September 2, 2025 • 44 mins
Step back into the dawn of American history with Elizabethan Sea-Dogs, where the spirit of the citizen, colonist, and pioneer comes alive! This captivating exploration reveals the daring adventurers of the Elizabethan era who paved the way for future generations in the New World. Under the brilliant leadership of Sir Francis Drake, the first of the modern admirals, English sailors claimed their dominion over the sea. Known as Sea-Dogs, they opened the gateway for explorers and settlers seeking their fortunes in America. Discover how this century of maritime quests and naval warfare laid the foundations for Anglo-American history and secured the path for countless pioneers eager to carve out their destinies.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter seven of Elizabethan Sea Dogs by William Wood. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter seven Drake's
encompassment of all the world. When Drake left for Nombre
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de Dios in the spring of fifteen hundred and seventy two,
Spain and England were both ready to fly at each
other's throats. When he came back in the summer of
fifteen hundred and seventy three, they were all for making friends.
Hypocritically so but friends. Drake's plunder stank in the nostrils
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of the haughty dons. It was a very inconvenient factor
in the diplomatic problem for elizabeth. Therefore, Drake disappeared in
his plunder iiO. He went to Ireland on service in
the Navy. His plunder was divided up in secrecy among
the high and low contracting parties. In fifteen hundred and
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seventy four, the Anglo Spanish scene had changed again. The
Spaniards had been so harassed by the English Sea Dogs
between the Netherlands and Spain that Philip listened to his
Great Admiral Menendez, who, despairing of direct attack on England,
proposed to seize the Silly Isles, and from that naval
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base clear out away through all the pirates of the
English Channel. War seemed certain, but a terrible epidemic broke
out in the Spanish fleet. Menendez died and Philip changed
his policy again. This same year, John Oxenham, Drake's old
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second in command, sailed over to his death. The Spaniards
caught him on the Isthmus of Darien and hanged him
as a pirate at Lima in Peru. In the autumn
of fifteen hundred and seventy five, Drake returned to England
with a new friend, Thomas Doughty, a soldier's scholar of
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the Renaissance. Clever and good company, but one of those
Italianate Englishmen who gave rise to the Italian proverb anglazy
italianato a diavolo incarnato an Italianized Englishman is the very devil.
Dowdy was patronized by the Earl of Essex, who had
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great influence at court. The next year, fifteen hundred and
seventy six is noted for the Spanish fury. Philips seapower
was so hampered by the Dutch and English privateers, and
he was so impotent against the English navy that he
could get no ready money, either by loan or from
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America to pay his troops in Antwerp. These men, reinforced
by others, therefore mutinied and sacked the whole of Antwerp,
killing all who opposed them, and practically ruining the city
from which Charles the Fifth used to draw such splendid subsidies.
The result was a strengthening of Dutch resistance everywhere. Elizabeth
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had been unusually tortuous in her policy about this time,
but in fifteen hundred and seventy seven she was ready
for another shot at Spain, provided always that it entailed
no open war. Don John of Austria, natural son of Charles,
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had all the shining qualities that his legitimate half brother
Philip lacked. He was the hero of Lepante and had
offered to conquer the Moors in Tunis if Philip would
let him rule as king. Philip, crafty, cold and jealous,
of course, refused, and sent him to the Netherlands instead.
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Don John formed the still more aspiring plan of pacifying
the Dutch, marrying Mary, Queen of Scots, deposing Elizabeth, and
reigning over all the British Isles. The Pope had blessed
both schemes, but the Dutch insisted on the immediate withdrawal
of the Spanish troops. This demolished Don John's plan, but
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it pleased Philip, who could now ruin his brilliant brother
by letting him wear himself out by trying to govern
the Netherlands without an army. Then the Duke of Anjou,
brother to the King of France, came into the fast
thickening plot at the head of the French rescuers of
the Netherlands from Spain. But a victorious French army in
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the Netherlands was worse for England than even Spanish rule
there So Elizabeth tried to support the Dutch enough to
annoy Philip and at the same time keep them independent
of the French. In her desire to support the Them
against Philip indirectly, she found it convenient to call Drake
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into consultation. Drake then presented to Sir Francis Wassingham his
letter of commendation from the Earl of s Six, under
whom he had served in Ireland. Whereupon Secretary Walsingham, the
first civilian who ever grasped the principle of modern sea power,
declared that her Majesty had received divers injuries of the
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King of Spain for which she desired revenge. He showed
me a plot map, willing me to note down where
he might be most annoyed, but I refused to set
my hand to anything, affirming that her Majesty was mortal,
and that if it should please God to take her
majesty away, that some prince might reigant, that might be
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in league with the King of Spain, and then would
my own hand be a witness against myself. Elizabeth was
forty four. If Scott's was watching for the throne, plots
and counterplots were everywhere. Shortly after this interview, Drake was
told late at night that he should have audience of
her Majesty next day. On seeing him, Elizabeth went straight
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to the point, Drake, I would gladly be revenged on
the King of Spain for divers injuries that I have
received and withal says Drake craved my advice therein, who
told her Majesty the only way was to annoy him
by the indeeds. On that he disclosed his whole daring
scheme for rating the Pacific. Elizabeth, who like her father
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loved a man who was a man, fell in with
this at once. Secrecy was, of course essential. Her Majesty
did swear by her crown that if any within her
realm did give the King of Spain to understand hereof
they should lose their heads. Therefore, at a subsequent audience,
her Majesty gave me special commandment that of all men,
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my Lord Treasurer should not know of it. The cautious
Lord Treasurer Burley was against what he considered dangerous forms
of privateering, and was for keeping on good terms with
Spanish arms and trade as long as possible. Mendoza Lynxide,
the ambassador of Spain, was hoodwinked, but Dowdy, the viper
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in Drake's bosom, was meditating mischief, not exactly trees and
with Spain, but at least a breach of confidence by
telling Burley. De Guiris, chief Spanish spy in England, was
sorely puzzled. Drake's ostensible destination was Egypt, and his men
were openly and listed for Alexandria. The Spaniards, however, saw
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far enough through this to suppose that he was really
going back to Nombre de Dios. It did not seem likely,
though quite possible, that he was going in search of
the Northwest Passage, for Martin Frobisher had gone out on
that quest the year before and had returned without lump
of black stone from the Arctic desolation of Baffin Island.
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No one seems to have divined the truth. Cape Horn
was unknown. The Strait of Magellan was supposed to be
the only opening between South America and a huge Antarctic continent,
and its reputation for disasters had grown so terrible and
rightly terrible, that it had been given up as the
way into the Pacific. The Spanish Way, as we have seen,
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was over land from Nombre de Dios to Panama, more
or less along the line of the modern Panama Canal.
In the Inn, Drake got away quietly enough. On the
fifteenth of November fifteen hundred and seventy seven. The court
and country were in great excitement over the conspiracy between
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the Spaniards and Mary, Queen of Scots, now a prisoner
of nine years standing, the famous voyage of Sir Francis
Drake in the South Sea, and their hents about the
whole globe of the earth, begun in the year of
our Lord fifteen hundred and seventy seven, well deserves its
great renown. Drake's flotilla seems absurdly small, but for its
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own time it was far from insignificant, and it was
exceedingly well found. The Pelican afterwards called the Golden Hind,
though his flagship was of only one hundred tons, The Elizabeth,
the Swan, the Marigold, and the Benedict were of eighty fifty,
thirty and fifteen. There were altogether less than three hundred
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tons and two hundred men. The crews numbered one hundred
and fifty. The rest were gentlemen, adventurers, special artificers, to train, surveyors, musicians, boys.
In Drake's own page, Jack Drake, there was great store
of wildfire, chain shot, hark us, pistols, corselets, bows, and
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other like weapons in great abundance. Neither had he omitted
to make provision for ornament and delight, carrying with him
expert musicians, rich furniture. All the vessels for his table
yea many belonging even to the cookwom being of pure
silver and divers shows of all sorts of curious workmanship,
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whereby the civility and magnificence of his native country might
amongst all nations whithersoever he should come be the more
admired sou West went Drake's flotilla and Media's landfall towards
the Pole Antarctic, off the land of Devils, in thirty
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one degrees forty minutes south northeast of Montevideo. Frightful storms
had buffetted the little ships about for weary weeks together,
and all hands thought they were the victims of some
magician on board, perhaps the Italianate Dowdy, or else of
native witchcraft from the shore. The experienced doughpilot, who was
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at Portuguese explained that the natives had sold themselves to devils,
who were kinder masters than the Spaniards, and that now
when they see ships they cast sand into the air,
whereof ariza a most gross thick fog and palpable darkness,
and with all horrible, fearful and intolerable winds, rains and storms.
