_From an original Picture in the possession of
Sir T. F. Eliott Drake Bar^t. of Nutwell Court, near Exeter._
Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge.
_London. Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street._
]
Dr. Johnson, in his ‘Life of Drake,’ states, with perfect complacency
and without a word of qualification, that the bold sailor determined on
an expedition, “by which the Spaniards should feel how imprudently they
always act who injure and insult a brave man.” In his national zeal, the
moralist seems to have forgotten that the retaliation of which he speaks
was a lawless robbery, exercised upon the peaceable subjects of a king
with whom we were not at war, in satisfaction of a wrong in which they
the sufferers had neither part nor interest, and that this forcible
levying of satisfaction, without national warrant and commission, is
what in modern language we call piracy. It is fortunate for the peace of
the world that this system of “sea divinity” is gone by. But in judging
of this undertaking, which the courage, constancy, and success of its
contriver could not by themselves save from the stigma of piracy, we
must take into account the peculiar circumstances of the times. War, it
is true, was not declared between Spain and England; but the bigotry of
Philip II., his deep-rooted hatred and persecution of the Protestant
religion, and his known support of the Catholic malcontents, caused
Spain to be regarded by the English Protestants as their deadliest
enemy; so that the plunder of Spanish America might be regarded, in the
language of the Puritans, merely as a spoiling of the Egyptians; and the
more because it was pretty clear, however the Queen’s prudence might
delay it, that a breach must ensue between the two nations ere long.
This feeling was strengthened by the jealous care with which the
Spaniards sought to exclude all foreigners from navigating the
new-discovered seas; and there is some justice in Elizabeth’s reply to
the Spanish ambassador, when he complained of Drake’s piracies, that his
countrymen, by arrogating a right to the whole new world, and excluding
thence all other European nations who should sail thither, even with a
view of exercising the most lawful commerce, naturally tempted others to
make a violent irruption into those regions.
In the years 1570–1 Drake made two voyages to the West Indies,
apparently to gain a more precise acquaintance with the seas, the
situation, strength, and wealth of the Spanish settlements. In 1572 he
sailed with two ships, one of seventy-five tons, the other of
twenty-five tons, their united crews mustering only seventy-three men
and boys, all volunteers. His object was to capture the now ruined city
of Nombre de Dios, situated on the isthmus of Panama a few miles east of
Porto Bello, then the great repository of all the treasure conveyed from
Mexico to Spain. Off the coast of America his little armament was
augmented by an English bark with thirty men on board; so that,
deducting those whom it was necessary to leave in charge of the ships,
his available force fell short of an hundred men. This handful of bold
men attacked the town, which was unwalled, on the night of July 22, and
found their way to the market-place, where the captain received a severe
wound. He concealed his hurt until the public treasury was reached, but
before it could be broken open, he became faint from loss of blood, and
his disheartened followers abandoned the attempt, and carried him
perforce on board ship. Such at least is the account of the English:
there is a Portuguese statement in ‘Hakluyt’s Voyages,’ vol. iii. p.
525, less favourable both to the daring and success of the assailants.
Failing in this attempt, Drake continued for some time on the coast,
visiting Carthagena and other places, and making prize of various ships;
and if we wonder at his hardihood in adventuring with such scanty means
to remain for months in the midst of an awakened and inveterate enemy,
how much more surprising is it that the wealthy, proud, and powerful
monarchy of Spain should so neglect the care of its most precious
colonies, as to leave them unable to crush so slight a foe. The English
appear to have felt perfectly at their ease; they cruised about, formed
an intimate alliance with an Indian tribe, named Symerons, the bond of
union being a common hatred of the Spaniards, and built a fort on a
small island of difficult access, at the mouth of a river, where they
remained from September 24, to February 3, 1573. On the latter day,
Drake set forth with one portion of his associates, under the conduct of
the Symerons, to cross the isthmus. On the fourth day they reached a
central hill, where stood a remarkable “goodly and great high tree, in
which the Indians had cut and made divers steps to ascend up neere unto
the top, where they had also made a convenient bower, wherein ten or
twelve men might easily sitt; and from thence wee might without any
difficulty plainly see the Atlantic Ocean, whence now wee came, and the
South Atlantic (i. e. Pacific), so much desired. After our captain had
ascended to this bower with the chief Symeron, and having, as it pleased
God at that time, by reason of the brize, a very faire day, had seen
that sea of which he had heard such golden reports, he besought Almighty
God of his goodness to give him life and leave to sayle once in an
English ship in that sea.” We quote from a tract entitled ‘Sir Francis
Drake Revived,’ written by some of Drake’s companions, corrected, it is
said, by himself, and published by his nephew in 1626, which contains a
full and interesting account of this adventurous expedition. Drake’s
present object was to intercept a convoy of treasure on the way from
Panama to Nombre de Dios. The route was this: eight leagues from Panama,
lying inland to the north-west, is the town of Venta Cruz, high on the
river Chagre. For this distance merchandise was carried on mules, then
embarked in flat-bottomed boats, and carried down the river to its
mouth, then shipped for Nombre de Dios, or after the abandonment of that
town, for Porto Bello; and this is the route by which it has often been
proposed to make a canal to join the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. By
this route the treasures of Peru and Chili, as well as Mexico, were
brought to Europe, for the passage round Cape Horn was then unknown, and
no ship but Magalhaens’ had yet accomplished the passage round the world
to Europe. Guided by the Symerons, the English approached Panama,
learned that a valuable treasure was expected to pass, and beset the
lonely forest road which it had to travel. But the haste of one drunken
man gave a premature alarm, in consequence of which the march of the
caravan was stopped: and Drake with his party, their golden hopes being
thus defeated, forced their way through Venta Cruz, and returned by a
shorter route to their encampment, after a toilsome and fruitless
journey of three weeks. It was not till April 1, that the long-desired
opportunity presented itself, on which day they took a caravan of mules
laden with silver, and a small quantity of gold. They carried off part
of the spoil, and buried about fifteen tons of silver; but on returning
for it, they found that it had been recovered by the Spaniards.
