SIR FRANCIS
It was in the autumn of 1580 that Drake returned from his three years’
voyage. Wynter had brought the news home that Drake had entered the
Straits of Magellan, but since then only vague rumours of his death at
the hands of the Spaniards had reached England. Had he met such a fate,
Sir William Cecil (now Lord Burghley) and his party at Court would not
have been sorry; for they disliked piracy, and wished to avoid a war
with Spain.
This was more to be dreaded than ever, as at the death of the King of
Portugal Philip had seized his crown and vast possessions, and was
now the most powerful prince in Europe, since he owned the splendid
Portuguese fleet. Hitherto, Philip had only warships for the protection
of his treasure-ships, and they could not be spared. He was now known
to be preparing, in his slow way, a great Armada.
But Drake had not been hanged for a pirate, and this the Spaniards
knew very well. They clamoured for the restoration of his plunder, or
the forfeit of his life. At this time an army of Italian and Spanish
soldiers, under the command of a famous Spanish officer, had been
landed in Ireland to help the Catholic Irish in their rebellion against
Queen Elizabeth. These soldiers were said to have been sent by the
orders of the Pope. Finding the prospects of success too poor, the
Spanish officer withdrew his men, and they escaped by sea; but the
Italian soldiers, who numbered 600, were overpowered by the English,
and all except a few officers, who could pay a ransom, were slaughtered
in cold blood. Thus Philip’s attempt to strike a secret blow in
Elizabeth’s fashion was met by her with cruelty as relentless as his
own; but Elizabeth made this attempt an excuse for refusing to make an
inquiry into Drake’s doings in the West.
“The news of his home-coming in England was,” we are told, “by this
his strange wealth, so far-fetched, marvellous strange, and of all men
held impossible and incredible. But both proving true, it fortuned
that many misliked it and reproached him. Besides all this there were
others that devised and divulged” (made up and spread about) “all
possible disgraces” (base charges) “against Drake and his followers,
terming him the Master Thief of the Unknown World. Yet nevertheless the
people generally with exceeding admiration applauded his wonderful long
adventures and rich prize.”
Drake at once sent a message to tell the Queen of his return. He was
told he had nothing to fear, and was summoned to Court. He took with
him some horseloads of gold and silver and jewels. The Queen treated
him with great favour, and refused to take the advice of Burghley and
others, who wished to send the treasure back to Spain. Unlike them
she took her share of the profits, and also the fine gifts Drake had
brought for her. “But it grieved him not a little,” we are told, “that
some prime courtiers refused the gold he offered them, as gotten by
piracy.” He and his men had made golden fortunes.
The Spanish Ambassador naturally “burned with passion” against Drake,
and considered his presence at Court an insult to his king. “For he
passes much time with the Queen,” he wrote to Philip, “by whom he is
highly favoured.”
It was an insult Philip still felt himself unable to avenge. Elizabeth
had made a fresh treaty with France, and Philip’s best generals knew
the difficulties of an attack on England thus strengthened. Besides,
the Dutch, whom Elizabeth was helping, were his desperate enemies; for
they were fighting for faith and country and freedom, and to do this
makes bold soldiers. So Philip the prudent had to content himself with
making plans for his great Armada.
Meantime Drake sunned himself in the Court favour, and books and
pictures and songs were made in his praise.
The _Golden Hind_ was brought ashore at Deptford, and became a resort
for sightseers. But in spite of much patching she became so old that
she had to be broken up, and the last of her timbers were made into a
chair, which is still kept in a quiet Oxford library. So the ship ends
her days far away from the sound of the sea, and of the gay throngs
that used to make merry and dance on her decks.
[Illustration: SIR FRANCIS DRAKE]
On the 4th of April the Queen paid a State visit to the ship, and
ordered that it should be preserved for ever. A fine banquet was
served on board, and there, before the eyes of hundreds of onlookers,
Elizabeth knighted the “pirate captain.” She said jestingly that the
King of Spain had demanded Drake’s head, and now she had a gold sword
to cut it off. Thus Elizabeth openly defied the Spaniards, who were
still raging over their stolen treasure.
But there were some not in Spain who also thirsted for revenge upon
Drake. Thomas Doughty’s young brother was his unforgiving foe. The case
was never brought to Court or indeed to light; but young Doughty wrote
a letter in which he said “that when the Queen did knight Drake she did
then knight the greatest knave, the vilest villain, the foulest thief,
and the crudest murderer that ever was born.” The Spaniards bribed him
to try and murder Drake. We hear that he was put in prison, and we
never hear of his release.
In 1581 Drake was made Mayor of Plymouth. In 1583 his wife died. He was
then a member of Parliament. Two years later he married Mary Sydenham.
He never had any children.
The Queen now appointed Drake among others to inquire into the state
of the navy; he was to see to the repairing of ships, to the building
of new ones, and to the means of furnishing them with stores in case of
sudden war. From this time onwards the thought of a Spanish invasion
was a constant fear in the minds of the English people. But Philip
was unready, and Elizabeth unwilling to be the first to begin a war.
Elizabeth changed her mind and her plans in a way that must have
been maddening to the men who did her work. One good result of her
indecision was that England was better prepared for the invasion. In
those long years of private warfare money had been gathering, and the
navy made strong and ready for work. But for men of action, who like
to make a plan and stick to it, and go through with it at all costs,
Elizabeth’s delays and recalls were bewildering and unreasonable.
