Chapter IX: Francis Drake, the Scourge of Spain

Francis Drake had a kinsman at Plymouth who had been the first Englishman to sail to the Brazils--William Hawkins, father of John, a rich merchant and shipowner. Drake's father, Edmund, had been a sailor in his youth, and was settled near Tavistock when Francis was a child; he was a strong "Reformation man," and his preaching had made him enemies, so that he had to fly and take shelter in an old ship at Chatham, where his friends obtained for him the post of Reader of Prayers to the Royal Navy. Thus little Francis drank in at a very early age the sights and sounds of the sea, while his mind was nursed on denunciations of Rome and hatred of religious tyranny. A man with twelve children must plant them out early, and Francis was apprenticed as a boy to the skipper of a small craft that traded to Holland. As a boy he thus was brought into contact with Flemings flying from persecution, and the horrors of the Inquisition were his daily subject of talk. The rough usage of those days built him up into a sturdy, thick-set, rollicking youngster; he must have shown a rare spirit even then, for his master liked him so well that at his death he left Francis the vessel on which he served.

In 1564 Spain closed her ports to the English, so Drake sold his ship and entered the service of his kinsmen, John and William Hawkins.

John had just returned from his first slaving voyage, and was being lionised in London on account of the enormous profits of his expedition.

Francis Drake sailed to Biscay under William, and at St. Sebastian met some Plymouth sailors who had just emerged half-dead from the dungeons of the Inquisition. Thus little by little the "Scourge of the Spanish Main" was being moulded by sights and sounds of cruelty to fight against Philip.

Then he sailed under Fenner to the West Indies and saw some sharp conflicts, was treacherously attacked, and came home empty-handed.

Again, in 1567, he sailed as pilot under John Hawkins to Guinea, took a prize, _The Grace of God_, and was made its captain.

It is very strange how history repeats itself, for Las Casas, the apostle to the Indians, was even then urging the employment of negroes to take the place of the Indians in South America, who died too quickly in their forced service: just as the Chinese were recently brought over to the Rand to save the lives of the Kaffirs. So John Hawkins had good authority for his kidnapping of African slaves, and may have thought he was doing good, not evil.

How the voyage prospered has been told in an earlier chapter.

But it sent home Hawkins and Drake in a temper that boded ill for Philip, if ever opportunity should make a great revenge a possibility.

Drake no sooner arrived at Plymouth than he was bidden by William Hawkins to ride post-haste to London to inform the Council of his ill-treatment. It was another argument in favour of war with Spain.

Drake took service in the Queen's Navy, and sailed under Sir William Winter to Rochelle, to convoy English merchantmen to the Baltic.

That summer he came home on leave and married Mary Newman, who was living at St. Bordeaux, close to Plymouth.

But his domestic happiness was soon broken off by his being ordered to sail with the _Dragon_ and the _Swan_ to the Spanish Indies. He was only to use his senses and find out where Spain was most vulnerable.

In the following year Drake sailed again with the _Swan_ only; he made a few prizes, and treated his captives so humanely and generously that his name was at first not a word of terror, but associated with kindness.

However, he had come home with such a poor opinion of Spanish prowess that he conceived the idea of sailing to the Gulf of Darien and seizing the treasure-house and all its spoils.

On May 24, 1572, Drake sailed out of Plymouth Sound on board the _Pasha_, of 70 tons, with his brother John in command of the _Swan_, of 25 tons. His brother Joseph was there too, and John Oxenham and other volunteers; the crews numbered but seventy-three in all, and the project was to seize the port of Nombre de Dios, and carry off the gold and silver bars.

On July 12th he arrived at a tiny land-locked bay, where he had formerly been, and had concealed his stores--Port Pheasant, as he had styled it.

On landing they found a warning inscribed on a plate of lead and fastened to a huge tree: "Captain Drake, if you fortune to come into the port, make haste away, for the Spaniards have betrayed this place and taken away all that you left.--Your loving friend, JOHN GARRETT."

