PATER’S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3830, 9 August 1927, Page 10

PATER’S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

NOTES ON SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. Just now school children are interested in the life of Sir Francis Drake, the eminent navigator, commander, and famous freebooting fighter of tha ; Spanish Main —the sea between Europe and Africa on the one side of the Atlantic, and

Central and South America on the other,

jealously claimed by the mighty power of Philip of Spain as his own. Sir Francis was born at Tavistock, Devon, that spot in the south-west of England

where so ma.ny of the great seamen of Elizabeth’s time were born and bred, learned their tales of great adventures by sea, and took to sea life to earn fame and fortune. Drake first served under his uncle, Sir John Hawkins, and distinguished himself by his valour in the ■unsuccessful and unfortunate expedition against the Spaniards in the harbour of Vera Cruz, ■which is now the chief port of Mexico. His experiences there at the hands of the Spaniards embittered him against them. In 1570 he went on a secret cruise against the Spaniards in the West Indies. At this time Elizabeth did not favourhis enterprise, for she thought it necessary to keep up a pretence of friendship with the powerful King of Spain. He soon repeated the adventure with greater success, and not long after his second return he received, in 1572, the command of two vessels fitted out for the purpose of attacking the Spanish parts of South America. He took possession of two of their cities, captured and plundered some Spanish’ships, and returned home laden with considerable booty. On his return he equipped, at his own expense, three frigates, with which he served as a volunteer under the Earl of Essex, Elizabeth’s best-loved favourite, and he distinguished himself so much by his bravery that Sir Christopher Hatton introduced him to Elizabeth. That introduction gave Drake the opportunity of disclosing to the Queen his plan for making war upon the Spanish sea power, and having been furnished with five ships, he sailed in 1577 to attack the Spaniards on the Main, and in the South Seas (South Pacific). In this expedition he rounded Cape Horn, attacked and captured Spanish vessels laden with treasure, ravaged Spanish ports, sailed up the Western American coast, explored it as far as the 48th parallel, N. latitude, and gave the name New Albion to the new lands he explored.

lie then sailed across the North Pacific to the East Indies, where, after refreshing his crew and refitting his vessel, renamed the Golden Hind, he Bailed south-west across the Indian Ocean, doubled to the Cape of Good Hope, ami, sailing up the Atlantic, reached New Plymouth in 1580, having taken three years to circumnavigate the globe, and being the first Englishman to do so. His other ships were lost on the voyage. After arriving in Plymouth, he brought his vessel to Deptford, where Queen Elizabeth, impressed by his great success and the fame of his exploits ringing throughout the land, openly flouted the King of Spain by visiting the ship, dining with its commander, and knighting him Sir Francis Drake. That act of the Queen, the long continued privateering attacks of Drake, Hawkins, Grenville, Raleigh, and others upon Spanish commerce with the Americas, and help both secret and open given to the Netherland Dutch, fighting against Spain for freedom, decided Philip of Spain to form his great plans of an Armada, which was to carry out the invasion and conquest of England. In 1585 Drake again sailed to the West Indies, attacked and plundered several ports, and captured, burnt, and sank many galleons, after emptying them of treasure whenever possible. In 1587 “El Draco,” as the Spaniards called him, was given command of 30 sail, with which lie entered the port of Cadiz and other Spanish ports, and destroyed a vast number of ships and immense quantities of stores which were being prepared for the great attack on England. That attack delayed the construction of the Armada for nearly a tear. In 1588 the Armada arrived in the Channel, and was met by the English fleet and almost entirely destroyed. Drake, who commanded a part of the fleet as vice-admiral under Lord Howard, handled his ships with the great skill which his long training as one of the famous sea-dog adventurers of the times had given him, and had a .large share in the destruction of most of the great Spanish vessels and in the flight and dispersion of the remainder into the unfamiliar and stormy waters of the North Sea. The story of Drake’s confidence in the ability of the English sailors to defeat the Spanish is told in song and story, and every schoolboy know what he said as “ he was playing at Plymouth a game of bowds, when the Great Armada came.” The poem, which fells of this famous game and his assurance, is in one of the standard books used in our primary schools. After the defeat of the Armada, he continued his attacks upon Spanish commerce, and it was in one of these expeditions that he died on his ship off

