-1596.1 His Quest of El Dorado, 299
phantora, and Pizarro had in foUowing it won the
empire of Peru. Two generations of daring and blood
thirsty adventurers — Alfinger and Sailler, Nicholas
Fedreman and Sebastian de Belalcazar, Hernan de
Quesada and Philip von Huten, Pedro de Ursua and
Lope de Aguirre, Martin de Proveda and Pedro de
Silva, Diego de Cerpa and Antonio de Berreo — had
hunted the phantom frora place to place until all the
northern parts of South America had been brought
under the dominion of Spain. Raleigh hoped that
where others had failed he raight succeed; and he
knew that, whether there was failure or success, he
could offer no greater insult and work no heavier injury
to Spain than by planting the English standard in this
raost sacred scene of Spanish bigotry and tyranny,
whence raost of the gold eraployed by Philip in perse
cuting Netherlanders and annoying Englishmen and
troubling the whole of Christendora, his servUe subjects
being really the greatest sufferers of all, was being
extracted with the help of cruelties that thriUed every
honest looker-on vrith horror.
Therefore he went to Guiana in 1595, and sent
Captain Laurence Keymis in 1596. The famous nar
rative of their achieveraents, however, need not here be
detailed.* It is enough to notice their significance in
connection vrith the great struggle that had been pro-
* I the more readily abstain from briefly noticing these exploits,
which would need mucli fuller notice than my plan allows, as I see that
two memoirs of Raleigh, both by competent writers, are forthcoming, in
which readers who desire such mformation will be pretty sure to find it.

300 Howard's and Essex's Expedition to Spain, [chap. xvi.
gressing now for more than thirty years between Spain
and England.
There was a faraous episode of that struggle in 1596,
when Raleigh shared in a more formidable expedition
than any hitherto prepared by England against Spain.
Beaten times without number by Englishmen upon the
sea, more than held at bay by Netherlanders in their
own horae, Philip had been steadily gaining ground in
Brittany, and his hopes of invading England had been
revived thereby. In February, 1594, in the over
weening teraper that was natural to hira, he had in
structed his new Viceroy in the Netherlands to destroy
Elizabeth's shipping at home. "I am informed by
persons well acquainted with the English coast," he
wrote, " that it would be an easy matter for a few
quick-sailing vessels to accompUsh this. Two or three
thousand soldiers might be landed at Rochester, who
might burn or sink all the unarmed vessels they could
find there, and the expedition could return and sail off
again before the people of the country could collect in
sufficient numbers to do them any damage."* That
scheme had been treated as impossible by the Viceroy,
wiser than his master. England had been insulted and
frightened, however, by a raid of Spaniards from Brit
tany upon Penzance in that year, and a similar raid
had been made upon the sarae district in 1596. Eng
land's danger was rauch increased, raoreover, by the
Spanish seizure of Calais on the 10th of April in this
* Simancas MS., cited by Motley, vol. iii., p. 293.

1596.] Their Fleet and its Departure, 301
year. Upon that Queen Ehzabeth gave her hearty
approval to a scherae that had been propounded earUer
in the spring for a prorapt and vigorous attack on
Spain. No tirae was wasted in the preparations. On the
3rd of June a fleet of nearly a hundred and flfty vessels
sailed frora Plyraouth. Seventeen of these were Queen's
ships ; seventy-six were hired vessels and volunteers.
The Netherlanders contributed eighteen men-of-war
and six store-ships. The rest were pinnaces, fly-boats,
and other smaU craft. Lord Admiral Howard had' the
.chief command at sea. The Earl of Essex, now at the
height of his favour with the Queen, was coraraander-
in-chief of the forces to be eraployed on land. Each
of these had charge of a squadron, and two other
squadrons were divided between Lord Thomas Howard
and Sir Walter Raleigh, while the Dutch contingent
under Admiral Warraond forraed a fifth squadron.
The Dutch crews and soldiers nurabered three thou
sand. Frora England there went a thousand gentle
raen volunteers, about sixty-five hundred foot soldiers,
and about as raany sailors ; the entire force being thus
more than seventeen thousand strong.* This was the
stoutest arraaraent that had ever been sent out from
England since the days of the Crusaders.
It reached Cadiz on Sunday, the 20th of June, and '
was anchored in the harbour in orderly way, to the
* Monson, in Chuechill, vol. iii., p. 160 ; Hakluyt, vol. i., p. 605 ;
Motley, vol. iii., p. 384 ; Deveeeux, Lives of the Earls of Essex, vol. i.,
pp. 357, 358.