But Drake had intended to set up three pinnaces here, which he had brought over in pieces; so he cleared and entrenched a spot in the wood and set to work with his carpenters. As they laboured and hammered and sang, suddenly a little squadron sailed in, a ship, a caravel, and a shallop.

They were getting ready to defend themselves, when a hearty English "hail" rang out, "Who are you?" "Captain James Ranse, with Sir Edward Horsey's fleet."

"What! old Ned Horsey, the pirate! Come along and have a drink, sir!"

The frank, blue-eyed Drake laughed heartily and clapped on the back some of the newcomers, who had served under him the year before.

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Drake and his men rushed up the main street, some with firearms, others with bows and arrows, and carrying flaming pikes.

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The upshot was that these thirty-eight men agreed to join Drake in his mad project; for there was a magnetic power in this born leader of men, as in all great leaders; they could not help believing in him and loving him for his very rashness and devilry--Drake, the Robin Hood of the ocean.

When the pinnaces were put together they stole along the coast, seized and questioned some negroes whom they found, and heard that all the country from Panama to Nombre de Dios was held by a savage, black people, a mixed race of African escaped slaves intermarried with Indian women, and forming a tribe of splendid giants, formidable to their late masters, the Spaniards, and terribly cruel. But, owing to their recent outrages, the people of Nombre de Dios had sent to Panama for help, and Drake's surprise did not look feasible.

However, with seventy-three men armed, some of them with bows and arrows and gear for holding blazing tow, Drake crept along near the shore in the dark.

As they landed under the shore battery they heard the city waking to a panic, for they dreaded an attack of the half-breeds: first came a confused murmur, then women's shrieks, then shouts of command and the tuck of drums. Drake and his men rushed up the main street, meeting at the Plaza a splutter of gun-shots and then a long roar of musketry. In the midst of the fray John Drake and Oxenham broke in upon the Spaniards' flank, who turned and fled, pursued by flaming pikes and arrows. On entering the governor's house Drake saw a great pile of silver bars shining from floor to ceiling--a pile seventy feet in length.

"Not one bar to be touched, lads," shouted Drake, "till the fighting be done."

As they hurried back to the streets a tropical storm burst on them, and they had to take cover in a long shed. As they tried to repair the damage done to matchlock and bowstring, Drake marked the signs of fatigue and fear, and shouted: "Lads, I have brought you to the mouth of the treasure-house of the world. Blame nobody but yourselves if ye go away empty."

As Drake stepped forward to lead the way to the treasury door, he suddenly rolled over speechless in the sand. As they stooped to lift him, they noted a pool of blood, and a wound in his leg which he had hidden for some time. They carried him to the pinnace and rowed back to the ships, the sun just rising to see Drake's great failure, which had so nearly succeeded.

Next day a Spanish general rode round to the bay where Drake's ships lay, and asked if this was indeed the chivalrous "El Draque" who never drowned his prisoners?

"Yes," laughed Drake, "but go tell your governor that before I depart, if God lend me life and leave, I mean to reap some of your harvest which you get out of the earth, and send into Spain to trouble all the world."

In ten days' time Drake swooped down upon Cartagena, cut out a rich ship, and carried it in triumph out to sea; then the Spaniards lost sight of him and his. But Drake was only hiding in a pretty little bay, resting his men and feeding them with game and fish and fruit. A negro friend, Diego, put him in communication with the Maroons, as the mixed race was called, and they showed him how to seize the treasure as it was borne on mules across the isthmus. They had to wait till the dry season, so Drake kept his men cheery and well by games and daring cutting out of vessels; yet withal he displayed much caution and far-sighted skill in all he did, so that there were no laments, no thought of mutiny or discontent.

In December his brother John was killed while attacking a Spanish frigate full of musketeers: it caused Drake and many others great sorrow, for he had been a brave and trusty comrade.

In January 1573 a fever came and struck down half the company: Joseph Drake expired in his brother's arms, and soon after the Maroon scouts ran up to tell the English that the Spanish fleet had come for the treasure.