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But witchcraft was not Thomas Dowdy's real offense. Even before
leaving England, and after betraying Elizabeth and Drake to Burley,
who wished to curry favor with the Spanish traders rather
than provoke the Spanish power. Dowdy was busy tampering with
the men. A storekeeper had to be sent back for
peculation designed to curtail Drake's range of action. Then Dowdy
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tempted officers and men, talked up the terrors of Magellan Strait,
ran down his friend's authority, and finally tried to encourage
down right desertion by underhand means. This was too much
for Drake. Dowdy was arrested, tied to the mast, and
threatened with our punishment if he did not mend his ways.
But he would not mend his ways. He had a
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brother on board and a friend, a very crafty lawyer,
so stern measures were soon required. Drake held a sort
of court martial which condemned Dowdy to death them Dowdy,
having played his last card and lost, determined to die
like an officer and a gentleman. Drake solemnly pronounced him
the child of Death and persuaded him that he would,
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by these means, make him the servant of God. Dowdy
fell in with the idea, and the former friends took
the sacrament together, for which Master Doughty gave him hearty thanks,
never otherwise terming him that my good captain Chaplain Fletcher.
Having ended with the absolution, Drake and Daddy sat down
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together as cheerfully as ever in their lives, each cheering
up the other and taking their leave by drinking to
each other, as if some journey had been in hand.
Then Drake and Daddy went aside for a private conversation
of which no record has remained. After this, dowt he
walked to the place of execution, where, like King Charles
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the First he nothing common did or mean upon that
memorable scene, and so bidding the whole company farewell, he
laid his head on the block. Lo, this is the
end of traders, said Drake, as the executioner raised the
head aloft. Drake, like Magellan, decided to winter where he
was in Port Saint Julian on the east coast of Patagonia.
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His troubles with the men were not yet over, for
the soldiers resented being put on an equality with his sailors,
and the very crafty lawyer and Dowdy's brother were anything
but pleased with the turn events had taken. Then again,
the faint hearts murmured in their storm beaten tents against
the horrors of the awful straits. So Drake resolved to
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make things clear for good and all. Unfolding a document,
he began, my masters, I am a very bad orator,
for my bringing up hath not been in learning. But
what I shall speak here, let every man take good
notice of, and let him write it down, For I
will speak nothing, but I will answer it in England, yea,
and before her Majesty, and I have it here already
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set down. Then, after reminding them of the great adventure
before them, and saying that mutiny and dissension must stop
at once, he went on, for by the life of God,
it doth even take my wits from me to think
of it. Here is such controversy between the gentlemen and
sailors that it doth make me mad to hear it.
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I must have the gentleman to haul with the mariner,
and the mariner with the gentleman. I would know him
that would refuse to set his hand to a rope.
But I know there is not any such here. To
those whose hearts fail them, he offered the marigold. But
let them go homeward, for if I find them in
my way, I will surely sink them. Not a man
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stepped forward. Then, turning to the officers, he discharged every
one of them for reappointment at his pleasure. Next, he
made the worst offenders, the crafty lawyer included step to
the front for reprimand, finally producing the Queen's commission. He
ended by ringing appeal to their united patriotism. We have
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set by the ears three mighty Princes, the sovereigns of England,
Spain and Portugal. And if this void should not have success,
we should not only be scorning unto our enemies, but
a blot on our country forever. What triumph would it
not be for Spain and Portugal? The like of this
would never more be tried than. He gave back every
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man of his rank, again explaining that he and they
were all servants of her majesty. Together with this the
men marched off, loyal and obedient their tents. Next week,
Drake sailed for the much dreaded Straits, before entering which
he changed the pelican's name to the Golden Hind, which
was the crest of Sir Christopher Hatton, one of the
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chief promoters of the enterprise, and also one of Dowdy's patrons.
Then every vessel struck her topsail to the bunt, in
honor of the Queen, as well as to show that
all discoveries and captures were to be made in her
sole name. Seventeen days of appalling dangers saw them through
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the straits, where icy squalls came rushing down from every
quarter of the baffling channels. But the Pacific was still worse.
For no less than fifty two consecutive days, a furious
scale kept driving them about like so many bits of driftwood.
The like of it no traveler hath felt. Neither has
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there ever been such a tempest since Noah's flood. The
little English vessels fought for their very lives in that
devouring hell of waters, the loneliest and most stupendous in
the world. The Marigold went down with all hands, and
Parson Fletcher, who heard their dying call, thought it was
a judgment. At last, the gale abated near Cape Horn,
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where Drake landed with a compass, while Parson Fletcher set
up a stone engraved with the Queen's name and the
date of the discovery, deceived by the false trend of
the coast shown on the Spanish charts. Drake went a
long way northwest from Cape Horn. Then he struck in
northeast and picked up the Chilean Islands. It was December
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fifteen hundred and seventy eight, but not a word of
warning had reached the Spanish Pacific when Drake stood into Valpariza.
Seeing assail, the crew of the Grand Captain of the
South got up a cask of wine and beat a
welcome on their drums. In the twinkling of an eye,
gigantic tom Moon was over the side, at the head
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of a party of boarders, who laid about them with
a will and soon drove the Spaniards below. Half A
million dollars worth of gold and jewels was taken with
this prize. Drake then found a place in Salado Bay
where he could clean the Golden hind while the Pinnace
ranged south to look for the other ships that had
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parted company during the two months storm. These were never found,
the Elizabeth and the Swan having gone home after parting
company in the storm that sank the Marigold. After a
prolonged search, the Golden hind stood north again. Meanwhile, the
astounding news of her arrival was spreading dismay all over
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the coast, where the old Spanish governor's plans were totally upset.
The Indians had just been defeated when this strange ship
came sailing in from nowhere, to the utter confusion of
their enemies. The governor died of vexation, and all the
Spanish authorities were nearly worried to death. They had never
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dreamt of such an invasion. Their crews were small, their
lumbering vessels very lightly armed, their towns unfortified. But Drake
went faster by sea than their news by land. Every
vessel was overhauled, taken searched, emptied of its treasure, and
then sent back with his crew and passengers. At Liberty.
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One day a watering party chanced upon a Spaniard from Potosi,
fast asleep, with thirteen bars of silver by him. The
bars were lifted quietly, and the Spaniard left sleeping peacefully.
Another Spaniard suddenly came round a corner with half a
ton of silver on eight lamas. The Indians came off
to trade, and Drake, as usual, made friends with them.
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At once. He had already been attacked by other Indians
on both coasts, but this was because the unknown English
had been mistaken and for the hated Spaniards. As he
near Lima, Drake quickened his pace lest the Great Annual
Treasure Ship of fifteen hundred and seventy nine should get
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wind of what was wrong. A minor treasure ship was
found to have been cleared of all her silver just
in time to balk him, so he set every stitch
of canvas she possessed and left her, driving out to
sea with two other empty prizes. Then he stole into
Lima after dark and came to anchor surrounded by Spanish vessels,
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not one of which had set a watch. They were
found nearly empty, but a ship from Panama looked promising,
so the pinnace started after her, but was fired on
and an Englishman was killed. Drake then followed her, after
cutting every cable in the harbor, which soon became a
pandemonium of vessels gone adrift. The Panama ship had nothing
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of great value except her news, which was that the
great treasure ship near Estra Signora dearlac Concepcion, the chiefest
glory of the whole South Sea was on her way
to Panama. She had a very long start, and, as
ill luck would have it, Drake got calmed outside Calea,
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where the bells rang out in wild alarm. The news
that spread inland, and the Viceroy of Peru came hurrying
down with all the troops that he could muster, Finding
from some arrows that the strangers were Englishmen, he put
four hundred soldiers into the only two vessels that had
escaped the general wreck produced by Drake's cutting of the cables.
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When Drake saw the two pursuing craft, he took back
his prize crew from the Panama vessel, into which he
put his prisoners. Meanwhile, a breeze sprang up, and he
soon drew far ahead. The Spanish soldiers overhauled the Panama
Prize and gladly gave up the pursuit. They had no
guns of any size with which to fight the Golden Hind,
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and most of them were so seasick from the heaving
groundswell that they couldn't have boardered her in any case.
Three more prizes were then taken by the swift Golden Hind.
Each one had news which showed that Drake was closing
on the chase. Another week passed, with every stitch of
canvas set. A fourth prize taken off Cape San Francisca
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said that the treasure ship was only one day ahead,
but she was getting near to Panama, so every nerve
was strained anew. Presently, Jack Drake, the captain's page, yelled
out sail hoe and scrambled down the main mast to
get the golden chain that Drake had promised to the
first lookout who saw the chase. It was ticklish work
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so near to Panama, and local winds might ruin all.