Drake returned to England, August 9, 1573. In dividing the treasure he
showed the strictest honour, and even generosity; yet his share was
large enough to pay for fitting out three ships, with which he served as
a volunteer in Ireland under the Earl of Essex, and “did excellent
service both by sea and land in the winning of divers strong forts.” In
1577, he obtained a commission from Queen Elizabeth to conduct a
squadron into the South Seas. What was the purport of the commission we
do not find: it appears from subsequent passages that it gave to Drake
the power of life and death over his followers; but it would seem from
the Queen’s hesitation in approving his proceedings, that it was not
intended to authorize (at least formally) his depredations on Spanish
property.
With five ships, the largest the Pelican of one hundred tons burden, the
smallest a pinnace of fifteen tons, manned in all with only 164 men,
Drake sailed from Plymouth, November 15, 1577, to visit seas where no
English vessel had ever sailed. Without serious loss, or adventure
worthy of notice, the fleet arrived at Port St. Julian, on the coast of
Patagonia, June 20, 1578. Here the discoverer Magalhaens had tried and
executed his second in command on a charge of mutiny, and the same spot
did Drake select to perform a similar tragedy. He accused the officer
next to himself, Thomas Doughty, of plots to defeat the expedition and
take his life; plots undertaken, he said, before they had left England.
“Proofs were required and alleged, so many and so evident, that the
gentleman himself, stricken with remorse, acknowledged himself to have
deserved death;” and of three things presented to him, either immediate
execution, or to be set on shore on the main, or to be sent home to
answer for his conduct, he chose the former; and having at his own
request received the sacrament together with Drake, and dined with him
in farther token of amity, he cheerfully laid his head on the block,
according to the sentence pronounced by forty of the chiefest persons in
the fleet. Such is the account published by Drake’s nephew, in ‘The
World Encompassed,’ of which we shall only observe, without passing
judgment on the action, that Drake’s conduct in taking out a person whom
he knew to be ill affected to him, was as singular as is the behaviour
and sudden and acute penitence attributed to Doughty. But we have no
account from any friend of the sufferer. It is fair to state the
judgment of Camden, who says, “that the more unprejudiced men in the
fleet thought Doughty had been guilty of insubordination, and that Drake
in jealousy removed him as a rival. But some persons, who thought they
could see further than others, said that Drake had been ordered by the
Earl of Leicester to take off Doughty, because he spread a report that
Leicester had procured the death of the Earl of Essex.”
Having remained at Port St. Julian until August 15, they sailed for the
Straits, reached them August 20, and passed safely into the Pacific,
September 6, with three ships, having taken out the men and stores, and
abandoned the two smaller vessels. But there arose on the 7th a dreadful
storm, which dispersed the ships. The Marigold was no more heard of,
while the dispirited crew of the Elizabeth returned to England, being
the first who ever passed back to the eastward through Magellan’s
Strait.[7] Drake’s ship was driven southwards to the 56th degree, where
he ran in among the islands of the extreme south of America. He fixes
the farthest land to be near the 56th degree of south latitude, and thus
appears to claim the honour of having discovered Cape Horn. From
September 7 to October 28, the adventurers were buffeted by one
continued and dreadful storm: and in estimating the merits of our
intrepid seamen, it is to be considered that the seas were utterly
unknown, and feared by all, those who had tried to follow in Magalhaens’
course having seldom succeeded, and then with much pain and loss, and
little fruit of their voyage; that their vessels were of a class which
is now hardly used for more than coasting service; and that the
imperfection of instruments and observations laid them under
disadvantages which are now removed by the ingenuity of our artists. Add
to this, that as the Spaniards gave out that it was impossible to repass
the Straits, there remained no known way to quit the hostile shores of
America, but by traversing the unexplored Pacific.