Only eighteen men were fit to go upon Drake's new adventure, and these with thirty Maroons plunged into the forest track. The Maroons were splendid scouts and hunters, and insisted on carrying all the burdens. On the fourth day they had reached the summit of the range, where stood up a giant of the forest; into this Drake climbed and saw before him the golden Pacific, behind him rolled the silver Atlantic. With strange feelings of wonder, piety, and ambition the great sea-rover gazed upon the unknown waters of the west, and prayed the Almighty to give him life and leave to sail once in an English ship in that sea.

Then he climbed down and told the men of his prayer; thereat John Oxenham vowed a great vow, "Unless the captain doth beat me from his company, I will follow him, by God's grace so I will!"

He knew not how his prayer was to be in part heard, but instead of coming home with hands full of gold, he was to be taken and executed at Lima.

Meanwhile Drake's party went on, and lay in ambush a league outside the gates of Panama. A spy brought word that two large mule-trains laden with silver were in the market-place, making ready to start; while with them was to ride the treasurer of Lima, with eight mule-loads of gold and one of jewels.

They pulled their shirts over their clothes as for a night-attack, and lay in two companies some fifty yards apart.

What a momentous hour that was, as they waited for the tinkle of the mule-bells in the long grass! they had been bidden to lie quiet if any traveller came riding towards Panama. One such did come, and one fool, half-drunk, fired at him, sending him at a gallop to tell his friends that El Draque had sprung up again.

The astute treasurer bided in the city and sent on the silver only.

So when the tinkle grew loud and Drake stood up and blew his whistle, and the men sprang upon the mules and ripped open the bags--only silver was found. Soon they heard the tramp of armed men coming from Panama; there was no time to lose, they must abandon the loot and escape--that miserable drunkard had spoilt all. They made for Venta Cruz, and charged like madmen into the little town.

There was a hospital there, full of sick ladies and young mothers; these poor creatures believed they would all be burnt to death, and screamed aloud for mercy.

"Have I not ordered that no woman shall be touched?" said Drake.

"Yea, sir, but they will not believe it is true."

Then the dreaded rover, El Draque himself, entered the great ward of the hospital, and spoke words of comfort to the ladies; and when they saw the kind and merry light in his frank blue eyes, they were quite content.

Drake and his men were away before the soldiers came from Panama. Whither he went they knew not; but in the next fortnight two or three Spanish frigates reported having been boarded by a polite pirate, who insisted on relieving them of most of their gold. A panic set in, and the gold ships were afraid to stir.

On the last night of March, as the mule-trains, laden with silver and gold, were drawing near to Nombre de Dios, there was a sudden yell from the Maroons, "Yo Peho!" and a crashing of firearms. The mules knelt down, and Drake's men rifled the packs, and were away before the alarm could be given.

One day before this, a Huguenot privateer came across an English ship and begged for help. "Come on board and tell your story," signalled the English captain.

The Frenchman came and told a tale which startled all who understood. It was just the latest news from Paris--nothing else but the St. Bartholomew massacre!

"Just God!" cried Francis Drake, "may I do something to crush this tyranny!"

There and then the Huguenot and the sea-rover made a compact to work together. The Frenchmen were with Drake when he made his attack on the mule-train, and helped to carry the silver bars to the river-mouth, where the pinnaces were to meet them. Drenched by a rain-storm they looked for the pinnaces; but, instead, saw seven Spanish vessels rowing towards Nombre de Dios. What was the good of their staggering under a weight of treasure if they had no means of carrying it home! They sat down and looked at one another in blank despair.

But Francis Drake alone was laughing--positively laughing--though his fate was apparently sealed; torture and a hideous prison, and a shameful death.

The Frenchmen gazed upon him with open-mouthed wonder. Who was this short, well-set seaman, with broad chest and long brown hair, with full beard tapering, brown to russet, with full blue eyes and fair complexion, that he should exercise so strange an influence over his men?

For already, when Drake came to them, and in a few cheery words heartened them, they smiled the smile of hope, and were ready to do his bidding.