So Drake, in order not to frighten her, trailed a
dozen big empty wind jars over the stern to moderate
his pace. At eight o'clock, the jars were cut adrift,
and the golden hind sprang forward with the evening breeze,
her crew at battle quarters, and her decks all cleared
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for action. The chase was called the Spitfire by the
Spaniards because she was much better armed than any other
vessel there, but all the same, her armament was nothing
for her tonnage. The Spaniards trusted to their remoteness for protection,
and that was their undoing to every Englishman's amazement. The
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chase was seen to go about and calmly come to
hail the Golden Hind, which she mistook for a dispatch
vessel sent after her with some message from the Vice. Drake,
asking nothing better, ran up alongside as Anton, her captain,
hailed him with ah, who are you a ship of chili?
Answered Drake. Anton looked down on the Stranger's deck to
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see it full of armed men, from whom a roar
of triumph came. English strikes sail. Then Drake's whistle loose
sharply and instant silence followed, on which he hailed, Don Anton,
strike sail, signor wand Anton, or I must send you
to the bottom. Come aboard and do it yourself, bravely,
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answered Anton. Drake's whistle blue one shrill long blast, which
loosed a withering volley at less than point blank range.
Anton tried to bear away and shake off his assailant,
but in vain the English guns now opened on his masts,
and rigging down came the Mizzen, While a hail of
English shot and arrows prevented every attempt to clear away
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the wreckage. The dumbfounded Spanish crew ran below don Anton
looked overside to port, and there was the English pinnace,
from which forty English borders were nimbly climbing up his
own ship's side. Resistance was hopeless, so Anton struck and
was taken aboard the Golden Hind. There he met Drake,
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who was already taking off his armor, except with patients
the usage of war, said Drake, laying his hand on
Anton's shoulder for all that night next day. In the
next night following, Drake sailed west with his fabulous prize
so as to get well clear of the trade route
along the coast. But the whole treasure was has never
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been revealed, but it certainly amounted to the equivalent of
many millions at the present day. Among the official items
worth thirteen chests of pieces of eight eighteen pounds of
pure gold, jewels and plate, twenty six ton weight of silver,
and Sundry's unspecified. As the Spanish pilot's son looked over
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at the rail at this astounding site, the Englishman called
out to say that his father was no longer the
pilot of the old spit Fire, but of the new
spitz Silver. The prisoners were no less gratified than Surprised
by Drake's kind treatment, he entertained Don Anton at a banquet,
took him all over the Golden hind, and intrusted him
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with a message to Don Martin, the trader of San
Juan de ul Yua. This was to say that if
Don Martin hanged any more Englishmen as he had just
hanged Oxenham, he should soon be given a present of
two thousand Spanish heads. Then Drake gave every Spanish officer
and man a personal gift proportioned to his rank, but
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all his accumulated prisoners aboard the emptied treasure ship, wished
them a prosperous voyage and better luck next time, furnished
the brave Don Anton with a letter of protection in
case he should fall in with an English vessel, and
after many expressions of goodwill on both sides, sailed north
the voyage made while the poorest spit silver treasure ship
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turned sad the east and steered for Panama. Lima, Panama
and non Bret Dudias were in wild commotion at the news,
and every sailor and soldier that the Spaniards had was
going to and fro uncertain whether to attack or to defend,
and still more distracted as to the most elusive English whereabouts.
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One good Spanish captain, Don Pedro Miemte de Gambeau, was
all for going north, his instinct telling him that Drake
would not come back among the angry bees after stealing
all the honey. But by the time the Captain General
of New Spain had made up his mind to take
one of the many wrong directions he had been thinking of,
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Drake was already far on his way north to found
New Albion. Drake's triumph over all difficulties had won the
hearts of his men more than ever before, while the
capture of the treasure ship had done nothing to loosen
the bonds of discipline. Don Francisco Zerati wrote a very
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intimate account of his experience as a prisoner on board
the Golden Hind. The English captain is one of the
greatest mariners at sea alike from his skill and his
powers of command. His ship is a very fast sailor,
and her men are all skilled hands of warlike age,
and so well trained that they might be old soldiers
of the Italian Tertias, the crack core of the age
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of Spanish eyes. He is served with much plate, and
has all possible kinds of delicacies and sins, many of
which he says the Queen of England gave him. None
of the gentlemen sit or cover in his presence without
first being ordered to do so. They dine and sup
to the music of violence. His galleon carries about thirty
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guns and a great deal of ammunition. This was in
marked contrast to the common Spanish practice. Even on the
Atlantic side, the greedy exploiters of New Spain grudged every
ton of armament and every well trained fighting sailor, both
on account of the expense and because this former protection
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took up room they wished to fill with merchandise. The
result was, of course, that they lost more by capture
than they gained by evading the regulation about the proper armament.
His ship is not only of the very latest type,
but sheathed before copper sheathing was invented some generations later,
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the teredo worm used to honeycomb unprotected halls in the
most dangerous way. John Hawkins invented the sheathing used by Drake.
A good thick tar and hair sheeting clamped on with
elm northwest to Coronado, then to Aguatulca, then fifteen hundred
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miles due west brought Drake about that distance south by
east of the modern San Francisco. Here he turned north northwest, and,
giving the land a wide berth, went on to perhaps
the latitude of Vancouver Island, always looking for the reverse
way through America by the fabled Northwest passage. Either there
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was the most extraord ordinary June ever known in California
and Oregon, or else the narratives of those on board
have all been hopelessly confused. For freezing rain is said
to have fallen on the night of June third, in
the latitude of forty two degrees. In forty eight degrees,
there followed the most vile, thick and stinking fogs, with
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still more numbing cold. The meat froze when taken off
the fire, the wet rigging turned to icicles. Six men
could hardly do the work of three. Fresh from the tropics.
The crews were unfit for going any farther. A tremendous
northwestern settled the question anyway, and Drake ran south through
thirty eight degrees thirty minutes, where in what is now
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Drake's Bay, he came to anchor just north of San Francisco,
not more than once, if ever at all, and that
a generation earlier had Europeans been in northern California. The
Indians took the Englishmen for gods whom they knew, not
whether to love or fear. Drake, with the essential kindliness
of most and the magnetic power of all great born commanders,
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soon won the native's confidence. But their admiration has meant
ravished in their minds, was rather overpowering, for after a
kind of most lamentable weeping and crying out, they came
forward with various offerings for the new found gods, prostrating
themselves in humble adoration and tearing their breasts and faces
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in a wild desire to show the spirit of self sacrifice.
Drake and his men, all Protestants, were horrified at being
made what they considered idols, so kneeling down, they prayed aloud,
raising hands and eyes to Heaven, hoping thereby to show
the heathen where the true God lived. Drake then read
the Bible, and all the Englishmen sang psalms. The Indians,
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observing the end of every pause, with one voice, still cried,
oh greatly, rejoicing in our exercises. As this impromptu service ended,
the Indians gave back all the presents Drake had given them,
and retired in attitudes of adoration. In three days more
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they returned, headed by a medicine man, whom the English
called the mace Bearer. With the slow and stately measure
of a mystic dance, this great high priest of Heathen
rights advanced chanting a sort of litany. Both litany and
dance were gradually taken up by tens, by hundreds, and
finally by all the thousands of the devotees, who addressed
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Drake with shouts of Haiyo and invested him with a
head dress of rare plumage and a necklace of quaint beads.
It was, in fact a native coronation. Without a soul
to doubt the divine right of their new king. Drake's
Protestant scruples were quieted by thinking to what good end
God had brought this to pass, and what honor and
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profit it might bring to our country in time to come. So,
in the name and to the use of Her most
excellent Majesty, he took the scepter, crown and dignity, and
proclaimed an English protectorate over the land he called New Albion.
He then set up a brass plate commemorating this proclamation,
and put an English coin in the middle, so that
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the Indians might see Elizabeth's portrait and armorial device. The
exaltation of the devotees continued till the day he left.
They crowded in to be cured by the touch of
his hand. Those were the times in which the sovereign
was expected to cure the king's evil by a touch.
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They also expected to be cured by inhaling the divine
breath of any one among the English gods. The chief
narrator adds that the gods who pleased the Indian's most
braves and squaws included were common life, the youngest of us,
which shows that the human was not quite forgotten in
the all divine. When the time for sailing came, the
(34:09):
devotees were inconsolable. They not only in a sudden did
lose all mirth, joy, glad, countenance, pleasant speeches, agility of body,
and all pleasure, but with sighs and sorrow wings they
poured out woeful complaints and moans, with bitter tears and
ringing of their hands and tormenting of themselves. The last
(34:32):
the English saw them was the whole devoted tribe assembled
on the hill around a sacrificial fire, whence they implored
their gods to bring their heaven back to earth. From California,
Drake sailed to the Philippines and then to the Moluccas,
where the Portuguese had, if such a thing were possible,
outdone even the Spaniards in their fiendish dealings with the natives.
