SIR FRANCIS DRAKE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 42, 4 October 1911, Page 3

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE.

THE GREAT BUCCANEER

The groat Francis Drake, foremost of Elizabethan Admirals, lias had more literature devoted to his name and fame than any other sailor save Nelson but the new life written by Lady Eliott-Drake stands alone in the extent of the personal information that it supplies. Lady Eliott-Drake, who lias had access to family records, says that there is no doubt at all that the hero was a younger child of John and Margery Drake, of Crowndalo, in Devon. He wont to sea when quite a child, and in 15(57, at the age of 21, ho voyaged to the West Indies

as second in command under John Hawkins, one of the most'distinguished of his contemporaries. When homeward hound they were (Riven by a storm into the harbour of San Juan de Woloa, and were basely betrayed by the Spanish Governor while refitting. Drake and Hawkins escaped safely to Plymouth, but Drake’s cousin was captured and. tortured to death by the Inquisition. Four years later Drake sailed from Plymouth in order that he “might right himself” with the King of Spain. He had two ships, of 70 tons and 25 tons burden, with 73 men and boys, and he seized the. Spanish port of Nombre do Dios. His ■ two brothers were killed, and Francis Drake himself was so severely wounded in the assault that the venture was abandoned. It Wak after lVe : Ihul secured the favonF of 'Quecil'El iffiibeth*. and joined the na'v l y that' his ’.great successes began. In 1578 he passed through the Straits.of Magellan in the Golden Hind, of 100 ton's, and at Lima heard the joyful news that lie was in the wake of the,great Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de la Conception, bound for Panama with, a cargo of gold and silver. Drake pursued, and on March Ist, 1578, he boarded the Spaniard and removed to the Golden Hind gold and silver ingots, emeralds, pearls, and diamonds to the value of some £700,000, a sum that represented in those days the ransom of a kingdom. The courage of the Spaniards, who outnumbered the English force by at least five to one, disappeared before Drake’s fiery zeal. Francis Drake entertained the captive captain of the Spanish ■ gal'eon with graceful courtesy, and begged him to inform the Viceroy of Peru that “he shall do well .to put no more.. Englishmen to death, and to spark Those he has in his hands, for if he do execute them they shall cfis't the lives' of 2000 Spaniards, whom I will hang and send him their heads.” A few weeks later the Golden Hind met a second Spanish ship, this time freighted with silk and porcelain, presumably from the East. Drake released he- after exchanging many courtesies with the captain, who wrote of' his experiences to the Viceroy of New Spain. “This English general is called Francis ‘Dralce,...said -.the.••Spaniard,.. whose letter has been translated by Lady Eliott-Drake. “He is a man of some five-aifd-thirty years, small of stature undVred-bearded, one of the greatest sailors on the sea, both from skill and power of commanding. His ship carried about 400 tons, is swift of sail and of a hundred men all skilled and in their prime, and al 1 as much experienced in warfare as if they were old soldiers of Italy.” Before letting him go, Drake told the Spanish officer the circumstances of Iris having recently had one of ,Ins officers, Thomas Doughty, beheaded for insurbordination. Doughty had desired that the Golden Find should return forthwith to the taking of prizes in more civilised waters. When Drake returned to Plymouth with his enormous store of captured wealth, the position was a little difficult, since Britain was not officially at war with Spain ; but Queen Elizabeth knighted him and gave him a sword, remarking, “Whoso striketh at thee, Drake, strikoth at us.” The Admiral responded by presenting bis Queen with a magnificent crown, which is described in a letter' that the Spanish Ambassador sent to King Philip of Spain. “It. Ims five emeralds,” wrote the 'Ambassador, “one of them almost as long as a finger, while the two round ones are valued at 20,0000'cron ns, coming as they do from 1 P6nr;' He has also given the Queen a diamond cross as a Now Year’s gift'-’’" H 'is easy to imagine the feelings' oUKibg Philip. In the quaint words of an historian, “Sir Francis was a dreadful man to the King of Spain.” Lady EliottDrake describes all the voyages of her famous ancestor, and mentions that his will is still pieservcd by the Drake family.