302 Howard's and Essex's Expedition to Spain, [chap. xvi.
utter amazement both of the townspeople and of the vast
number of ships collected under shelter of the fortress.
On the foUowing day, the 21 st of June, there was a
famous battle. Imraediately after sunrise, the Spanish
ships — consisting of four great galleons, of nearly thirty
great war-ships, and of about sixty carracks and other
trading-craft well armed — shifted their moorings and
set themselves in order for the defence of the town. The
English ships weighed anchor and proceeded to attack
them. Fighting began soon after five o'clock, and was
general frora seven o'clock till one, by which time the
Spanish force was utterly defeated. Several of their
largest vessels fell into the hands of the English, to be
ransacked and spoiled by them during the afternoon.
The San Felipe, the greatest galleon that had been
built, the pride andglory of the Spanish navy, was saved
from capture by being blown up under its captain's
orders. The train was badly laid, however, and before
half its company of twelve hundred sailors and soldiers
had had time to leave it the gunpowder exploded.
" TumbUng into the sea," says Raleigh, " came heaps
of soldiers, as thick as if coals had been poured out of a
sack, in many parts at once, sorae drowned, and some
sticking in the mud." " The spectacle was very lament
able," it was also said ; " for many drowned themselves ;
many, half burnt, leaped into the water ; very many
hanging by ropes' ends to the ship's sides, under water,
even to the lips ; many, swimming with grievous
wounds, struck under water, and put out of their
pain ; and withal so huge a fire, and such tearing of

1696.] Their Capture of Cadiz and its Shipping, 303
the ordnance in the great Felipe, and in the rest, when
the fire carae to thera, as, if any man had a desire to
see hell itself, it was there raost vividly figured."
That disaster corapleted the victory of ^the English.
The Spanish ships that were still able to fight made no
further resistance. The forts of Cadiz ceased to ply
their shot. The Earl of Essex, first to leap on shore,
and three thousand soldiers who followed at his heels,
pressed up to the market-place, and, fighting at every
step, soon broke through aU the ranks of raen and the
hasty barricades that they had constructed. Lord
Howard afterwards carae up with twelve hundred raen
and a fresh store of araraunition, and Essex, thus re
inforced, then laid siege to the citadel, whither all the
surriving soldiers and most of the townspeople had fled
for safety. Before ten o'clock next morning it sur
rendered, and aU carnage was stayed. There had been
previously no raore carnage than was necessary. " The
raercy and clemency that hath been showed here, will be
spoken of throughout the world," wrote Lord Howard,
with proper pride, to the Queen's CouncU ; " no aged or
cold blood touched, no woman defiled; but all with
great care embarked and sent to Saint Mary's Port,
and other women and chUdren were likewise sent thither,
and suffered to carry away with thera aU their apparel,
and divers rich things which they had about them,
which no raan raight search for under pain of death."
Even Philip II. was forced to admit that the world
had never seen worthier proof of good soldiership, both
at sea and on land, and of chivalrous humanity among

304 Howard's and Essex's Expedition to Spain, [chap. xvi.
victors. The Dutch auxiliaries, it is said, remembering
the cruelty and lust that the Spaniards had practised
among their shattered towns and ruined homesteads,
were inclined to retaliate ; but the English hindered
thera. One raan, found stealing a woman's gown, was
sentenced by Essex to be hanged, and only pardoned
at the suit of a Spanish ecclesiastic.
The English indeed were too merciful. They did
only their duty in sparing the innocent, and resisting
the lowest teraptations of war ; but, if it was right for
thera to go out against Spain at all, it was right for
them to follow this conquest of Cadiz and spoliation of
the immense shipping in its harbour, by such further
wasting, of the military and naval force of Spain as
would lead to speedy and sure peace between the two
nations. The Earl of Essex, chief hero in the work
done on land, and sharer with Raleigh in the chief
heroism of the sea-fighting, seems to have wished to do
raore. Lord Howard, however, was satisfied with the
mischief that had already been done ; and accordingly,
after burying their dead, who were to be told by scores
against the thousands of the Spaniards, the allied
forces left Cadiz on the 4th of July. After sorae loiter
ing in Spanish waters, Howard and the raain body of
the English fieet returned to Plyraouth on the 8th of
August. Essex, stiU anxious to do further work, lagged
behind, to be taken charge of by the Dutch contingent,
and brought to the Downs on the 10th of August.*
" If my pen," said Queen Elizabeth, in her letter of
* The above details are chiefiy from Deveeeux, vol. i., pp. 357-378.