"Now, boys, cheer up! See ye not how God hath sent a heavy storm to help us? What are those things drifting down with the current? are they not big trees sent to help us home, boys? Come, let us make a raft; we will reach our ships long before the lazy Spaniards have made up their minds how to catch us. This is no time to fear, but rather to haste, and prevent that which is feared. The raft, boys, the raft! quick! to stay the tree-trunks."

In a very short time they had caught and harnessed the drifting trunks--one Englishman and two Frenchmen joined Drake upon the raft. They had a biscuit-bag for a sail and a slender tree for a rudder, and as they pushed off into the stream, Drake waved his hat and shouted cheerily:

"If it please God that I shall ever set foot aboard my frigate in safety, I will by one means or another get you all aboard, in despite of all the Spaniards in the Indies."

As they reached the bar, every wave came surging up to their arm-pits as they sat and held on like grim death. Then when they lost the current and tried to row with extemporised oars, the hot sun and the salt sea parched them, and the toil for six long hours wearied them, till hope sank very low.

Then all of a sudden Drake stopped rowing and shaded his eyes with his hand: "See, lads! there be our pinnaces bearing straight for us--all fear is over now; we are saved by the mercy of God."

But the pinnaces had not seen the raft, and soon disappeared behind a headland, making for their night's quarters.

There was a great surf raging along the shore, but Drake steered the raft straight through it; so, soused and bruised and tumbled, they came merrily ashore.

The crews stood up to receive four shipwrecked, ragged strangers--heathen perhaps! But when one of them hailed them in the tones they knew so well, they were horrified! Their great captain reduced to this scant following!

Then came explanations, and when they pleaded the storm which had swept the pinnaces away, Drake forgave them, and pulling a quoit of gold from his bosom he said, "Give thanks to God, our voyage is made!"

So it was; for they soon picked up the others and all the booty, and Drake made sail for home, running in close at Cartagena with the flag of St. George waving a mad defiance at his mast-head, and all his silken pennants and floating ensigns bidding the Spaniards a farewell in pure devilry of mocking fun.

But before they left the coast they had to set ashore their Maroon friends. Pedro, their chief, had taken a fancy to Drake's sword, and Drake gave it to him gladly; then Pedro desired him to accept four wedges of gold, which he did with all courtesy, and the allies parted in great good-humour.

The voyage home was so prosperous that in twenty-three days they sailed from Cape Florida to the Scilly Isles. It was Sunday, August 9, 1573, when they sailed into Plymouth harbour, making the echoes speak to the thunder of their salute. Folk were in church at the time, and to the dismay of the preacher the congregation jumped up and ran out to see what was toward, so that "there remained few or no people with the preacher."

"'Tis Master Francis Drake come home at last!" All Plymouth went down to the water's edge to greet their special hero--Drake of Devon!

But Francis Drake had not arrived at a happy moment for himself. Alva had been offering good terms, and the Queen was surrounded just then by friends of Spain. Drake's position was one of danger; he might possibly be given up to Philip as a mere pirate who had not the Queen's sanction. So he took his ship round to Queenstown and hid in "Drake's Pool."

Time went on, and still politics made his life dangerous; so Drake with a letter of introduction from Hawkins joined Essex in Ireland. It was a very cruel and heartless war, even against women and children; and from what we have seen of Drake's chivalry to women, it must have been most loathsome to his great soul. However, when he returned to London things had changed; this time the Queen was very angry with Philip, and she sent Walsingham to seek out Drake. The Queen was very gracious, and said she wanted Drake to help her against the King of Spain. How his heart must have leapt up with a new hope; but the wind of policy veered again, and nothing came of the interview at first. Still, it was something to have been introduced to the Queen by Sir Christopher Hatton; and when that lady gave Drake a sword and said, "We do account that he which striketh at thee, Drake, striketh at us," he must have felt a proud man.

A man so frank and open as Francis Drake was, must have found it difficult to follow the shifts and turns of policy. The Queen would not openly give her sanction to a new expedition, but she secretly aided the enterprise; and Sir John Hawkins and many others subscribed.