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Lopez Mosquito, viler than his pestil name, had murdered the Sultan,
who was then his guest, topped up the body and
thrown it into the sea. Baybar, the Sultan's son, had
driven out the Portuguese from the island of Ternate, and
was preparing to do likewise from the island of Tadore
(35:16):
when Drake arrived. Beaybar then offered Drake for Queen Elizabeth
the complete monopoly of the trade in spices, if only
Drake would use the Golden Hind as the flagship against
the Portuguese. Drake's reception was full of Oriental state, and
Sultan Beaybar was so entranced by Drake's musicians that he
(35:37):
sat all afternoon among them in a boat towed by
the Golden Hind. But it was too great a risk
to take a hand in this new war with only
fifty six men left, so Drake traded for all the
spices he could stow away, and concluded a sort of
understanding which formed the sheet Anger of English diplomacy in
(35:59):
Eastern Seas for another century to come. Elizabeth was so
delighted with his result that she gave Drake a cup
still at the family seated Nutwell Court in Devonshire, engraved
with the picture of his reception by the Salton Bay
bar of Tornate. Leaving Tonte The Golden Hind beat to
and fro among the tortuous and only half known channels
(36:22):
of the archipelago till the ninth of January fifteen hundred
and eighty, when she bore away before a roaring trade wind,
with all sails set and so far as Drake could tell,
a good clear course for home. But suddenly, without a
moment's warning, there was a most terrible shock. The gallant
ship reared like a stricken charger, plunged forward, grinding her
(36:44):
trembling haul against the rocks, and then lay pounding out
her life upon a reef. Drake and his minute once
took in half the straining sails, then knelt in prayer,
then rose to see what could be done by earthly means.
To their dismay. There was no holding ground on which
to get an anchor fast and warped the vessel off.
The lead could find no bottom anywhere aft. All night long,
(37:08):
the Golden Hind remained fast, caught in this insidious death trap.
A dawn parson Fletcher preached a sermon and administered the
blessed sacrament. Then Drake ordered ten tons overboard, cannon, clothes
and provisions. The tide was now low, and she sewed
seven feet, her draft being thirteen and the depth of
(37:30):
water only six. Still, she kept an even keel as
the reef was to lured, and she had just sail
enough to hold her up. But at high tide in
the afternoon there was a lull, and she began to
heal over towards the unfathomable depths. Just then, however, a
quiver ran through her from stem to stern. An extra
sail that Drake had ordered up caught what little wind
(37:53):
there was, and with the last throb of the rising tide,
she shook herself free and took the war as quietly
as if her hall was being launched. There were perils
enough to follow, dangers of navigation, the arrival of a
Portuguese fleet that was only just diluted in all the
ordinary risks of traveling times, when what might be called
(38:16):
the official Guide to voyagers opened with the ominous advice
first make thy will, But the greatest had now been
safely passed. Meanwhile, all sorts of rumors were rife in Spain,
New Spain, and England. Drake had been hanged. That rumor
came from the hanging of John Oxenham at Lima. The
(38:38):
Golden hind had foundered. That tale was what Winter captain
of the Elizabeth, was not altogether unwilling to be thought.
After his own failure to face another great Antarctic storm,
he had returned in fifteen hundred and seventy eight. News
from Peru and Mexico came home in fifteen hundred and
seventy nine, but no Drake. So as fifteen hundred eighty
(39:01):
war on, his friends began to despair. The Spaniards and
Portuguese rejoiced, while Burley with all who found Drake an
inconvenience in their diplomatic way, began to hope that perhaps
the sea had smoothed things over. In August, the London
merchants were thrown into consternation by the report of Drake's
incredible captures, for their own merchant fleet was just then
(39:24):
off for Spain. They waited on the Council, who sued
them with the assurance that Drake's voyage was a purely
private venture. So far as prizes were concerned. With this
diplomatic quibble, they were forced to be content. But worse
was soon to follow. The King of Portugal died. Philip's
army marched on Lisbon immediately, and all the Portuguese possessions
(39:46):
were added to the already overgrown Empire of Spain, where
still this annexation gave Philip what he wanted in the
way of ships, for Portugal had more than Spain. The
Great Armado was now expected to be formed against England
unless Elizabeth's miraculous diplomacy could once more get her clear
of the fast entangling coils. To add to the general confusion,
(40:08):
this was also the year in which the Pope sent
his picked Jesuits to England, in which Elizabeth was carrying
on her last great international flirtation with ugly dissipated Francis
of Anjou, brother to the King of France, into this
imbroglio sail of the Golden hind with ballast of silver
and cargo of gold. Is her Majesty alive and well,
(40:31):
said Drake to the first sail outside of Plymouth Sound. Ay,
she is my master, answered the skipper of a fishing smack.
But there's a deal of sickness here in Plymouth, on
which Drake, ready for any excuse to stay afloat, came
to anchor in the harbor. His wife, pretty Mary Newman,
from the banks of Tabby, took boat to see him,
as did the mayor, whose business was to warn him
(40:54):
to keep quiet till his course was clear. So Drake
wrote off to the Queen and all the kinds who
were on his side. The answer from the councilors was
not encouraging, so he warped out quietly and anchored again
behind Drake's Island in the Sound. But presently the Queen's
own message came, commanding him to an audience, at which
(41:15):
she said she would be pleased to view some of
the curiosities he had brought from foreign parts. Straight on
that hint, he started up to town with spices, diamonds, pearls,
and gold enough to win any woman's pardon and consent.
The audience lasted six hours. Meanwhile, the councils sat without
(41:36):
any of Drake's supporters and ordered all the treasure to
be impounded in the tower. But Lester Walsingham and had
all members of Drake's syndicate refused to sign, while Elizabeth herself,
the managing director, suspended the order till her further pleasure
should be known. The Spanish ambassador did burn with passion
against Drake. The council was distractingly divided. The London merchants
(42:01):
trembled for their fleet, but Elizabeth was determined that the
blow to Philip should hurt him as much as it
could without producing an immediate war. While down among Drake's
own West countrymen, the case was clear in Sea divinity,
as similar cases had often been before. Tremaine, a Devonshire
magistrate and friend of the syndicate, could hardly find words
(42:23):
to express his contentment with Drake, whom he called a
man of great government, and that by the rules of God,
and his book. Elizabeth decided to stand by Drake. She
claimed what was true, that he had injured no actual
place or persons of the King of Spains, nothing but
property afloat appropriate for reprisals. All England knew the story
(42:45):
of Ulia and approved of reprisals in accordance with the
spirit of the age. And the Queen had a special
grievance about Ireland, where the Spaniards were entrenched in Smeriwick,
thus adding to the confusion of a rebellion that never
quite died down at any time. Philip explained that the
Smeerwick Spaniards were there as private volunteers. Elizabeth answered that
(43:08):
Drake was just the same. The English tide, at all events,
was turning in his favor. The indefatigable Stow, chronicler of London,
records that the people generally applauded his wonderful long adventures
and rich prizes. His name and fame became admirable in
all places, the people swarming daily in the streets to
(43:31):
behold him, vowing hatred to all that misliked him. The
Golden Hind had been brought round to London, where she
was the greatest attraction of the day. Finally, on the
fourth of April fifteen hundred and eighty one, Elizabeth went
on board in State to a banquet finer than has
ever been seen in England since King Henry the Eighth,
(43:53):
said the furious Spanish ambassador in his report to Philip.
But this was not her chief offense in Spanish eyes.
For here, surrounded by her court, and in the presence
of an enormous multitude of her enthusiastic subjects, she openly
defied the King of Spain. He hath demanded Drake's ahead
(44:13):
of me, she laughed aloud, And here I have a
gilded sword to strike it off. With that, she bade
Drake kneel, Then handing the sword to marg Chamont, the
special envoy of her French suitor, Francis of Anjou, she
ordered him to give the accolade. This time she pronounced
the formula of immemorial fame. I bid the rise, Sir
(44:36):
Francis Drake. End of Chapter seven
Chapter seven of Elizabethan Sea Dogs by William Wood. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter seven Drake's
encompassment of all the world. When Drake left for Nombre
(00:24):
de Dios in the spring of fifteen hundred and seventy two,
Spain and England were both ready to fly at each
other's throats. When he came back in the summer of
fifteen hundred and seventy three, they were all for making friends.