1696-1598.] Its End, and Other Projects against Spain, 305
thanks to Howard and Essex, "had as many tongues
as the flock of its owner had feathers, they could never
express the laud that ray soul yieldeth to the Highest,
for the great victory which His graceful hand hath given
us, and that you, as His instruments, have so admirably,
in so few hours, with such valour, order, and resolution,
perforraed so great an action, of which sort, I suppose
has not been seen a fellow. You have raade me
famous, dreadful, and renowned ; not raore for your vic
tory than for your courage ; nor more for either than for
such plentiful liquor of mercy, which may well match
the better of the two. Never was there heard in so
few days so great a gain obtained ; which, though I do
attribute most to the forerunners, yet I charge you let
the army know, both of sea and land, that I care not so
rauch for being Queen, as that I ara the sovereign of
such subjects, that blast my fame with their worth."
Here our record of the achievements of English sea
men under the the Tudors raay close. A great fleet of
a hundred and twenty ships went out next year, with
the Earl of Essex for Admiral, Lord Thomas Howard for
Vice-Admiral, and Sir Walter Raleigh for Rear-Admiral,
to intercept the annual fleet of treasure ships coming to
Spain from the Indies ; but it failed therein, and was
marked by Uttle save splendid show and paltry quarrel
ling. In 1598 the Earl of Curaberland led out a fleet of
twenty-three vessels with the same object, and, save in
sorae fighting to which he resorted in the Spanish Main,
with the same lack of meraorable incident. Other
expeditions, great and little, there were in abundance.
VOL. II. X

306 The End of Tudor Seamanship. [chap. xvi.
But the best that can be said of them is that they
were pompous and futile efforts to carry on the work
that had been begun by Hawkins and Drake. " In
perusing them," says their first critic, " I find many
accidents to have happened for want of tarpaulin
commanders, or gentlemen thoroughly acquainted
with maritirae affairs. I find punctilios of honour oft
insisted on by gentlemen, and the loss of many a good
design, when, on the other hand, the tarpaulins observe
no grandeur, but, like devils, count themselves most
happy that can do most and soonest mischief to their
enemies."* The bluff, dare-devil seamen of the time of Elizabeth
had passed, or were quickly passing away.! But not
* Gibson, cited in the continuation of Southey, vol. v., pp. 205, 206.
t Lord Admiral Howard did no important naval work after his great
expedition to Spain, in company with the Earl of Essex, in 1596. On
the 22nd of October in that year he was made Earl of Nottingham.
In 1599 was conferred on him the title of Lieutenant-General of all
England, " an office," says Campbell (vol. i., p. 399), " scarcely known
to former, never owned of succeeding times, and -vvhich he held with
almost regal authority for the space of six weeks, being sometimes with
ihe fleet in the Downs, and sometimes on shore with tlie forces.' He
letained his office of Lord High Admiral under James I., until 1620,
when it was transferred to the Duke of Buckingham. He died at the
age of eighty-seven, on the 14th of December, 1624. His cousin. Lord
Thomas Howard, abandoned seamanship on becoming Earl of Suffolk.
The Earl of Essex, as is well known, was executed two years after his
last expedition of 1597. The Earl of Cumberland, the other high-born
seaman, died in 1605. A new race of sailors had appeared during the
last years of Elizabeth's reign, who were " tarpaulin commanders "
almost as much as Drake and Hawkins ; but their history belongs to
the Stuart period. Sir William Monson was, perhaps the ablest of
them. Sliip-building continued till the end of Queen Elizabeth's rule. At tlie
time of her death, in 1603, her navy consisted of forty-two ships, instead

i-.9)-i6i3.] Tlie Work of the Tudor Seamen.

307

before they had done their work. They had helped to
save England frora the great danger that had threatened
it at the hands of ambitious Spain. They had punished
Spain for all its wickednesses in America and in Europe.
They had led the way to the estabUshment of a British
Empire spreading all round the globe, a hundred
times as great as Britain itself, through which were to
be disseminated all those blessings of civilization and
good government which they, in no small measure,
helped to win for their mother country. They

of the thirty-four which met the Spanish Armada iu 1588. The Bevenge,
famous for Sh- Richard Grenville's employment of it in 1591, the Van
guard, the Aid, the Bull, and the galley Bonavolio, which appear in the
list on page 217, had been lost or disabled in the course of the fifteen
years. Accordingly there were fifteen new ones : —

Names of the Ships.

The Saint Matlheie
Tlie Saint Andrew
The Mer-Honeur
The Due Bepulse
The Garland
The Warsprite .
The Defiance
The Tide .
The Adventure .
The Crane .
The Quittance ,
The Answer .
The Advantage .

1,000 900
800
700700600
500250 250
200
200200200

500
400400350
300
300 2501201*100
100
100
100

Monson, in Chuechill, vol. iii., p. 188.

308 The End of Tudor Seamanship. [Chap. xvi.
were not perfect raen ; but they were heroes. To
understand the raen themselves, we raust raeasure them
by the standards of their own tiraes. To understand
the good work that they did, aud the better work that
issued from their doings, we must compare the England
of to-day with the England which, under the Tudors,
tore off the shackles of feudalism, loosened the bondage
of priestcraft, and began to be a nation of free men.

