THE CHILDREN’S HEROES SERIES
EDITED BY JOHN LANG
THE STORY OF
SIR FRANCIS DRAKE
TO
CHARLES SUTHERLAND ELTON
[Illustration: Queen Elizabeth knighting Drake on board the ‘Golden
Hind’ at Deptford]
THE STORY OF
SIR
FRANCIS DRAKE
BY MRS. OLIVER ELTON
PICTURES BY T. H. ROBINSON
LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK
NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.
Printed by
BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
Edinburgh
PREFACE
It has not been possible, for lack of space, always to tell the old
stories in the original words, which are, in almost all cases, the
best. If any readers of this book can get a sight of two big volumes
called “Drake and the Tudor Navy,” by Julian Corbett, they may
consider themselves fortunate. In them there are the most fascinating
reproductions of pictures of old fighting ships, and old charts or maps
of the taking of Cartagena, St. Domingo, and St. Augustine by Drake’s
ships. Here the ships are seen approaching and attacking; the towns
are shown, and the soldiers, and the seas are full of wonderful curly
monsters. The old charts of the invasion of the Spanish Armada show the
shifting position of the fleets from day to day, and the books also
contain many maps and a fine portrait.
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. Philip of Spain 1
II. “The Troublesome Voyage” 6
III. Nombre de Dios 15
IV. Fort Diego 25
V. The Golden Mule-trains 29
VI. Home Again 39
VII. Round the World 50
VIII. Round the World (_continued_) 60
IX. Sir Francis 69
X. Cadiz 81
XI. The Great Armada 88
XII. Expedition to Lisbon 100
XIII. The Last Voyage 111
LIST OF PICTURES
Page
Queen Elizabeth knighting Drake on Board the
_Golden Hind_ at Deptford _Frontispiece_
Drake carrying to Court the News of his Voyage 14
Drake wounded at Nombre de Dios 22
The Maroon Chief showing the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans from the tree-top 30
Sir Francis Drake 72
Drake at the taking of Sagres Castle 84
Drake at Bowls on Plymouth Hoe 94
Fighting the Great Armada 98
THE STORY OF
SIR FRANCIS DRAKE
CHAPTER I
PHILIP OF SPAIN
During the life of Francis Drake, Philip the Second of Spain was the
most powerful king in Europe. Spain and the Netherlands belonged to
him, parts of Italy, France, and Germany, and a great part of America.
From Mexico, Peru, and the West Indian Islands Spanish ships sailed
home with treasure of silver and gold, as they do in fairy tales, while
Portuguese ships traded in Africa for slaves and gold and ivory, and
had even ventured as far as the then little-known East Indies. Lastly,
Philip added Portugal and its possessions to his vast inheritance, and
would have liked to hold all the world “for God and for Spain.” Being
himself a good Catholic, he wished to see all men of that faith, and to
those who did not believe in it he was a merciless foe, and he shed the
blood of many martyrs.
Now Drake hated Philip and the Pope more than anything in the world, as
much as he loved England and honoured his own Queen Elizabeth. He spent
most of his life in making war against the King of Spain in one way or
another, calling it all, as he told Queen Elizabeth, “service done to
your Majesty by your poor vassal (or servant) against your great enemy.”
During Drake’s life wars about religion were raging in almost every
European country. In France the struggle ended by most people remaining
Catholics, just as England, after Elizabeth’s reign, was always a
Protestant country. But such changes really take long to come about,
especially in days when news travelled slowly, when there were no
trains or steamships, and no penny newspapers.
Francis Drake was born when Edward the Sixth was king, in a farmhouse
near Tavistock in Devonshire; but while he was quite a young child his
father, who was a Protestant, had to fly from his country home, owing
to an outbreak of anger among his Catholic neighbours. So the first
stories the little Francis would hear must have been tales of this time
of persecution, when many of his father’s friends had to hide in woods
and caves, and lost all they possessed. From his very cradle he must
have been taught to hate the “Papists.”
The new home was rather a strange one, for the old books say Drake’s
father went to Kent, “to inhabit in the hull of a ship, wherein many of
his younger sons were born. He had twelve in all, and as it pleased God
that most of them should be born upon the water, so the greater part of
them died at sea.” The father seems to have been a sailor at one time,
and he now got a place among the seamen of the King’s Navy, to read
prayers to them. The Navy ships were anchored off Chatham when not in
use, and here, in an old unused warship, the elder Drake and his family
made their floating home. Here most of the twelve boys were born, a
troop of merry children, and many a fine game they must have had on the
decks. The sound of wind and waves must have been familiar to them as
they went to sleep at nights, and they grew up strong and fearless,
and, living as they did among sailors, must have early set their hearts
on going to sea and having adventures.
At the death of King Edward the Sixth the Catholic Queen Mary began to
reign, and Philip, then Prince of Spain, came over to marry her. He
looked “very gallant,” they said, in his suit of white kid, covered
with gold embroidery, and was followed by a train of splendid-looking
Spanish nobles, and he brought quantities of gold and silver, borne
on the backs of horses. But the English people hated the foreign
marriage, and so strong was this feeling that in the winter before the
wedding even the children in the streets shouted against the Spaniards
and snowballed them as they went to Court. Perhaps Francis Drake and
his brothers left their usual games to play at being Philip and the
English, like some other lads, of whom we read that their play became
so real and exciting that they were only just prevented from hanging
the boy who acted the part of Philip. The King of Spain might have seen
his son upon the English throne, but this hope, like so many of his,
was doomed to be defeated, for Mary died childless, and Elizabeth came
to the throne.
As Drake’s father was at this time a poor man, he put his son Francis
to learn seamanship of the master of a bark or small ship that used to
coast along the shore and sometimes carried merchandise to France and
the Netherlands. At this time he must have had to suffer many hardships
and to live a rough life, but he learned his business well, and “was so
diligent and painstaking, and so pleased the old man his master by his
industry,” that at his death he left his bark to Francis Drake.
Later Drake grew weary of this little ship, that “only crept along
the shore,” and longed for something more than such safe and simple
voyaging, so he seems to have sold the bark and taken service with his
kinsmen, the Hawkins brothers, who were rich merchants and owned and
sailed their ships. And so began Drake’s roving life.