Hypocritically so but friends. Drake's plunder stank in the nostrils
(00:44):
of the haughty dons. It was a very inconvenient factor
in the diplomatic problem for elizabeth. Therefore, Drake disappeared in
his plunder iiO. He went to Ireland on service in
the Navy. His plunder was divided up in secrecy among
the high and low contracting parties. In fifteen hundred and
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seventy four, the Anglo Spanish scene had changed again. The
Spaniards had been so harassed by the English Sea Dogs
between the Netherlands and Spain that Philip listened to his
Great Admiral Menendez, who, despairing of direct attack on England,
proposed to seize the Silly Isles, and from that naval
(01:27):
base clear out away through all the pirates of the
English Channel. War seemed certain, but a terrible epidemic broke
out in the Spanish fleet. Menendez died and Philip changed
his policy again. This same year, John Oxenham, Drake's old
(01:48):
second in command, sailed over to his death. The Spaniards
caught him on the Isthmus of Darien and hanged him
as a pirate at Lima in Peru. In the autumn
of fifteen hundred and seventy five, Drake returned to England
with a new friend, Thomas Doughty, a soldier's scholar of
(02:10):
the Renaissance. Clever and good company, but one of those
Italianate Englishmen who gave rise to the Italian proverb anglazy
italianato a diavolo incarnato an Italianized Englishman is the very devil.
Dowdy was patronized by the Earl of Essex, who had
(02:31):
great influence at court. The next year, fifteen hundred and
seventy six is noted for the Spanish fury. Philips seapower
was so hampered by the Dutch and English privateers, and
he was so impotent against the English navy that he
could get no ready money, either by loan or from
(02:52):
America to pay his troops in Antwerp. These men, reinforced
by others, therefore mutinied and sacked the whole of Antwerp,
killing all who opposed them, and practically ruining the city
from which Charles the Fifth used to draw such splendid subsidies.
The result was a strengthening of Dutch resistance everywhere. Elizabeth
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had been unusually tortuous in her policy about this time,
but in fifteen hundred and seventy seven she was ready
for another shot at Spain, provided always that it entailed
no open war. Don John of Austria, natural son of Charles,
(03:38):
had all the shining qualities that his legitimate half brother
Philip lacked. He was the hero of Lepante and had
offered to conquer the Moors in Tunis if Philip would
let him rule as king. Philip, crafty, cold and jealous,
of course, refused, and sent him to the Netherlands instead.
(04:00):
Don John formed the still more aspiring plan of pacifying
the Dutch, marrying Mary, Queen of Scots, deposing Elizabeth, and
reigning over all the British Isles. The Pope had blessed
both schemes, but the Dutch insisted on the immediate withdrawal
of the Spanish troops. This demolished Don John's plan, but
(04:21):
it pleased Philip, who could now ruin his brilliant brother
by letting him wear himself out by trying to govern
the Netherlands without an army. Then the Duke of Anjou,
brother to the King of France, came into the fast
thickening plot at the head of the French rescuers of
the Netherlands from Spain. But a victorious French army in
(04:43):
the Netherlands was worse for England than even Spanish rule
there So Elizabeth tried to support the Dutch enough to
annoy Philip and at the same time keep them independent
of the French. In her desire to support the Them
against Philip indirectly, she found it convenient to call Drake
(05:05):
into consultation. Drake then presented to Sir Francis Wassingham his
letter of commendation from the Earl of s Six, under
whom he had served in Ireland. Whereupon Secretary Walsingham, the
first civilian who ever grasped the principle of modern sea power,
declared that her Majesty had received divers injuries of the
(05:28):
King of Spain for which she desired revenge. He showed
me a plot map, willing me to note down where
he might be most annoyed, but I refused to set
my hand to anything, affirming that her Majesty was mortal,
and that if it should please God to take her
majesty away, that some prince might reigant, that might be
(05:50):
in league with the King of Spain, and then would
my own hand be a witness against myself. Elizabeth was
forty four. If Scott's was watching for the throne, plots
and counterplots were everywhere. Shortly after this interview, Drake was
told late at night that he should have audience of
her Majesty next day. On seeing him, Elizabeth went straight
(06:13):
to the point, Drake, I would gladly be revenged on
the King of Spain for divers injuries that I have
received and withal says Drake craved my advice therein, who
told her Majesty the only way was to annoy him
by the indeeds. On that he disclosed his whole daring
scheme for rating the Pacific. Elizabeth, who like her father
(06:37):
loved a man who was a man, fell in with
this at once. Secrecy was, of course essential. Her Majesty
did swear by her crown that if any within her
realm did give the King of Spain to understand hereof
they should lose their heads. Therefore, at a subsequent audience,
her Majesty gave me special commandment that of all men,
(06:59):
my Lord Treasurer should not know of it. The cautious
Lord Treasurer Burley was against what he considered dangerous forms
of privateering, and was for keeping on good terms with
Spanish arms and trade as long as possible. Mendoza Lynxide,
the ambassador of Spain, was hoodwinked, but Dowdy, the viper
(07:21):
in Drake's bosom, was meditating mischief, not exactly trees and
with Spain, but at least a breach of confidence by
telling Burley. De Guiris, chief Spanish spy in England, was
sorely puzzled. Drake's ostensible destination was Egypt, and his men
were openly and listed for Alexandria. The Spaniards, however, saw
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far enough through this to suppose that he was really
going back to Nombre de Dios. It did not seem likely,
though quite possible, that he was going in search of
the Northwest Passage, for Martin Frobisher had gone out on
that quest the year before and had returned without lump
of black stone from the Arctic desolation of Baffin Island.
(08:08):
No one seems to have divined the truth. Cape Horn
was unknown. The Strait of Magellan was supposed to be
the only opening between South America and a huge Antarctic continent,
and its reputation for disasters had grown so terrible and
rightly terrible, that it had been given up as the
way into the Pacific. The Spanish Way, as we have seen,
(08:33):
was over land from Nombre de Dios to Panama, more
or less along the line of the modern Panama Canal.
In the Inn, Drake got away quietly enough. On the
fifteenth of November fifteen hundred and seventy seven. The court
and country were in great excitement over the conspiracy between
(08:53):
the Spaniards and Mary, Queen of Scots, now a prisoner
of nine years standing, the famous voyage of Sir Francis
Drake in the South Sea, and their hents about the
whole globe of the earth, begun in the year of
our Lord fifteen hundred and seventy seven, well deserves its
great renown. Drake's flotilla seems absurdly small, but for its
(09:19):
own time it was far from insignificant, and it was
exceedingly well found. The Pelican afterwards called the Golden Hind,
though his flagship was of only one hundred tons, The Elizabeth,
the Swan, the Marigold, and the Benedict were of eighty fifty,
thirty and fifteen. There were altogether less than three hundred
(09:40):
tons and two hundred men. The crews numbered one hundred
and fifty. The rest were gentlemen, adventurers, special artificers, to train, surveyors, musicians, boys.
In Drake's own page, Jack Drake, there was great store
of wildfire, chain shot, hark us, pistols, corselets, bows, and
(10:02):
other like weapons in great abundance. Neither had he omitted
to make provision for ornament and delight, carrying with him
expert musicians, rich furniture. All the vessels for his table
yea many belonging even to the cookwom being of pure
silver and divers shows of all sorts of curious workmanship,
(10:23):
whereby the civility and magnificence of his native country might
amongst all nations whithersoever he should come be the more
admired sou West went Drake's flotilla and Media's landfall towards
the Pole Antarctic, off the land of Devils, in thirty
(10:45):
one degrees forty minutes south northeast of Montevideo. Frightful storms
had buffetted the little ships about for weary weeks together,
and all hands thought they were the victims of some
magician on board, perhaps the Italianate Dowdy, or else of
native witchcraft from the shore. The experienced doughpilot, who was
(11:05):
at Portuguese explained that the natives had sold themselves to devils,
who were kinder masters than the Spaniards, and that now
when they see ships they cast sand into the air,
whereof ariza a most gross thick fog and palpable darkness,
and with all horrible, fearful and intolerable winds, rains and storms.
(11:28):
But witchcraft was not Thomas Dowdy's real offense. Even before
leaving England, and after betraying Elizabeth and Drake to Burley,
who wished to curry favor with the Spanish traders rather
than provoke the Spanish power. Dowdy was busy tampering with
the men. A storekeeper had to be sent back for
peculation designed to curtail Drake's range of action. Then Dowdy
(11:52):
tempted officers and men, talked up the terrors of Magellan Strait,
ran down his friend's authority, and finally tried to encourage
down right desertion by underhand means. This was too much
for Drake. Dowdy was arrested, tied to the mast, and
threatened with our punishment if he did not mend his ways.