INDEX.

Acre, the siege of, in 1190, i., 17.
Adams, William, i., 290.
Alfred the Great, improvements made
by, in English shipping, i., 7.
America, North, discovered by John
Cabot, i., 3-2-35; first English
settlements in, i., 39, 40 ; Sir Hura
phrey Gilbert's charter for the colo
nization of, i,, 179, 180 ; Sir Philip
Sidney's, i., 209, 210; Sir Walter
^ Ealeigh's, i., 200.
Anglo-Saxon ships, i., 4-7.
Armada, the Great Spanish, preparations
for, ii., 174, 179, 180, 191, 193,
201, 202 ; English preparations to
resist it, ii., 203-218; its composi
tion, ii., 214, 215; its voyage to
England, ii., 218, 219; English
fighting with it, ii., 221-239; its
flight, ii.', 239-241, 244 ; Philip II.'s
opinion regarding its failure, ii., 246.
Ashehurst, Thomas, i., 39.
Barker, Andrew, his expedition to the
West Indies, ii., 73-75.
Bartons, the, Scottish merchants and
pirates,, i., 50-54.
Baskerville, Sir Thomas, ii., 296, 297.
Brendan, St., the fable of, i., 24.
Burrough, Stephen, his north-eastern
voyage of discovery, i., 101, 246.
Burroughs, Sir John, his employment
under Kaleigh and capture of the
Madre de Dios, ii., 280-284.
Burrows, William, his employment
under Sir Hugh Willoughby, i., 92 ;
his (juan-elwith Drake, ii., 187, 196.
Cabot, John, his birth and early history,
i., 28-31 ; his discovery of North
America in 1497, i., 31-35; his
second expedition in 1498, and death,
i., 35-37.
Cabot, Sebastian, his early history, i.,
28; his north-western voyages in
VOL. II.

search of Cathay and exploration of
North America, 1498-99, i., 31-39 ;
his employments in Spain, i., 42, 44 ;
his north-western voyage with Sir
Thomas Spert, i., 43 ; liis return to
England in 1517, i., 45.
Cadiz, damage done to the Spanish fleet
at, by Drake in 1587, ii., 180-185 ;
further damage done by Essex and
Howard in 1596, ii., 302-304.
Callao, Drake's plunder of ships at, ii.,
96, 97.
Cai-tagena, Drake's piracies near, ii., 68-
70; Drake's taking of, ii., 168-t70.
Cascaes, captured hy Drake in 1589, ii.,
257, 258.
Cathay Company, the, i., 135.
 or Khitai, old fables aud tradi
tions concerning, i., 25-28 ; John
and Sebastian Cabot's voyages in
search of, i., 31-37; Willoughby's
and Chancelor's, i,, 91—100 ; Fro
bisher's, i., 122-171 ; Pet's and Jack-
man's, i., 246, 247 ; Davis's, i.,
248-274 ; Waymouth's, i., 299-304.
Carlet, David, ii., 28, 29.
Cavendish, Thomas, i., 212; ii., 120; his
voyage' to the South Sea and round
the world in 1586-8, ii., 121-136;
his second expedition in 1591-2 and
death, ii., 137-143.
Celtic ships, i., 2-4.
Chancelor, Richard, his voyage with
Willoughby in search of Cathay in
1553, i., 92, 96-101; his visit to
Russia in 1556 and shipwreck on the
way home, i., 102.
Chaucer's " Schipman," i., 13, 14.
Cinque Ports, origin and work of the, i.,
9-n.
Clinton, Edward, Earl of Lincoln, ii.,
5, 7.
Clifford, George, Earl of Cumberland,
his early history, ii., 248; his share
in the Great Armada Eight, ii., 228 ;
Y

310

Index.