Drake was to sail in the _Pelican_, 100 tons; Captain Winter in the _Elizabeth_, of 80. There were also the _Marygold_, the _Loan_, and the _Christopher_, a pinnace, of 35 tons. The crews, officers and gentlemen, amounted to some two hundred.

They sailed from Plymouth on the 15th of November 1577, but a terrible storm off Falmouth obliged them to put back. They started afresh on the 13th of December, and were to meet at Mogadore, on the coast of Barbary. It seems that Burghley did not approve of Drake's bold venture, and had sent Thomas Doughtie, with secret orders to do what he could to limit the risks and scope of the expedition. Doughtie was a personal friend of Drake, and it was some time before Sir Francis found out what Doughtie was doing--such as tampering with the men and trying to lessen Drake's influence. When they were near the equator, Drake, being very careful of his men's health, let every man's blood with his own hands.

In February they made the coast of Brazil, without losing touch of one another. Here they landed and saw "great store of large and mighty deer." They also found places for drying the flesh of the nandu, or American ostrich, whose thighs were as large as "reasonable legs of mutton." Further south they stored seal-flesh, having slain over two hundred in the space of an hour! The natives whom they saw were naked, saving only that they wore the skin of some beast about their waist. They carried bows an ell long, and two arrows, and were painted white on one side and black on the other.

They were a tall, merry race; delighted in the sound of the trumpet, and danced with the sailors. One of them, seeing the men take their morning draught, took a glass of strong Canary wine and tossed it off; but it immediately went to his head, and he fell on his back. However, the savage took such a liking to the draught that he used to come down from the hills every morning, bellowing "Wine! wine!"

A few days later there was a scuffle at Port Julian with the natives, and Robert Winter was killed. But a greater tragedy was impending.

Sixty years before, Magellan had crushed a mutiny on this spot, and the old fir-posts that formed the gallows still stood out on the windy headland.

For some months now Drake had been harassed by mutinous conduct, and all the evidence pointed to his old friend Doughtie being at the bottom of it. One day Drake, in a sudden burst of wrath, had ordered Doughtie to be chained to the mast. Yet, as the ships rode south into the cold winds, the crews murmured more savagely. Doughtie and his friends were demoralising Captain John Winter's ship. Something must be done, and done quickly, if the expedition was not to fail.

On the last day of June the crews were ordered ashore. There, hard by Magellan's gallows, an English jury or court-martial, with Winter as president, was set to try Doughtie for treason and mutiny. The court, after much wrangling, found the prisoner "Not guilty." But Doughtie in the midst of the trial had boasted that he had betrayed the Queen's secret to Burghley. Thereat Drake took his men down to the shore and told them all how the Queen's consent had been privately given, and how Doughtie had done his best to overthrow their enterprise.

"They that think this man worthy of death," he shouted, "let them with me hold up their hands." As he spoke almost every man's hand went up.

"Thomas Doughtie, seeing no remedy but patience for himself, desired before his death to receive the communion, which he did at the hands of Master Fletcher, our minister, and our general himself accompanied him in that holy action." Then in quiet sort, after taking leave of all the company, Doughtie laid his head on the block and ended his life. Then Drake addressed his men. He forgave John Doughtie, but said all discords must cease, and the gentleman must haul and draw with the mariner. From that moment discipline was established, and there were no more quarrels.

The _Pelican_, the _Elizabeth_, and the _Marygold_, the only ships that remained, now set sail, and on August 20, 1578, hove to before the Straits of Magellan. It was here that Drake changed the name of his ship to the _Golden Hind_, perhaps in compliment to his friend Sir Christopher Hatton, who bore it in his arms.

So rapid was the passage through the Straits that in a fortnight they had reached the Pacific. Drake's intention was to steer north and get out of the nipping cold, but a gale from the north-east came on and lasted three weeks, when the _Marygold_ went down, and Winter, after waiting a month for Drake within the Straits, went home. Drake in the _Golden Hind_ was swept south of Cape Horn, "where the Atlantic Ocean and the South Sea meet in a large and free scope."