But he would not mend his ways. He had a
(12:15):
brother on board and a friend, a very crafty lawyer,
so stern measures were soon required. Drake held a sort
of court martial which condemned Dowdy to death them Dowdy,
having played his last card and lost, determined to die
like an officer and a gentleman. Drake solemnly pronounced him
the child of Death and persuaded him that he would,
(12:36):
by these means, make him the servant of God. Dowdy
fell in with the idea, and the former friends took
the sacrament together, for which Master Doughty gave him hearty thanks,
never otherwise terming him that my good captain Chaplain Fletcher.
Having ended with the absolution, Drake and Daddy sat down
(12:57):
together as cheerfully as ever in their lives, each cheering
up the other and taking their leave by drinking to
each other, as if some journey had been in hand.
Then Drake and Daddy went aside for a private conversation
of which no record has remained. After this, dowt he
walked to the place of execution, where, like King Charles
(13:17):
the First he nothing common did or mean upon that
memorable scene, and so bidding the whole company farewell, he
laid his head on the block. Lo, this is the
end of traders, said Drake, as the executioner raised the
head aloft. Drake, like Magellan, decided to winter where he
was in Port Saint Julian on the east coast of Patagonia.
(13:41):
His troubles with the men were not yet over, for
the soldiers resented being put on an equality with his sailors,
and the very crafty lawyer and Dowdy's brother were anything
but pleased with the turn events had taken. Then again,
the faint hearts murmured in their storm beaten tents against
the horrors of the awful straits. So Drake resolved to
(14:02):
make things clear for good and all. Unfolding a document,
he began, my masters, I am a very bad orator,
for my bringing up hath not been in learning. But
what I shall speak here, let every man take good
notice of, and let him write it down, For I
will speak nothing, but I will answer it in England, yea,
and before her Majesty, and I have it here already
(14:23):
set down. Then, after reminding them of the great adventure
before them, and saying that mutiny and dissension must stop
at once, he went on, for by the life of God,
it doth even take my wits from me to think
of it. Here is such controversy between the gentlemen and
sailors that it doth make me mad to hear it.
(14:44):
I must have the gentleman to haul with the mariner,
and the mariner with the gentleman. I would know him
that would refuse to set his hand to a rope.
But I know there is not any such here. To
those whose hearts fail them, he offered the marigold. But
let them go homeward, for if I find them in
my way, I will surely sink them. Not a man
(15:07):
stepped forward. Then, turning to the officers, he discharged every
one of them for reappointment at his pleasure. Next, he
made the worst offenders, the crafty lawyer included step to
the front for reprimand, finally producing the Queen's commission. He
ended by ringing appeal to their united patriotism. We have
(15:29):
set by the ears three mighty Princes, the sovereigns of England,
Spain and Portugal. And if this void should not have success,
we should not only be scorning unto our enemies, but
a blot on our country forever. What triumph would it
not be for Spain and Portugal? The like of this
would never more be tried than. He gave back every
(15:51):
man of his rank, again explaining that he and they
were all servants of her majesty. Together with this the
men marched off, loyal and obedient their tents. Next week,
Drake sailed for the much dreaded Straits, before entering which
he changed the pelican's name to the Golden Hind, which
was the crest of Sir Christopher Hatton, one of the
(16:14):
chief promoters of the enterprise, and also one of Dowdy's patrons.
Then every vessel struck her topsail to the bunt, in
honor of the Queen, as well as to show that
all discoveries and captures were to be made in her
sole name. Seventeen days of appalling dangers saw them through
(16:34):
the straits, where icy squalls came rushing down from every
quarter of the baffling channels. But the Pacific was still worse.
For no less than fifty two consecutive days, a furious
scale kept driving them about like so many bits of driftwood.
The like of it no traveler hath felt. Neither has
(16:54):
there ever been such a tempest since Noah's flood. The
little English vessels fought for their very lives in that
devouring hell of waters, the loneliest and most stupendous in
the world. The Marigold went down with all hands, and
Parson Fletcher, who heard their dying call, thought it was
a judgment. At last, the gale abated near Cape Horn,
(17:17):
where Drake landed with a compass, while Parson Fletcher set
up a stone engraved with the Queen's name and the
date of the discovery, deceived by the false trend of
the coast shown on the Spanish charts. Drake went a
long way northwest from Cape Horn. Then he struck in
northeast and picked up the Chilean Islands. It was December
(17:41):
fifteen hundred and seventy eight, but not a word of
warning had reached the Spanish Pacific when Drake stood into Valpariza.
Seeing assail, the crew of the Grand Captain of the
South got up a cask of wine and beat a
welcome on their drums. In the twinkling of an eye,
gigantic tom Moon was over the side, at the head
(18:03):
of a party of boarders, who laid about them with
a will and soon drove the Spaniards below. Half A
million dollars worth of gold and jewels was taken with
this prize. Drake then found a place in Salado Bay
where he could clean the Golden hind while the Pinnace
ranged south to look for the other ships that had
(18:24):
parted company during the two months storm. These were never found,
the Elizabeth and the Swan having gone home after parting
company in the storm that sank the Marigold. After a
prolonged search, the Golden hind stood north again. Meanwhile, the
astounding news of her arrival was spreading dismay all over
(18:45):
the coast, where the old Spanish governor's plans were totally upset.
The Indians had just been defeated when this strange ship
came sailing in from nowhere, to the utter confusion of
their enemies. The governor died of vexation, and all the
Spanish authorities were nearly worried to death. They had never
(19:05):
dreamt of such an invasion. Their crews were small, their
lumbering vessels very lightly armed, their towns unfortified. But Drake
went faster by sea than their news by land. Every
vessel was overhauled, taken searched, emptied of its treasure, and
then sent back with his crew and passengers. At Liberty.
(19:30):
One day a watering party chanced upon a Spaniard from Potosi,
fast asleep, with thirteen bars of silver by him. The
bars were lifted quietly, and the Spaniard left sleeping peacefully.
Another Spaniard suddenly came round a corner with half a
ton of silver on eight lamas. The Indians came off
to trade, and Drake, as usual, made friends with them.
(19:52):
At once. He had already been attacked by other Indians
on both coasts, but this was because the unknown English
had been mistaken and for the hated Spaniards. As he
near Lima, Drake quickened his pace lest the Great Annual
Treasure Ship of fifteen hundred and seventy nine should get
(20:12):
wind of what was wrong. A minor treasure ship was
found to have been cleared of all her silver just
in time to balk him, so he set every stitch
of canvas she possessed and left her, driving out to
sea with two other empty prizes. Then he stole into
Lima after dark and came to anchor surrounded by Spanish vessels,
(20:34):
not one of which had set a watch. They were
found nearly empty, but a ship from Panama looked promising,
so the pinnace started after her, but was fired on
and an Englishman was killed. Drake then followed her, after
cutting every cable in the harbor, which soon became a
pandemonium of vessels gone adrift. The Panama ship had nothing
(20:56):
of great value except her news, which was that the
great treasure ship near Estra Signora dearlac Concepcion, the chiefest
glory of the whole South Sea was on her way
to Panama. She had a very long start, and, as
ill luck would have it, Drake got calmed outside Calea,
(21:16):
where the bells rang out in wild alarm. The news
that spread inland, and the Viceroy of Peru came hurrying
down with all the troops that he could muster, Finding
from some arrows that the strangers were Englishmen, he put
four hundred soldiers into the only two vessels that had
escaped the general wreck produced by Drake's cutting of the cables.
(21:38):
When Drake saw the two pursuing craft, he took back
his prize crew from the Panama vessel, into which he
put his prisoners. Meanwhile, a breeze sprang up, and he
soon drew far ahead. The Spanish soldiers overhauled the Panama
Prize and gladly gave up the pursuit. They had no
guns of any size with which to fight the Golden Hind,
(21:59):
and most of them were so seasick from the heaving
groundswell that they couldn't have boardered her in any case.
Three more prizes were then taken by the swift Golden Hind.
Each one had news which showed that Drake was closing
on the chase. Another week passed, with every stitch of
canvas set. A fourth prize taken off Cape San Francisca
(22:23):
said that the treasure ship was only one day ahead,
but she was getting near to Panama, so every nerve
was strained anew. Presently, Jack Drake, the captain's page, yelled
out sail hoe and scrambled down the main mast to
get the golden chain that Drake had promised to the
first lookout who saw the chase. It was ticklish work
(22:45):
so near to Panama, and local winds might ruin all.
