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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[Illustration: DRAKE CAPTURES NOMBRE DE DIOS]
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.