Footnote 7:
This is the general statement: but in the ‘Lives of Early English
Navigators,’ in the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, vol. v., it is said
that a Spaniard named Ladrilleros had made the passage twenty years
before.
The storm at length ceased, and the lonely Pelican (which Drake however
had renamed the Golden Hind) ran along the coast of Lima and Peru,
reaping a golden harvest from the careless security of those who never
thought to see an enemy on that side of the globe. There is something
rather revolting, but very indicative of the temper of the age, in the
constant reference to the guidance and protection of God, mixed with a
quiet jocularity with which ‘Master Francis Fletcher, Preacher in this
employment,’ from whose notes the ‘World Encompassed,’ which is a
narrative of this voyage, was compiled, speaks of acts very little
different from highway robbery, such as would now be held disgraceful in
open war: as, for instance, on meeting a Spaniard driving eight lamas,
each laden with 100 pounds weight of silver, “they offered their service
without entreaty, and became drovers, not enduring to see a gentleman
Spaniard turned carrier.” Enriched by the most valuable spoil, jewels,
gold, and silver, Drake steered to the northward, hoping to discover a
homeward passage in that quarter. In the 48th degree of latitude he was
stopped by the cold; and, determining to traverse the Pacific, he
landed, careened his ship, and, in the Queen’s name, took possession of
the country, which he named New Albion. September 29, 1579, he sailed
again, and reached the Molucca Islands November 4. In his passage thence
to the island of Celebes, he incurred the most imminent danger of the
whole voyage. The ship struck, as they were sailing before a fair wind,
on a reef of rocks, so precipitous that it was impossible to lay out an
anchor to heave her off. They stuck fast in this most hazardous
situation for eight hours. At the end of that time the wind shifted, and
the ship, lightened of part of her guns and cargo, reeled off into deep
water, without serious injury. Had the sea risen, she must have been
wrecked. This was Drake’s last mishap. He reached Plymouth in the autumn
of 1580, after near three years’ absence. Accounts differ as to the
exact date of his arrival.
Since Drake had for this voyage the Queen’s commission, by which we must
suppose the license to rob the Spaniards to have been at least tacitly
conceded, he seems to have been rather hardly used in being left from
November to April in ignorance how his bold adventure was received at
court. Among the people it created a great sensation, with much
diversity of opinion: some commending it as a notable instance of
English valour and maritime skill, and a just reprisal upon the
Spaniards for their faithless and cruel practices; others styling it a
breach of treaties, little better than piracy, and such as it was
neither expedient nor decent for a trading nation to encourage. During
this interval, Drake must have felt his situation unpleasant and
precarious; but the Queen turned the scale in his favour by going, April
4, 1581, to dine on board his ship at Deptford, on which occasion she
declared her entire approbation of his conduct, and conferred on him the
honour, and such it then was, of knighthood. His ship she ordered to be
preserved, as a monument of his glory. Having fallen to decay, it was at
length broken up: a chair, made out of its planks, was presented to the
University of Oxford, and probably is still to be seen in the Bodleian
library. Cowley wrote a Pindaric ode upon it.
Drake had now established his reputation as the first seaman of the day;
and in 1585 the Queen, having resolved on war, intrusted him with the
command of an expedition against the Spanish colonies. He burnt or put
to ransom the cities of St. Jago, near Cape Verde, St. Domingo,
Carthagena, and others, and returned to England, having fully answered
the high expectations which were entertained of him. He was again
employed with a larger force of thirty ships in 1587, with which he
entered the port of Cadiz, burnt 10,000 tons of shipping, which were to
form part of the Armada, took the castle of Cape St. Vincent, and
sailing to the Azores, made prize of a large and wealthy ship on its way
from the Indies. Still more eminent were his services against the Armada
in the following year, in which he served as vice-admiral under Lord
Howard of Effingham. But these are well-known passages of history, and
we have shortened our account of them, to relate at more length the
early incidents of Drake’s adventurous life.
In 1589 Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norris were joined in the command
of an expedition, meant to deliver Portugal from the dominion of Spain.
This failed, as many expeditions have done in which the sea and land
services were meant to act together; and, as usual, each party threw the
blame on the other. Drake’s plan appears to have been most judicious: it
was at least accordant with his character, downright and daring. He
wished to sail straight for Lisbon and surprise the place; but Norris
was bent on landing at Corunna, where he did indeed some harm to the
Spaniards, but no service towards the real objects of the expedition.