So Drake, in order not to frighten her, trailed a
dozen big empty wind jars over the stern to moderate
his pace. At eight o'clock, the jars were cut adrift,
and the golden hind sprang forward with the evening breeze,
her crew at battle quarters, and her decks all cleared
(23:07):
for action. The chase was called the Spitfire by the
Spaniards because she was much better armed than any other
vessel there, but all the same, her armament was nothing
for her tonnage. The Spaniards trusted to their remoteness for protection,
and that was their undoing to every Englishman's amazement. The
(23:29):
chase was seen to go about and calmly come to
hail the Golden Hind, which she mistook for a dispatch
vessel sent after her with some message from the Vice. Drake,
asking nothing better, ran up alongside as Anton, her captain,
hailed him with ah, who are you a ship of chili?
Answered Drake. Anton looked down on the Stranger's deck to
(23:51):
see it full of armed men, from whom a roar
of triumph came. English strikes sail. Then Drake's whistle loose
sharply and instant silence followed, on which he hailed, Don Anton,
strike sail, signor wand Anton, or I must send you
to the bottom. Come aboard and do it yourself, bravely,
(24:12):
answered Anton. Drake's whistle blue one shrill long blast, which
loosed a withering volley at less than point blank range.
Anton tried to bear away and shake off his assailant,
but in vain the English guns now opened on his masts,
and rigging down came the Mizzen, While a hail of
English shot and arrows prevented every attempt to clear away
(24:34):
the wreckage. The dumbfounded Spanish crew ran below don Anton
looked overside to port, and there was the English pinnace,
from which forty English borders were nimbly climbing up his
own ship's side. Resistance was hopeless, so Anton struck and
was taken aboard the Golden Hind. There he met Drake,
(24:54):
who was already taking off his armor, except with patients
the usage of war, said Drake, laying his hand on
Anton's shoulder for all that night next day. In the
next night following, Drake sailed west with his fabulous prize
so as to get well clear of the trade route
along the coast. But the whole treasure was has never
(25:17):
been revealed, but it certainly amounted to the equivalent of
many millions at the present day. Among the official items
worth thirteen chests of pieces of eight eighteen pounds of
pure gold, jewels and plate, twenty six ton weight of silver,
and Sundry's unspecified. As the Spanish pilot's son looked over
(25:37):
at the rail at this astounding site, the Englishman called
out to say that his father was no longer the
pilot of the old spit Fire, but of the new
spitz Silver. The prisoners were no less gratified than Surprised
by Drake's kind treatment, he entertained Don Anton at a banquet,
took him all over the Golden hind, and intrusted him
(26:00):
with a message to Don Martin, the trader of San
Juan de ul Yua. This was to say that if
Don Martin hanged any more Englishmen as he had just
hanged Oxenham, he should soon be given a present of
two thousand Spanish heads. Then Drake gave every Spanish officer
and man a personal gift proportioned to his rank, but
(26:23):
all his accumulated prisoners aboard the emptied treasure ship, wished
them a prosperous voyage and better luck next time, furnished
the brave Don Anton with a letter of protection in
case he should fall in with an English vessel, and
after many expressions of goodwill on both sides, sailed north
the voyage made while the poorest spit silver treasure ship
(26:45):
turned sad the east and steered for Panama. Lima, Panama
and non Bret Dudias were in wild commotion at the news,
and every sailor and soldier that the Spaniards had was
going to and fro uncertain whether to attack or to defend,
and still more distracted as to the most elusive English whereabouts.
(27:06):
One good Spanish captain, Don Pedro Miemte de Gambeau, was
all for going north, his instinct telling him that Drake
would not come back among the angry bees after stealing
all the honey. But by the time the Captain General
of New Spain had made up his mind to take
one of the many wrong directions he had been thinking of,
(27:26):
Drake was already far on his way north to found
New Albion. Drake's triumph over all difficulties had won the
hearts of his men more than ever before, while the
capture of the treasure ship had done nothing to loosen
the bonds of discipline. Don Francisco Zerati wrote a very
(27:47):
intimate account of his experience as a prisoner on board
the Golden Hind. The English captain is one of the
greatest mariners at sea alike from his skill and his
powers of command. His ship is a very fast sailor,
and her men are all skilled hands of warlike age,
and so well trained that they might be old soldiers
of the Italian Tertias, the crack core of the age
(28:11):
of Spanish eyes. He is served with much plate, and
has all possible kinds of delicacies and sins, many of
which he says the Queen of England gave him. None
of the gentlemen sit or cover in his presence without
first being ordered to do so. They dine and sup
to the music of violence. His galleon carries about thirty
(28:32):
guns and a great deal of ammunition. This was in
marked contrast to the common Spanish practice. Even on the
Atlantic side, the greedy exploiters of New Spain grudged every
ton of armament and every well trained fighting sailor, both
on account of the expense and because this former protection
(28:52):
took up room they wished to fill with merchandise. The
result was, of course, that they lost more by capture
than they gained by evading the regulation about the proper armament.
His ship is not only of the very latest type,
but sheathed before copper sheathing was invented some generations later,
(29:14):
the teredo worm used to honeycomb unprotected halls in the
most dangerous way. John Hawkins invented the sheathing used by Drake.
A good thick tar and hair sheeting clamped on with
elm northwest to Coronado, then to Aguatulca, then fifteen hundred
(29:36):
miles due west brought Drake about that distance south by
east of the modern San Francisco. Here he turned north northwest, and,
giving the land a wide berth, went on to perhaps
the latitude of Vancouver Island, always looking for the reverse
way through America by the fabled Northwest passage. Either there
(29:59):
was the most extraord ordinary June ever known in California
and Oregon, or else the narratives of those on board
have all been hopelessly confused. For freezing rain is said
to have fallen on the night of June third, in
the latitude of forty two degrees. In forty eight degrees,
there followed the most vile, thick and stinking fogs, with
(30:23):
still more numbing cold. The meat froze when taken off
the fire, the wet rigging turned to icicles. Six men
could hardly do the work of three. Fresh from the tropics.
The crews were unfit for going any farther. A tremendous
northwestern settled the question anyway, and Drake ran south through
thirty eight degrees thirty minutes, where in what is now
(30:46):
Drake's Bay, he came to anchor just north of San Francisco,
not more than once, if ever at all, and that
a generation earlier had Europeans been in northern California. The
Indians took the Englishmen for gods whom they knew, not
whether to love or fear. Drake, with the essential kindliness
of most and the magnetic power of all great born commanders,
(31:11):
soon won the native's confidence. But their admiration has meant
ravished in their minds, was rather overpowering, for after a
kind of most lamentable weeping and crying out, they came
forward with various offerings for the new found gods, prostrating
themselves in humble adoration and tearing their breasts and faces
(31:32):
in a wild desire to show the spirit of self sacrifice.
Drake and his men, all Protestants, were horrified at being
made what they considered idols, so kneeling down, they prayed aloud,
raising hands and eyes to Heaven, hoping thereby to show
the heathen where the true God lived. Drake then read
the Bible, and all the Englishmen sang psalms. The Indians,
(31:56):
observing the end of every pause, with one voice, still cried,
oh greatly, rejoicing in our exercises. As this impromptu service ended,
the Indians gave back all the presents Drake had given them,
and retired in attitudes of adoration. In three days more
(32:16):
they returned, headed by a medicine man, whom the English
called the mace Bearer. With the slow and stately measure
of a mystic dance, this great high priest of Heathen
rights advanced chanting a sort of litany. Both litany and
dance were gradually taken up by tens, by hundreds, and
finally by all the thousands of the devotees, who addressed
(32:39):
Drake with shouts of Haiyo and invested him with a
head dress of rare plumage and a necklace of quaint beads.
It was, in fact a native coronation. Without a soul
to doubt the divine right of their new king. Drake's
Protestant scruples were quieted by thinking to what good end
God had brought this to pass, and what honor and
(33:02):
profit it might bring to our country in time to come. So,
in the name and to the use of Her most
excellent Majesty, he took the scepter, crown and dignity, and
proclaimed an English protectorate over the land he called New Albion.
He then set up a brass plate commemorating this proclamation,
and put an English coin in the middle, so that
(33:24):
the Indians might see Elizabeth's portrait and armorial device. The
exaltation of the devotees continued till the day he left.
They crowded in to be cured by the touch of
his hand. Those were the times in which the sovereign
was expected to cure the king's evil by a touch.