In 1585 Philip seized a fleet of English corn-ships trading in his own
ports. Then, at last, Drake’s long-talked-of expedition against the
Spanish settlements was got ready and sent out. He had about thirty
ships, commanded by some of the most famous captains of the time, men
like Fenner, Frobisher, and Wynter, who afterwards fought against the
Armada. His general of the soldiers was Christopher Carleill, “a man of
long experience in wars both by sea and land,” and who was afterwards
said to direct the service “most like a wise commander.” Drake’s ship
was the _Elizabeth Bonaventure_.
After a week spent in capturing ships, the fleet anchored at the Bayona
Islands, off Vigo Bay. The Governor of Bayona was forced to make terms.
He sent “some refreshing, as bread, wine, oil, apples, grapes, and
marmalade, and such like.” The people, filled with terror, were seen to
remove their possessions into boats to go up the Vigo River, inland,
for safety. Many of these were seized; most of them were loaded only
with household stuff, but one contained the “church stuff of the high
church of Vigo ... a great cross of silver of very fair embossed work
and double-gilt all over, having cost them a great mass of money.”
The fleet now went on its way by the Canary Islands. When Santiago was
reached, Carleill landed with a thousand troops and took possession
of the fortress and the town, for both had been forsaken. Here they
planted the great flag, “which had nothing on it but the plain English
cross; and it was placed towards the sea, that our fleet might see St.
George’s Cross flourish in the enemy’s fortress.” Guns were found ready
loaded in various places about the town, and orders were given that
these should be shot off “in honour of the Queen’s Majesty’s Coronation
day, being the 17th of November, after the yearly custom in England.
These were so answered again by the guns out of all the ships in the
fleet, as it was strange to hear such a thundering noise last so long
together.” No treasure was taken at Santiago, but there was food and
wine. The town was given to the flames in revenge for wrongs done to
old William Hawkins of Plymouth some years before.
They had not been many days at sea before a mortal sickness suddenly
broke out among the men. They anchored off some islands, where the
Indians treated them very kindly, carried fresh water to the ships, and
gave them food and tobacco. The tobacco was a welcome gift, to be used
against the infection of the mysterious sickness which was killing the
men by hundreds. They passed Christmas on an island to refresh the sick
and cleanse and air the ships.
Then Drake resolved, with the consent of his council, to attack the
city of St. Domingo, while his forces were “in their best strength.”
This was the oldest and most important city in the Indies, and was
famous for its beauty and strength. It had never been attempted before,
although it was so rich, because it was strongly fortified.
Some boats were sent on in advance of the fleet. They learned from a
pilot, whose boat they captured, that the Castle of St. Domingo was
well armed, and that it was almost impossible to land on the dangerous
coast; but he showed them a possible point ten miles from the harbour.
In some way Drake had sent messages to the Maroons, who lived on the
hills behind the town. At midnight, on New Year’s Day, the soldiers
were landed, Drake himself steering a boat through the surf. The
Maroons met them, having killed the Spanish watchman.
“Our General, having seen us all landed in safety to the west of that
brave city of St. Domingo, returned to his fleet, bequeathing us to God
and the good conduct of Master Carleill, our Lieutenant-General.”
The troops divided and met in the market-place; and as those in the
castle were preparing to meet Drake’s attack from the sea, they were
surprised from behind by the soldiers marching upon them with flags
flying and music playing. The fleet ceased firing while the fate of the
town was decided in a battle. By night Drake was in possession of the
castle, the harbour, and shipping. One of the ships captured they named
the _New Year’s Gift_.
But after all there was little of the fabled treasure to be found. The
labour in the gold and silver mines had killed the native Indians, and
the mines were no longer worked. There was plenty of food and wine to
be had, woollen and linen cloth and silk. But there was little silver;
the rich people used dishes of china and cups of glass, and their
beautiful furniture was useless as plunder. The town had to pay a large
sum of money for its ransom, and the English stayed a month, and fed at
its expense, and took away with them guns and merchandise and food and
numbers of galley-slaves, whom they set free.
Cartagena, the capital of the Spanish Main, was the last town to be
taken, and it had been warned. It had natural defences, which made
it very difficult to attack. Drake, as we know, had been there
before, and often, since then, he must have dreamed of taking it. He
triumphantly steered his fleet by a very difficult channel into the
outer harbour. He then threatened the fort with his guns while the
soldiers were secretly landed by night. They made their way to the town
by the shore, “wading in the sea-wash,” and so avoiding the poisoned
stakes which had been placed in the ground in readiness for them. They
also routed a company of horse soldiers sent out from the fort, as the
place where they met was so “woody and scrubby” as to be unfit for
horses. So they pushed on till they made a “furious entry” into the
town, nor paused till the market-place was won, and the people fled
into the country, where they had already sent their wives and children.
A large price or ransom was paid for this town, equal, it is said, to a
quarter of a million of our money; but it was far less than Drake had
at first demanded. But “the inconvenience of continual death” forced
them to go, for the sickness was still taking its prey from among the
men, and it also forced them to give up an attempt upon Nombre de
Dios and Panama. The voyage had been disappointing in the matter of
plunder. Most of the treasure had been taken away from the towns before
the English came, and many of the officers had died.
They considered the idea of remaining in Cartagena and sending home for
more troops. They would have had a fine position; but they decided that
their strength was not enough to hold the town and also man the fleet
against a possible attack by the Spaniards from the sea. So the lesser
ransom was accepted; the officers offering to give up their shares to
the “poor men, both soldiers and sailors, who had adventured their
lives against the great enemy.” They then returned to England, only
stopping to water the ships. They landed again at St. Augustine, on the
coast of Florida, where they destroyed a fort and took away the guns
and a pay-chest containing two thousand pounds.
“And so, God be thanked, we in good safety arrived at Portsmouth the
28th of July 1586, to the great glory of God, and to no small honour to
our Prince, our Country, and Ourselves.”