Drake went ashore, and leaning over a promontory, amused himself by thinking that he had been further south than any man living.

After anchoring for some time in southern islands, Drake sailed north, and finding an Indian pilot, steered for Valparaiso.

In the harbour lay a Spanish ship waiting for a wind to carry them to Panama with their cargo of gold and wine of Chili. When the lazy crew saw a sail appearing, they made ready to welcome the newcomers with a pipe of wine, and beat a drum as a merry salute.

No foreign ship had ever been seen on those western coasts; they had no thought of danger, when a boat drew alongside, and Thomas Moon clambered up and shouted, "Abaxo perro!" ("Down! you dog!"), and began to lay about him lustily.

The eight Spaniards and three negroes on board were soon safely secured under hatches; then they rifled the little town, and took the prize out to sea for more leisurely search: 1770 jars of Chili wine and 60,000 pieces of gold and some pearls rewarded their efforts. Drake now wished to sack Lima and find Winter. Meanwhile he tarried in a hidden bay for a month, and refreshed his men in a delightful climate.

Then they proceeded slowly along the coast. One day while looking for water they came upon a Spaniard lying asleep with thirteen bars of silver by his side. "Excuse us, sir, but we could not really allow you to burden yourself with all this." Several merry raids of this sort kept the men jolly and in good temper. Leisurely though the _Golden Hind_ was sailing northwards, no news had come to Lima of the English rover being on the sea.

A Portuguese piloted Drake into the harbour of Callao after nightfall, "sailing in between all the ships that lay there, seventeen in number." These they rifled, and heard that a ship, the _Cacafuego_, laden with silver, had just sailed. As they were getting ready to follow, a ship from Panama entered the harbour and anchored close by the _Golden Hind_. A custom-house boat put off and hailed them, and a Spaniard was in the act of mounting the steps when he saw a big gun mouthing at him. He was over the side in a moment and in his boat crying the alarm! The Panama vessel cut her cable and put to sea, but the _Golden Hind_ followed in pursuit and soon caught her.

In the next few days, as they were following the _Cacafuego_, they made a few prizes, which pleased the men vastly; and after crossing the line on 24th February, saw the _Cacafuego_ about four leagues ahead of them.

The Spanish captain slowed down for a chat, as he supposed; but when Drake hailed them to strike, they refused. "So with a great piece he shot her mast overboard, and having wounded the master with an arrow, the ship yielded."

Four days they lay beside her transferring the cargo--gold, silver, and precious stones--so that the _Golden Hind_ was now ballasted with silver.

The whole value was estimated at 360,000 pieces of gold. Drake gave the captain a letter of safe conduct in case he should meet his other ships.

"Master Wynter, if it pleaseth God that you should chance to meet with this ship of Señor Juan de Anton, I pray you use him well, according to my word and promise given unto them; and if you want anything that is in this ship, I pray you pay them double the value of it, which I will satisfy again; command your men not to do her any hurt.... I desire you, for the passion of Christ, if you fall into any danger, that you will not despair of God's mercy, for He will defend you and preserve you from all danger, and bring us to our desired haven: to whom be all honour, glory, and praise, for ever and ever. Amen.--Your sorrowful captain, whose heart is heavy for you, FRANCIS DRAKE."

We are told that Robin Hood liked to attend mass every morning, but even he does not astonish us by his piety so much as this "great dragon" of the seas. No doubt it was all genuine, and he believed he was only doing his duty when he robbed King Philip's ships, and thereby weakened his power for persecuting those who did not agree with him in his religious views.

"They that take the sword shall perish with the sword."

Francis Drake felt himself commissioned by a greater than Queen Elizabeth. "I am the man I have promised to be, beseeching God, the Saviour of all the world, to have us in His keeping "--so he writes in his letter to Winter.

The question now before them was how to get home. The whole west coast of America was now alarmed, and the Spaniards would stop him if he tried to return by the Straits as he came. So Drake called the ship's company together and took them into counsel. He desired to sail north and find a way home by the North-west Passage; for he, too, was possessed by that chimerical idea.