his piratical and privateerinj expe
ditions, ii., 248, 249, 2fi0, 267, 281-
285, 305.
Cortereal, Caspar de, i., 106.
Corunna, the siege of, by Drake and
Norris in 1589, ii., 253, 254.
Crusaders, ships of the, i.. 15-19.
Cumberland, Earl of. See Clifford.
Cumberland Island, i., 253-255.
Dainty, Sir Kichard Hawkins's fight in
the, with the Spaniards, ii., 289-293.
Davis, John, his first voyage in search
of the north-west passage to Cathay
in 1585, i., 248-255; his second
voyage in search of the north-west
passage in 1586, i., 255-266; his
third voyage in search of the north
west passage in 1587, i., 267-272 ;
his abandonment of the work, i., 273,
274 ; his voyage to the South Sea
under Cavendish in 1591— 3, ii., 137—
140, 143-146; his voyage to the
East Indies, as pilot-major of the first
Dutch expedition in 15i38, i., 289, ii.,
146 ; his voyage to the IJast Indies,
as pilot-major of the East India Com
pany's first expedition in 1601, i.,
292 ; his last voyage to the East
Indies, 1603-1605, and death, ii.,
146, 147.
Devereus, Robert, Earl of Essex, his
early history, ii., 257 ; his share in
tlie expedition of Drake and Noi-ris
to Spain and Portugal, ii., 257; his
expedition to Cadiz in company with
Lord Admiral Howard, ii., 300-305 ;
his expedition to the Azores, ii., 305.
De Burgh, Hubert, i., 20, 21.
Doughty, Thomas, ii., 83, 87-89.
Drake, Sir l''rancis, the early history of,
ii., 40-42 ; his employment under
Hawkins in 1568, ii., 42-55; his fii-st
and second expedition to the West
Indies and the Spanish Main in 1570
and 1571, ii., 62 ; his third expedi
tion to the West Indies and the
Spanish M.iiu in 1572-3, ii., 63-72 ;
his employment in Ireland and Eng
land, ii., 76, 77 ; his voyage round the
world, 1577-1580, ii., 80-110; his
honours and occupations at home, i..

175, ii., 111-115, 158; his voyage
to the West Indies in 1585—6, ii.,
160-171 ; his expedition to Spain in
1587. ii., 173-200 ; his share in the
Great Armada Fight, ii., 203, 204,
206, 209-211, 213,217,219,222,
223, 225, 226, 229, 235-239, 244,
245 ; his plans for a fresh attack
upon Spain, ii., 247, 248 ; his expe
dition against Spain and Portugal
in 1589, with Sir John Norris, ii.,
249-259 ; his correspondence with
Henry IV. of France, ii., 285; his
last expedition to the West Indies and
death, 1585-6, ii., 294-298.
East Indies, the, early voyages to, i.,
276-290; Drake's visit tOj'^ii., 106-
110; Cavendish's visit to, ii., 131-
135. See East India Company.
East India Company, the, its formation,
i., 290-292 ; its first expedition to the
East under Lancaster and Davis, i.,
292-298; its subsequent expeditions,
i., 298, 299 ; its employment of
George Waymouth in search of the
north-west passage, i., 300—303.
Edward VI., his patronage of .'Sebastian
Cabot, i., 45, 90 ; and of Sir Hugh
Willoughby, i., 95 ; the state of the
navy during his reign, ii., 3.
El Dorado, the fables concerning, ii.,
298 ; Raleigh's seai-ch for, ii., 299.
Eliot, Hugh, i., 39.
Elizabeth, Queen, her navy, ii., 5, 7—
21, 216, 307; her bearing towards
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, i., 112, 178-
180, 185, 186, 190 ; Sir John Haw
kins, ii., 28, 37, 39, 40, 43, 266,
293 ; Sir Francis Drake, ii., 76, 77,
110-114, 158, 174, 175, 204, 206,
210, 21], 250, 256, 259, 260; Sir
Martin Frobisher, i., 122, 135, 136,
153, 157, 177 ; Sir Walter Raleigh,
i., 185, 200, 209, 231, 280; the
Earl of Esspx, ii., 257, 301, 305 ; her
relations with France, ii., 7, 14-16,
18, 148 ; with the Netherlands, i.,
40, ii., 149, 154, 155 ; with Spain,
ii., 18, 27, 38, 40, 43, 112, 148-154,
163 ; herconductduring the Armada
Fight, i=^ 202-212, 242.

Index,

311

Esquimaux, Frobisher's account of the,
i., 145-149.
Essex, Robert, Earl of. See Devereux,
Fenton, Edward, his employment in
Frobisher's north-western voyage, i.,
156 ; his expedition towards the
South Se.TS in 1582, ii., 116-120.
Fitch, Ralph, his journey to India, i.,
279.
Fitzwilliams, William, Earl of South
ampton, Lord Admiral under Henry
VIIL, i., 76.
France, English fighting with, under
the Plantagenets, i., 20, 21 ; under
Henry VIIL, i., 54^70, 76-80, ii.,
2; under Elizabeth, ii., 14-16.
Frobisher, Isabel, i., 177.
 Martin, the early history of, i.,
120-122 ; the preparations for his
Cathayan voyage, i., 122-127; his
first voyage in 1576, i., 127, 128;
his discovery of Frobisher's Straits
and Meta Incognita, i., 129-133;
the results of his voyage, i., 134-
136 ; his second voyage to Meta In
cognita, 1577, i., 137-158; his en
tertainment by Queen Elizabeth, i.,
158; his third voyage to Meta In
cognita, and discovei-y of Hudson's
Straits in 1578, ii., 155-171 ; his
troubles and employments at home,
i., 172-177; his employment under
Drake in his West Indian expedition,
ii., 162 ; his share in the Arraada
Fight, ii., 222, 225, 226, 229, 237 ;
his employment under Hawkins in an
expedition against Spain, in 1590, ii,,
266, 267 ; his employment under
Raleigh, in alike expedition, in 1592,
ii., 280, 281 ; his fighting with the
Spaniards in Brest harbour aud
death, ii., 286.
Gibraltar, a fight near, in 1590, between
English merchant ships and Spanish
gaUeys, ii., 262-265..
Gilbert, Adrian, i., 248.
 Sir Huraphrey, his early history,
i., 109, 110; his plans and projects
for reaching Cathay, i'., 108, 111,
11,5-118 ; his eraployn .its in Ire

