VIII.-MUSIC. The man that hath no music in himself, Let no such man be trusted. IX. THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES. How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Sit, Jessica look, how the floor of heaven Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins; Merchant of Venice, v. 1. X.-QUEEN MAB. Oh, then, I see, Queen Mab hath been with you. She comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the forefinger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies Her wagon-spokes made of long spinners' legs; The collars, of the moonshine's watery beams; Romeo and Juliet, i. 4. XI.-A SWIMMER. I saw him beat the surges under him, And ride upon their backs: he trod the water, The surge most swollen that met him: his bold head. 'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oarèd Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke To the shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis bowed, As stooping to relieve him. I not doubt, He came alive to land. The Tempest, ii. 1. XII. THE END. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The Tempest, iv. 1. CV. THE VOYAGE OF THE PELICAN. In 1577, Queen Elizabeth authorized Francis Drake to prey upon the commerce of Spain as a privateer, although the two countries were nominally at peace. DRA RAKE was now in the prime of his strength, thirty-two years old, of middle height, with crisp brown hair, a broad high forehead; gray steady eyes, unusually long; small ears, tight to the head; the mouth and chin slightly concealed by the moustache and beard, but hard, inflexible, and fierce. 2. His dress, as he appears in his portrait, is a loose dark seaman's shirt, belted at the waist. About his neck is a plaited cord with a ring attached to it, in which, as if the attitude was familiar, one of his fingers is slung, displaying a small, delicate, but long and sinewy hand. 3. When at sea he wore a scarlet cap with a gold band, and was exacting in the respect with which he required to be treated by his crew. Such was Francis Drake when he stood on the deck of the Pelican. On the 15th of November, 1577, the expedition sailed from Plymouth Sound and struck across the Atlantic. They made the coast of South America on the 5th of April, in latitude 33° south. 4. The perils of the voyage were now about to commence. No Englishman had as yet passed Magellan's Straits. It was known that Magellan had gone through, but that was all. After three weeks' toil and anxiety, Drake and his companions accomplished the passage, and found themselves in the open Pacific. 5. Spring brought fair winds and smooth seas, and, running up the coast, the Pelican found in the harbor of Valparaiso a great galleon which had come from Peru. Galleons were the fruit that Drake was in search of. He sailed in, and the Spanish seamen, who had never yet seen a stranger in those waters, ran up their flags, beat their drums, and prepared a banquet for their supposed countrymen. 6. The Pelican shot up alongside. The English sailors leaped on board. The Spaniards, overwhelmed with surprise, began to cross and bless themselves. One sprang overboard and swam ashore; the rest were bound and stowed away under the hatches while the ship was rifled. The beginning was not a bad one. Wedges of gold were found weighing four hundred pounds. The settlement which was visited next was less productive, for the inhabitants had fled, taking their valuables with them. 7. Leaving Valparaiso to recover from its astonishment, the corsairs went on and landed next at Tarapaca, where silver bullion was brought down from the mountains to be shipped for Panama. It was as when men set foot for the first time on some shore where the forms of their race have never before been seen, and the animals come fearlessly around them, and the birds perch upon their hands, ignorant as yet of the deadly nature of the beings in whom they trust so rashly. The 8. The colonists of the New World, when they saw a sail approaching, knew no misgiving, and never dreamed that it could be other than a friend. silver bars lay piled at the Tarapaca pier. By their side the weary laborers who had brought them from the mines were peacefully sleeping, or, if they heard the clash of the moving metal, supposed that their comrades had arrived for their lading. 9. There was no gratuitous cruelty in Drake; he was come for the treasure of Peru, and beyond seizing his plunder he did not care to injure the people. As the last bars were being stowed away in his boats, a train of llamas appeared bringing from the hills a second freight as rich as the first. This, too, was transferred to the Pelican. Four hundred thousand ducats' worth of silver were taken in one afternoon. 10. Arica came next-Arica, the port of Potosi, where fifty-seven blocks of the same precious metal were added to the store; and from thence they made haste to Lima, where the largest booty was looked for. They found that they had just missed it. The Cacafuego had sailed for the Isthmus a few days before, taking with her all the bullion which the mines had yielded for the season. She had been literally ballasted with silver, and carried also several precious boxes of gold and jewels. 11. Not a moment was lost. Away sped the Pelican due north with every stitch of her canvas spread. A gold chain was promised to the first man who caught sight of the Cacafuego. For eight hundred miles the Pelican flew on. At length a look-out on the mast-head cried out that he saw the chase, and claimed the promised chain. There lay the Cacafuego. If they could take her their work would be done, and they might go home in triumph. 12. She was several miles ahead of them; if she guessed their character, she would run in under the land, and they might lose her. It was afternoon; several hours remained of daylight, and Drake did not wish to come up with her till dark. The Pelican sailed two feet to the Cacafuego's one, and, dreading that her speed might rouse suspicion, he filled his |