When the land-forces did at last besiege Lisbon, Drake was unwilling or
unable to force his way up the Tagus to co-operate with them, and for
this he was afterwards warmly blamed by Norris. He defended himself by
stating that the time misspent by the English at Corunna had been well
employed by the Spaniards in fortifying Lisbon; and we fully believe
that neither fear nor jealousy would have made him hesitate at any thing
which he thought to be for the good of the service. This miscarriage,
though for a time it cast something of a cloud upon Drake’s fame, did
not prevent his being again employed in 1595, when the Queen, at the
suggestion of himself and Sir John Hawkins, determined to send out
another expedition against Spanish America, under those two eminent
navigators, the expenses of which were in great part to be defrayed by
themselves and their friends. Great hope was naturally conceived of this
expedition, the largest which had yet been sent against that quarter,
for it consisted of thirty vessels and 2500 men. The chief object was to
sail to Nombre de Dios, march to Panama, and there seize the treasure
from Peru. But the blow, which should have been struck immediately, was
delayed by a feint on the parts of the Spaniards to invade England; the
Plate fleet arrived in safety, and the Spanish colonies were forewarned.
Hawkins died, it was said of grief at the ruined prospects of the
expedition, November 12, while the fleet lay before Porto Rico; and on
the same evening Drake had a narrow escape from a cannon ball, which
carried the stool from under him as he sat at supper and killed two of
his chief officers. Repulsed from Porto Rico, the admiral steered for
the Spanish main, where he burnt several towns, and among them Nombre de
Dios. He then sent a strong detachment of 750 men against Panama; but
they found the capture of that city impracticable. Soon afterwards he
fell sick of a fever, and died January 28, 1596. His death, like that of
his coadjutor, is attributed to mental distress; and nothing is more
probable than that disappointment may have made that noxious climate
more deadly. Hints of poisoning were thrown out; but this is a surmise
easily and often lightly made. “Thus,” says Fuller, in his Holy State,
“an extempore performance, scarce heard to be begun before we hear it is
ended, comes off with better applause, or miscarries with less disgrace,
than a long-studied and openly-premeditated action. Besides, we see how
great spirits, having mounted up to the highest pitch of performance,
afterwards strain and break their credits in trying to go beyond it. We
will not justify all the actions of any man, though of a tamer
profession than a sea-captain, in whom civility is often counted
preciseness. For the main, we say that this our captain was a religious
man towards God, and his houses, generally speaking, churches, where he
came chaste in his life, just in his dealings, true of his word, and
merciful to those that were under him, hating nothing so much as
idleness.” To these good qualities we may add that he was kind and
considerate to his sailors, though strict in the maintenance of
discipline: and liberal on fit occasions, though a strict economist. He
cut a watercourse from Buckland Abbey to Plymouth, a distance of seven
miles in a straight line, and thirty by the windings of the conduit, to
supply the latter town with fresh water, which before was not to be
procured within the distance of a mile. He is honourably distinguished
from the atrocious race of buccaneers, to whom his example in some sort
gave rise, by the humanity with which he treated his prisoners. And it
should be mentioned, as a proof of his judicious benevolence, that in
conjunction with Sir John Hawkins, he procured the establishment of the
Chest at Chatham, for the relief of aged or sick seamen, out of their
own voluntary contributions. The faults ascribed to him are ambition,
inconstancy in friendship, and too much desire of popularity.
In person, Drake was low, but strongly made, “well favoured, fayre, and
of a cheerefull countenance.” The scarf and jewel which he wears in our
portrait (which is engraved from a picture in the possession of Sir
Trayton Drake, of Nutwell Court, near Exeter, the present representative
of the family) were given him by Queen Elizabeth; the former when he
took leave of her before sailing to meet the Armada. The jewel contains
a portrait of herself: these relics are still in the possession of the
family. Drake left no issue: his nephew was created a baronet by James
I., and the title is still extant.
The collection of voyages by Hakluyt, and the accounts published by
Drake’s nephew, quoted in this memoir, contain the fullest accounts of
Drake’s adventurous history. Prince’s ‘Worthies of Devon,’ Dr. Johnson’s
‘Life of Drake,’ Kippis’s ‘Biographia Britannica,’ and the ‘Edinburgh
Cabinet Library,’ vol. v., all give satisfactory accounts of this
eminent ornament of the British navy.
[Illustration:
[From “a drawn Plan of Her Majestie’s (Elizabeth) Harbour at Berwick.”
Cottonian MSS.
Augustus, vol. ii., in British Museum.]
]
[Illustration:
_Engraved by W. Holl._