land, i., 111-113; in Flanders, i.,
113, 114; and at horae, i., 114; his
plan for colonizing North America, i.,
178, 179 ; his fii-st e.\-pedition with
that object in 1578, i., 179-183;
his suhsequent employments in Eng
land and Ireland, i., 184-189; his
second expedition in 1583, and settle
ment in Newfoundland, i., 189-195 ;
his homeward voyage and death, i.,
196-199.
Gomez, Estevan, i., 107.
Greenland and the Greenlanders, Fro.
bisher's account of, i., 128, 158, 159 ;
Davis's account of, i., 250-252, 257-
263, 269.
Great Harry, the, i., 71, 72, 78, ii., 3.
Grcfit Michael, ijhe, i., 51.
Grenville, Sir Richard, his early history,
i., 211 ; his services and disservices
with Sir Walter Raleigh iu Virginia,
i., 211-215, 231 ; his piratical em
ployments, i., 213, 215; his great
fight with the Spaniards in 1591, ii.,
269-277.
Hall, Christopher, his employments
under Frobisher, i., 127, 159, 163-
167.
Hampton, Thomas, ii., 26, 27.
Hawkins, Sir John, his early training,
ii., 24; his first expedition to Africa
and the West Indies in 1562, ii., 26,
27 ; his second voyage in 1564, ii.,
28-37 ; his third voyage in 1567 and
1568, ii., 40-57, 60, 61 ; his over
reaching of Philip II., ii., 152, 153 ;
his work as Treasurer of the Navy,
ii., 12, 13; his share in the Gi-eat
Armada Fight, ii., 203-205, 213,
217, 222, 225, 228, 229, 237, 242 ;
his projects for invading Spain, ii.,
259, 265 ; his voyage iu search of
Spanish prizes iu 1590, ii., 266, 267 ;
his later occupation as Treasurer of
the Navy, ii., 266, 293 ; his last ex
pedition to the West Indies, and death
in 1595, ii., 293-295.
 Sir liichard, his voyage to the
South Sea and defeat by the Spaniards
in 159.3-4, ii., 287-292.
 old William, ii., 22, 23.

312

Index.

Hawkins, William, his son, ii., 24.
 . young Williara, ii., 117-120.
Henry Vll.'s encouragement of the
Cabots and other North American
discoverers, i., 31, 35, 39, 40.
 VIII.'s policy regarding voyages
of discovery, i., 41-43, 86 ; his zeal
in augmenting the English navy, i.,
46, 57, 60-63, 70-75 ; ii., 2.
Horc, Master, the voyage of, to Lahra
dor, i., 87-89.
Howards, early connection of the, with
English seamanship, i., 48, 49.
Howard, Lord Charles, of Effingham,
afterwards Earl of Nottingham, Lord
High Admiral of England, his early
history, ii., 155-157 ; his share in the
Great Armada Fight, ii., 203-208,
211-213, 217, 218, 220-222, 227-
236, 239-243; his expedition to
Cadiz in 1596, ii., 301-305; his
later history, ii., 306.
 Sir Edward, his early history, i.,
49 ; his pursuit and capture of Andrew
Barton in 1511, i., 53, 54; his ap
pointment as Lord Admiral iu 1512,
i., 57 ; his fighting with the French
and death, 1512-13, i., 57, 60, 64-
69.
 Lord Thomas, Duke of Norfolk,
his fight with Andi-ew Barton in
1511, i., 53, 54; his shaie inthe
Marquis of Dorset's expedition to
Spain in 1512, i,, 54—56; his ap
pointraent as Lord Adrairal in 1513,
i., 69 ; his death, i., 75.
 Lord Thomas, Earl of Suffolk, his
sei-vices in the Great Arraada Fight,
ii., 230 ; his expedition in search
of Spanish prizes in 1591, ii., 268-
277 ; his share in Essex's expeditious
against Spain in 1596, ii., 301, 305.
 Lord William, of Effingham, ii.,
5.
Hudson's Straits, discovei-y of, by
Frobisher, i., 164,165; entered by
Waymouth, i., 303.