(33:45):
They also expected to be cured by inhaling the divine
breath of any one among the English gods. The chief
narrator adds that the gods who pleased the Indian's most
braves and squaws included were common life, the youngest of us,
which shows that the human was not quite forgotten in
the all divine. When the time for sailing came, the
(34:09):
devotees were inconsolable. They not only in a sudden did
lose all mirth, joy, glad, countenance, pleasant speeches, agility of body,
and all pleasure, but with sighs and sorrow wings they
poured out woeful complaints and moans, with bitter tears and
ringing of their hands and tormenting of themselves. The last
(34:32):
the English saw them was the whole devoted tribe assembled
on the hill around a sacrificial fire, whence they implored
their gods to bring their heaven back to earth. From California,
Drake sailed to the Philippines and then to the Moluccas,
where the Portuguese had, if such a thing were possible,
outdone even the Spaniards in their fiendish dealings with the natives.
(34:55):
Lopez Mosquito, viler than his pestil name, had murdered the Sultan,
who was then his guest, topped up the body and
thrown it into the sea. Baybar, the Sultan's son, had
driven out the Portuguese from the island of Ternate, and
was preparing to do likewise from the island of Tadore
(35:16):
when Drake arrived. Beaybar then offered Drake for Queen Elizabeth
the complete monopoly of the trade in spices, if only
Drake would use the Golden Hind as the flagship against
the Portuguese. Drake's reception was full of Oriental state, and
Sultan Beaybar was so entranced by Drake's musicians that he
(35:37):
sat all afternoon among them in a boat towed by
the Golden Hind. But it was too great a risk
to take a hand in this new war with only
fifty six men left, so Drake traded for all the
spices he could stow away, and concluded a sort of
understanding which formed the sheet Anger of English diplomacy in
(35:59):
Eastern Seas for another century to come. Elizabeth was so
delighted with his result that she gave Drake a cup
still at the family seated Nutwell Court in Devonshire, engraved
with the picture of his reception by the Salton Bay
bar of Tornate. Leaving Tonte The Golden Hind beat to
and fro among the tortuous and only half known channels
(36:22):
of the archipelago till the ninth of January fifteen hundred
and eighty, when she bore away before a roaring trade wind,
with all sails set and so far as Drake could tell,
a good clear course for home. But suddenly, without a
moment's warning, there was a most terrible shock. The gallant
ship reared like a stricken charger, plunged forward, grinding her
(36:44):
trembling haul against the rocks, and then lay pounding out
her life upon a reef. Drake and his minute once
took in half the straining sails, then knelt in prayer,
then rose to see what could be done by earthly means.
To their dismay. There was no holding ground on which
to get an anchor fast and warped the vessel off.
The lead could find no bottom anywhere aft. All night long,
(37:08):
the Golden Hind remained fast, caught in this insidious death trap.
A dawn parson Fletcher preached a sermon and administered the
blessed sacrament. Then Drake ordered ten tons overboard, cannon, clothes
and provisions. The tide was now low, and she sewed
seven feet, her draft being thirteen and the depth of
(37:30):
water only six. Still, she kept an even keel as
the reef was to lured, and she had just sail
enough to hold her up. But at high tide in
the afternoon there was a lull, and she began to
heal over towards the unfathomable depths. Just then, however, a
quiver ran through her from stem to stern. An extra
sail that Drake had ordered up caught what little wind
(37:53):
there was, and with the last throb of the rising tide,
she shook herself free and took the war as quietly
as if her hall was being launched. There were perils
enough to follow, dangers of navigation, the arrival of a
Portuguese fleet that was only just diluted in all the
ordinary risks of traveling times, when what might be called
(38:16):
the official Guide to voyagers opened with the ominous advice
first make thy will, But the greatest had now been
safely passed. Meanwhile, all sorts of rumors were rife in Spain,
New Spain, and England. Drake had been hanged. That rumor
came from the hanging of John Oxenham at Lima. The
(38:38):
Golden hind had foundered. That tale was what Winter captain
of the Elizabeth, was not altogether unwilling to be thought.
After his own failure to face another great Antarctic storm,
he had returned in fifteen hundred and seventy eight. News
from Peru and Mexico came home in fifteen hundred and
seventy nine, but no Drake. So as fifteen hundred eighty
(39:01):
war on, his friends began to despair. The Spaniards and
Portuguese rejoiced, while Burley with all who found Drake an
inconvenience in their diplomatic way, began to hope that perhaps
the sea had smoothed things over. In August, the London
merchants were thrown into consternation by the report of Drake's
incredible captures, for their own merchant fleet was just then
(39:24):
off for Spain. They waited on the Council, who sued
them with the assurance that Drake's voyage was a purely
private venture. So far as prizes were concerned. With this
diplomatic quibble, they were forced to be content. But worse
was soon to follow. The King of Portugal died. Philip's
army marched on Lisbon immediately, and all the Portuguese possessions
(39:46):
were added to the already overgrown Empire of Spain, where
still this annexation gave Philip what he wanted in the
way of ships, for Portugal had more than Spain. The
Great Armado was now expected to be formed against England
unless Elizabeth's miraculous diplomacy could once more get her clear
of the fast entangling coils. To add to the general confusion,
(40:08):
this was also the year in which the Pope sent
his picked Jesuits to England, in which Elizabeth was carrying
on her last great international flirtation with ugly dissipated Francis
of Anjou, brother to the King of France, into this
imbroglio sail of the Golden hind with ballast of silver
and cargo of gold. Is her Majesty alive and well,
(40:31):
said Drake to the first sail outside of Plymouth Sound. Ay,
she is my master, answered the skipper of a fishing smack.
But there's a deal of sickness here in Plymouth, on
which Drake, ready for any excuse to stay afloat, came
to anchor in the harbor. His wife, pretty Mary Newman,
from the banks of Tabby, took boat to see him,
as did the mayor, whose business was to warn him
(40:54):
to keep quiet till his course was clear. So Drake
wrote off to the Queen and all the kinds who
were on his side. The answer from the councilors was
not encouraging, so he warped out quietly and anchored again
behind Drake's Island in the Sound. But presently the Queen's
own message came, commanding him to an audience, at which
(41:15):
she said she would be pleased to view some of
the curiosities he had brought from foreign parts. Straight on
that hint, he started up to town with spices, diamonds, pearls,
and gold enough to win any woman's pardon and consent.
The audience lasted six hours. Meanwhile, the councils sat without
(41:36):
any of Drake's supporters and ordered all the treasure to
be impounded in the tower. But Lester Walsingham and had
all members of Drake's syndicate refused to sign, while Elizabeth herself,
the managing director, suspended the order till her further pleasure
should be known. The Spanish ambassador did burn with passion
against Drake. The council was distractingly divided. The London merchants
(42:01):
trembled for their fleet, but Elizabeth was determined that the
blow to Philip should hurt him as much as it
could without producing an immediate war. While down among Drake's
own West countrymen, the case was clear in Sea divinity,
as similar cases had often been before. Tremaine, a Devonshire
magistrate and friend of the syndicate, could hardly find words
(42:23):
to express his contentment with Drake, whom he called a
man of great government, and that by the rules of God,
and his book. Elizabeth decided to stand by Drake. She
claimed what was true, that he had injured no actual
place or persons of the King of Spains, nothing but
property afloat appropriate for reprisals. All England knew the story
(42:45):
of Ulia and approved of reprisals in accordance with the
spirit of the age. And the Queen had a special
grievance about Ireland, where the Spaniards were entrenched in Smeriwick,
thus adding to the confusion of a rebellion that never
quite died down at any time. Philip explained that the
Smeerwick Spaniards were there as private volunteers. Elizabeth answered that
(43:08):
Drake was just the same. The English tide, at all events,
was turning in his favor. The indefatigable Stow, chronicler of London,
records that the people generally applauded his wonderful long adventures
and rich prizes. His name and fame became admirable in
all places, the people swarming daily in the streets to
(43:31):
behold him, vowing hatred to all that misliked him. The
Golden Hind had been brought round to London, where she
was the greatest attraction of the day. Finally, on the
fourth of April fifteen hundred and eighty one, Elizabeth went
on board in State to a banquet finer than has
ever been seen in England since King Henry the Eighth,
(43:53):
said the furious Spanish ambassador in his report to Philip.
But this was not her chief offense in Spanish eyes.
For here, surrounded by her court, and in the presence
of an enormous multitude of her enthusiastic subjects, she openly
defied the King of Spain. He hath demanded Drake's ahead
(44:13):
of me, she laughed aloud, And here I have a
gilded sword to strike it off. With that, she bade
Drake kneel, Then handing the sword to marg Chamont, the
special envoy of her French suitor, Francis of Anjou, she
ordered him to give the accolade. This time she pronounced
the formula of immemorial fame. I bid the rise, Sir
(44:36):
Francis Drake. End of Chapter seven
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