"All of us," writes one of his company, "willingly hearkened and consented 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 provisions as we could get; thenceforward to hasten on our intended journey for the discovery of the said passage, through which we might with joy return to our longed homes."

On 16th March they made the coast of Nicaragua and effected some captures. Swooping down upon the little port of Guatuleo, they found the judges sitting in court, and as a merry change for them, the whole court, judges and counsel and prisoners, were carried off to the _Golden Hind_, where, amid hearty laughter, the chief judge was bidden to write an order for all the inhabitants to leave the town for twenty-four hours. Then Drake and his men went ashore and replenished their cupboards from the Spanish storehouses. The next capture was a vessel containing two Chinese pilots, who had all the secret charts for sailing across the Pacific.

We may well believe that Drake, as he pored over these in his little cabin, may have thought to himself, "Why should not we go home that way, and thus have sailed round the globe?"

On 3rd June they had reached latitude 42° N., and were feeling the cold extremely. A storm was blowing as they reached Vancouver Island, and here they turned back, and after turning south ten degrees put into a fair and good bay, where the white cliffs reminded them of home, probably near San Francisco.

The natives came round in their canoes, and one threw a small rush basket full of tabah, or tobacco, into the ship's boat.

Tents were put up on the shore and fortified by stones, but the red folk who assembled seemed to be worshipping the strangers as gods. Presents were exchanged, but their women "tormented themselves lamentably, tearing chest and bosom with their nails, and dashing themselves on the ground till they were covered with blood." Drake at once ordered all his crew to prayers. The natives seemed to half-understand the ceremony, and chanted a solemn "Oh!" at every pause.

Next day the great chief came with his retinue in feathered cloaks and painted faces. The red men sang and the women danced, until the chief advanced and put his coronet on Drake's head. These people lived in circular dens hollowed in the ground; they slept upon rushes round a central fire. The men were nearly naked; the women wore a garment of bulrushes round the waist and a deer-skin over the shoulders.

When at the end of July the _Golden Hind_ weighed anchor, loud lamentations went up and fires were lit on the hilltops as a last sacrifice to the divine strangers. For sixty-eight days they sailed west and saw no land; then they came to islands where the natives pilfered; then they made the Philippines, and in November the Moluccas. Drake anchored at a small island near Celebes, east of Borneo, and spent four weeks in cleaning and repairing his ship. Here they saw bats as big as hens, and land-crabs, "very good and restoring meat," which had a habit of climbing up into trees when pursued.

As they sailed west they got entangled among islands and shoals, and on the 9th of January 1579 they sailed full tilt upon a rocky shoal and stuck fast.

Boats were got out to find a place for an anchor upon which they might haul, but at the distance of a boat's length they found deep water and no bottom. The ship remained on the shoal all that night. First they tried every shift they could think of, but the treasure-laden vessel refused to budge. Then Drake, seeing all was hopeless, and that not only the treasure, but all their lives, were likely to be lost, summoned the men to prayers. In solemn preparation for death they took the Sacrament together.

Then, when the ship seemed fast beyond their strength to move her, Drake, with the same instinct that prompted Cromwell after him to say, "Trust in God, but keep your powder dry," gave orders to throw overboard eight guns.

They went splash into the six feet of water by the side, and the ship took no notice at all; so Drake, with a sigh, cried, "Throw out three tons of cloves--sugar--spices--anything;" till the sea was like a caudle all around. And the _Golden Hind_ still rested quietly on the shelving rock, with only six feet of water on one side, whereas it needed thirteen to float her. The wind blew freshly and kept her upright as the tide went down. The crew began to look curiously at one another, and to wonder what would happen when all their food was consumed.

At the lowest of the tide the wind suddenly fell, and the ship losing this support, fell over sideways towards the deep water.

So they were to be drowned after all, for she must fill now.

No; there was a harsh scraping sound heard. Could it be possible? Yes; her keel was slipping down the slope very gently and mercifully.