Jackraan and Fet, the north, eastern
voyage of, in search of Cathay, i.,
101, 246, 247.

Java, early trade with, I., 297 ; visited
by Thomas Cavendish, ii., 134, 135.
Jay, John, of Bristol, i., 30, 31.
Jenkiuson, Anthony, i., 108-110.
John, King, his care of shipping, i., 19,
20.
Lancaster, Sir James, his first voyage
to the East Indies in 1589, i., 280-
289; his second voyage iu 1601,
i., 292-298 ; his later history, i., 299.
Lane, Ralph, his early history, i., 211,
212; his work as Governor of Vir
ginia in 1585 and 1586, i., 211,215,
228.
Levant Company, the, i., 279, 280.
Lisle, Viscount, -Duke of Northumber
land, his appointraent as Lord Ad
miral, i., 76 ; his victory over the
French atSpithead in 1545, i., 78, 79.
Lock, Michael, the cai-eer of, i., 119,
120 ; his friendship with jfrobisher,
i., 124-127; his quarrel with Fro
bisher, i., 172, 173.
Madoc, the fable of, i., 24.
Magellan's Strait, passed by Drake,
ii., 90,91; by Cavendish, ii., 122-
125; by Davis, ii., 144; by Richard
Hawkins, ii., 288.
Mary Ease, the, i., 63, 79.
Meta Incognita, Martin F-robisher's, i.,
129-135, 145-152, 167, 170.
Michelborne, Sir Edward, his voyage to
the East, ii., 146,147.
Mousou, Sir William, ii., 267, 306.
Muscovy Company, the, i., 101, 102.
New Albion, Drake's account of, and
its natives, ii., 102-105.
Newfoundland and Lahrador, discovered
by John Cabot, i., 32-34; early
trade with, i., 40, 106, 107, 186,
187 ; Sir Humphrey Gilbert's settle
ment in, i., 190, 195.
Nombre de Dios, Drake's first raid on,
ii., 64-68 ; his last visit to and death
near, ii., 296.
Norris, Sir John, his expedition against
Spain, with Drake, iu 1589, ii.,
249-259.

Index.

313

Odoric, Friar, his statements about
Cathay, i., 27, 28.
Ordnance iu Elizabeth's tirae, ii., 13.
Orkney Islands, the people of, i., 138,
139.
Oxenham, John, his services under
Drake in 1572, ii., 77; his voyage
to the Isthmus of Darien aud Pacific
Ocean iu 1575, ii., 78-80.
Panaraa, Drake's land expedition to, ii.,
70-72.
Patagonians, Drake's account of the, ii.,
85-87.
Pet and Jackman, their north-eastern
voyage in search of Cathay, i., 101,
246, 247.
Piracy under the Tudors, ii., 17-21.
Plantagenet shipping, i., 11—14.
Polo, Marco, his reports about Cathay,
i., 27.
Pope, Richard, i., 256, 257.
Port St. Julian, Drake's stay and
troubles at, ii., 85-90.
Poynings, Sir Edward, i., 49.
Prester John, i., 64—68.
Puente de Burgo, the victoij- of Drake
aud Norris at, in 1589, ii., 255, 256.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, his early history, i.,
180, 181 ; his share in Sir Hum
phrey Gilbert's first colonizing enter
prise, in 1578, i., 181-183 ; his era-
ployments in Ireland and in England,
i., 184, 185; his share in Gilbert's
second entei-prise, i., 189 ; his patent
for American colonization, i., 200; his
first expedition with that end, 1584,
i., 201-208 ; his second expedition,
1585, i., 211-230; his third e.xpedi-
tion, 1586, i., 231; his fourth expe
dition, 1587-1589, i., 232-241 ; his
employments at home, i., 210, 248 ;
his share in the Great Armada Fight,
ii., 228, 249 ; his -views regarding the
war with Spain, ii., 278, 279 ; his
privateei-ing expedition against Spain,
1592, ii., 279-284 ; his voyages in
search of El Dorado, 1595-6, ii.,
299; his share iu Essex's expeditions
to Cadiz, 1596, ii., 300-304; and
to the Azores, 1597, ii., 305.