Cape Nombre de Dios, Central America, in 1596. He was buried at sea, but before he died he gave instructions that his ship’s drum was to be taken to England and kept at Plymouth Hoe, where it.

was to be taken down and beaten whenever a foe approached the shores of England. In mentioning this fact in a composition, a few lines from the poem about Drake’s drum might well be quoted by any pupil who knows them. Drake represented Plymouth in Parliament, and it is to him that that town is indebted for a supply of good water which he caused to be conveyed to it from springs several miles distant. Drake's bravery and daring in dangerous enterprises against great odds have never been excelled. He hated the Spaniards ami their proud, over-bearing, arrogant ways; their treachery, and their cruelty to English prisoners was the chief cause of his undying enmity towards them. In the eyes of his own sailors and his country he was a brave and chivalrous gentleman; but in the eyes of the Spaniards he was the feared and detested pirate “ El Draco,” which is, near enough, Spanish for “ The Terrible Dragon.” That he loved his country, and his own lovely Devon in particular, believed in the fighting spirit of his countrymen, and was fired with an unquenchable loyalty to his queen is written in every line that speaks of his life and his acts. He was the greatest hero of a time of great heroic seamen, and one of the greatest heroes of England for all time.

THE USEFULNESS OF BIRDS. As showing the importance of bird life to any agricultural country an English writer in the National Review, published in London, says: “ Hitherto in this country the State has had no carefully-thought-out and well-planned scheme of bird protection ; and yet it is surely clear to every observant mind that we are dependent upon many species of birds for the more successful cultivation of our crops.

“ The importance of wild bird life to the country is best brought home to us when we consider the enormous bulk of insect food they require, most of which is a menace to agriculture. I have previously shown that 100.000 song-thrushes will consume during April, May, and June, our spring and early summer months, upwards of 3000 millions of caterpillars and other grass-eating insects. Now. there-is no reason to suppose that other species of birds are not as numerous as songthruhes, and most of them consume considerably more insect food.” A very striking instance has been given of the work of birds bv Mr Bryant, of the University of California, U.S.A., in connection with the value of the work done by the Western meadow-lark in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. Taken as a guess there is an average of one bird to every four acres of the cultivable land (11.000,000 acres), and each pair of birds raises an average of four young, each one of which averages loz in weight while in the nest, and consumes its own weight of food every day. Hence, it takes 193 tons of insect food each day to feed in the great valleys the young birds only. Do we realise that, on a smaller scale, the same beneficial action is taking place daily in our own country throughout the breeding season? Any lessening of the numbers of our useful birds means an undue increase in certain kinds of insect life, and a consequent loss of crops. It should, therefore. be our aim to maintain these species of birds in such numbers that they will be able to prevent an undue increase in insect life—in short, to maintain the bal ance of Nature. By so doing we are making it profitable to the farmer to cultivate his crops, and at the same time wt are increasing the amount of our country s food products. Valuable as are artificial means in reducing and controlling insect nests they are only partially effective, and not infreqnenty the cost on a large acreage is too great to be carried out; whereas, wild birds do the work much more thoroughly, and without cost to the farmer, fruitgrower, or forester. Here is another plea for the urotection

of our birds. It is not the economic (trade value) prayer for protecting their lives. It is the plea of a lover of beauty, and is written with a loving hand. The lady who wrote the words is a South African, and her greatest pleasure is to spend days and weeks on the bush veldt watching the delightful wavs of its joyous, feathered denizens. She says : “ Birds are a symbol of joy and aspiration. They are the happiest as well as the most beautiful of living things. For the sake of the beauty and jov we so sadly need in the otherwise drab days of life, let us pray that modern civilisation, with its noise and smoke and ugliness, may stay its destructive hand yet awhile, and leave the fields as a sanctuary for the birds. Perhaps the dav will even come when men will be enlightened enough to enjoy beauty without that fatal desire to destroy for gain or in order to possess, which is the root of all evil.

“ There have been sun worshippers in the world. If there has been no form of bird religion or worship, at least we have adopted our idea of angels from ‘ God’s jocund lyttel fowles,’ as an old English poet has aptly called them.” We in New Zealand who are members of the Native Birds Protection Society ask all lovers of birds to do all they can to help the birds by protecting them and their haunts as far as possible, and even to provide food for them during the periods of time when their natural food is scarce. All bird-lovers should join the society.