What a shout these sea-worn mariners raised; how they thanked God for this salvation; for the relief had come at low tide, when all their efforts seemed to be useless. Surely it was a miracle--an answer to their captain's prayers. On reaching Java, Drake was informed that there were large ships not far off--Portuguese settlements were rather too near to be safe; so he steered for the Cape of Good Hope, which his men thought "a most stately thing, and the fairest cape they had seen in the whole circumference of the earth."

As the _Golden Hind_ sailed along by Sierra Leone and towards Europe, the great sea rover must have felt that the prayer he had breathed within the mammoth tree on Darien six years before was at last fulfilled.

He had sailed the South Sea and crossed the Pacific and made the compass of the round world in the _Golden Hind_ within three years.

As they reckoned, when nearing Plymouth Sound, it was Monday, September 25, 1580, but within an hour they learnt that they had arrived on Sunday.

No one expected them; no one at first realised what vessel it was that came silently to anchorage, heavy and slow from the barnacles and weeds; for the news had come home that Drake had been hanged by the Spaniards. But only in August last, Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, had come to Burghley with a wild tale sent him by the Viceroy of Mexico, that El Draque had been ravaging the Pacific, and playing the pirate amongst King Philip's ships. The Queen pretended she knew nothing about it, and pacified the ambassador by seeming to agree with him that Drake was a very naughty man indeed. So, when the _Golden Hind_ dropped her anchor, a few friends took boat and told her captain how things were going at Court.

Drake's blue eyes at first looked steely. Had he sailed round the world and brought all this treasure home to be given over to Spain?

But a moment's thought brought a merry twinkle into those eyes, and he gave a sharp order: "Up with the anchor, there! Warp her out behind St. Nicholas Island!"

If he must be treated as a pirate, then they must catch him if they can. "You will take my excuses to the Mayor, and tell him how gladly I would land; but you have the plague, I hear, at Plymouth; our constitutions are hardly strong enough to bear an attack of plague."

Meanwhile a messenger was sent by Drake post-haste to London, with gifts for the Queen and Burghley; then a visit from Drake's wife and some friends made the time pass pleasantly enough. Yet it was somewhat galling to the brave adventurer to have to wait a week for tidings as to whether he was to lose his head for piracy, or win a Queen's admiration for performing a great feat of seamanship. At last a summons to Court was brought to Plymouth. Drake, of course, obeyed the Queen's command, but he did not venture to London alone. Many friends rode with him, and no doubt they enjoyed themselves, as sailors will, on their long journey, especially when they came to Sherborne Castle and Sir Walter Raleigh. A long train of pack-horses followed, laden with delicate attentions for royal ladies. Just as he was drawing near London, the news came that Philip had seized Portugal and was posing as the master of the world. Still more startling news came that a Spanish force had landed in Ireland. The Council were half disposed to make peace on any terms, when Drake came stalking in amongst the half-hearted courtiers.

The Queen saw him, heard the strange story of his madcap adventures, caught the audacious spirit of her bravest seaman, and stood firm against the timid proposers of peace. Besides, she was simply charmed by the lovely presents he offered her, and sent Drake back to Plymouth with a private letter under her sign-manual, ordering him to take ten thousand pounds worth of bullion for himself. The rest was sent up to the Tower, after the crew had received their share. Then Drake brought the _Golden Hind_ round and up the Thames for all the town to gape and wonder at, while the crew swaggered about the streets of Deptford like little princes; and so the news of the great treasure flew from city to hamlet, and from hill to vale, increasing with the miles it posted.

The Queen ordered that Drake's ship should be drawn up in a little creek near Deptford, and there should be kept as a memorial for ever.

Then, the more to honour her champion, she went on board and partook of a grand banquet under an awning on the main deck. "Francis Drake, kneel down." The sword was lightly placed on his shoulder, and he rose "Sir Francis."

The _Golden Hind_ remained at Deptford, as a show vessel that had been round the world, until it dropped to pieces. From one of its planks a chair was made and presented to the University of Oxford.

Thus the politics of England were influenced by a seaman--a hero who knew not fear, and who dared to say what he thought, even though it was to his Queen.