Rayraond, George, his voyage towards
the East Indies and death, i., 280-
282.
Bevenge, Sir Richard Grenville's fight
in the, with the Spaniards in 1591,
ii., 269-277.
Richard I., the ships of, i., 15-20.
Roanoke Island, the natives of, i., 205-
208; Sir Walter Raleigh's first
colony iu, i., 218-228 ; his second
colony in, i., 233-243; the later
history of, i., 243, 244 ; its present
condition, i., 217.
Rubruquis, his account of Cathay, i., 25-
27.
Rut, John, his north-western voyage of
discovery, i., 86.
San Domingo, taken by Drake, ii., 165-
168.
San Juan de Ulloa, Hawkins's conduct
and fight at, ii., 48— 56.
Sea fights and naval battles : —
1190. Storming of Acre, i., 17, 18.
1191. Richard I.'s capture of a
Saracen vessel,.!., 18, 19.
1217. Hubert de Burgh's victory
over the French, i., 20, 21.
1512. Sir Edward Howard's fight
with the French off St.
Mahe,i.,59, 60.
1513, Sir Edward Howard's fight
with the French off Brest,
i., 67-69.
1545. Viscount Lisle's defeat of the
French at Spithead, i., 78,
79.
1560. Sir William Winter's defeat
of the French in the Firth
of Forth, ii., 14-16.
1568. Sir John Hawkins's fight with
the Spaniards at San Juan
de Ulloa, ii., 51-55.
1579. Sir Francis Drake's capture of
the Cacafuego, off Peru,
ii., 97, 98.
1587. Cavendish's capture of the
Santa Anna, off Mexico, ii.,
129, 130.
1587. Sir Francis Drake's fight with
the Spaniards in Cadiz har-
bou]-, ii., 179-185.

314

Index.

1588. The Great Armada Fight, ii.,
214-245.
1590. A battle between ten Enghsh
merchant ships and twelve
Spanish galleys, off Gibral
tar, ii., 26-2-265.
1591. Sir Richaid Grenville's fight,
in the Revenge, with a
Spanish fleet, near the
Azores, ii., 269-277.
1592. Sir John Burroughs's capture
of the Madre de Dios, near
the Azores, ii., 281-283.
1594. Sir Richard Hawkins's fight
with Spanish ships iu the
Dainty, off the coast of
Peru, ii., 289-293.
1596. Lord Howard's and the Earl of
Essex's fight with the
Spaniards in Cadiz harbour,
ii., 302-305.
Seymour, Lord Heniy, his share in the
Great Armada Fight, ii., 204, 211,
217, 231, 237.
Ships, Celtic, i., 2-4 ; Anglo-Saxon, i.,
4-9 ; under the Plantagenets,!., 11-
26; in the tirae of Henry VIIL, i.,
46, 70-74, ii., 2 ; during Edward
VI.'s reign, ii., 2, 3 ; during Mary's
reign, ii., 3-5 ; under Queen Eliza
beth, ii., 5-2i ; Queen Elizabeth's
navy iu 1578, ii., 10, 11 ; iu 1588,
ii., 216 ; in 1603, ii., 307.
Ship-raoney, Anglo-Saxon, i., 8.
Sidney, Sir Henry, his speech in favour
of voyages of discovery, i., 93, 94.
 Sir Philip, his account of Fro
bisher's discoveries aud project for
accompanying hira, i., 134 ; his pro
ject for North American colonization,
i., 209, 210; his projected expedition
to the West Indies with Drake, ii.,
159-162.
Spain, origin of England's quarrel with,
ii., 26-28, 38-39 ; progress of, ii., 43,
44, 80, 81, 111-114, 148-155,
172-174, 194, 199-305.

Spanish Llain, Hawkins's exploits in the,
ii., 32-36, 46-48 ; Drake'.^ ii., 62-
72 ; Barker's, ii., 73, 74 ; Oxenham's,
ii., 78, 79.
Spert, Sir Thomas, i., 43.
Stevens, F-athcr Thomas, his voyage to
India in 1579, i., 277-280.
Suraati-a, the first English intercourse
with, i., 295-297.
Tei-nate, Drake's account of the king au<l
natives of, h., 106-108.
Thorne, Robert, his arguments in favour
of Arctic discovery, i., 82-85.
Tobacco, introduced into England by
Ralph Lane, i., 229.
Valparaiso, Drake's spoliation of, ii.,
96.
Verrazano, Juan de, i., 106, 107.
Virginia, Sir Walter Raleigh's first ex
pedition to, i., 200-208 ; his second
expedition, i., 211-230 ; his third
expedition, i., 231 ; his fourth e.\-
pedition, i., 232-241 ; its later his
tory, i., 243, 244.
Warde, Richard, i., 39.
Wayraouth, George, i., 299 ; his north
west voyage, i., 300—303.
Warwick's, the Countess of, Island and
Sound, i., 145.
White, John, his services under Raleigh
in Virginia, 1587-1589, i., 232-
243.
Willoughby, Sir Hugh, his voyage in
search of a north-east passage to
Cathay in 1553, i., 92, 96-99.
Winter, Sir William, his work as
Master of the Ordnance of the Navy,
ii., 13 ; his fighting with the French,
ii., 14—16 ; his share in the Great
Armada Fight, ii., 205, 231, 233,
234, 237, 238.
Wolsey, Cardinal, his improvement of
the English navy, i., 57, 61- 3.

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