CHAPTER V.

DRAKE IN ENGLAND.

1580-1585.

Drake is well received at Plymouth-Neglected in London; and at the Court-Restored to the favour of the Queen, who visits his ship at Deptford-Confers Knighthood on him-Honours paid to the ship-Amount of Treasure brought home.

As soon as Drake's arrival with his single ship at Plymouth was known, the inhabitants hastened in crowds to the shore to welcome their old friend. On landing he was received by the Mayor and civic authorities, the bells of St. Andrew's church ringing a merry peal, which was prolonged during the whole day. The general joy was extreme, for after the arrival of Captain John Winter, who was always considered as having deserted him, a strong impression had arisen that some fatal disaster had befallen Drake. The day was spent in feasting and rejoicing. On the morrow his first visit was to his native village near Tavistock; for this brave and right-minded man considered it an act of pious devotion to visit the residence of his old parents, in which most probably he first drew his breath, and from which those parents had been driven by religious persecu tion.

Having been fêted for some days by the authorities of Plymouth and the neighbouring gentry, he rejoined his little bark, the Golden Hind, which had borne him through so many perils and adventures, and with which, as one of the old writers observes, "he had ploughed up a furrow round the world,” and in her set sail for Deptford. The report of his return had of course preceded his appearance in London; where not only his adventures were the topic of conversation, but the most exaggerated accounts were circulated as to the immense wealth he had brought

back, and various were the opinions as to whether it had been lawfully and honestly acquired. But that which must have the most annoyed him, was the total inattention of the Court, where, before his departure, he had been so cordially received, and where his projected enterprise had met with such flattering encouragement. No intimation was now given that his appearance there would be acceptable; and although the first Englishman, and the second man of any country, who had circumnavigated the globe, he was not considered worthy of his sovereign's special notice. It is said, indeed, that even in less dignified circles the cool reception that Drake met with was too marked to be misunderstood; and that some were squeamish enough to refuse the acceptance of any trifling curiosity at his hands, lest it might not have been honestly come by. Stow's account of the matter is not uninteresting. He says, in his Chronicles-

"The newes of this his great wealth so far fetcht, was miraculous strange, and of all men held impossible and incredible, but both proving true, it fortuned that many misliked it and reproached him: besides all this there were others that devised and divulged all possible disgraces against Drake and his followers, deaming him the master thiefe of the unknowne world; yet neverthelesse, the people generally, with exceeding admiration, applauded his wonderful long adventures and rich prize, chiefly for some such reasons following.

"The Queene, not yet persuaded to accept and approve his unknowne purchase, paused a while and heard every opinion, which at that time were many; the principal points whereof were, that if this action of Drake should be justified, it would call in question the late piracy of Captayne Christmasse: the staying of the Spanish king's treasure by Martine Frobisher: hinder commerce: break the league: raise reproach: breede warre with the house of Burgundy: and cause imbargo of the English shippes and goodes in Spayne. Whereunto answer was made, that it was neither prize, nor piracy, nor civill policy, to cast so much treasure out of their possession: neither could any prince or private subject rightly challenge it: nor by it any offence committed, or intended to any christian prince or state.

"And that it was very necessary to retaigne it, as well for further triall of the Spanish malice, shewed to the English merchants in Spayne; as for the descrying of secret enemies at home, against both which, it would prove a present remedy: as also that if warres ensued, which the Spanyards long threatened, then the same treasure of itself would fully defray the charge of seaven yeares warres, prevent and save the common subject from taxes, loanes, privy seals, subsidies and fifteenes, and give them good advantage against a daring adversary: the which said opinion strongly prevayled.

"Yet Captaine Drake, all this while, being therewithal, and by his friends

much encouraged, rested doubtful of the event, untill the day that the Queen's Majesty came aborde his weather-beaten barke; where being as highly graced as his heart coulde wish, with knightly honors, princely commendations and encouragements, he forthwith visited his friendes in courte, towne and countrey, his name and fame became admirable in all places, the people swarming dayly in the streets to beholde him, vowing hatred to all that durst mislike him. Books, pictures and ballades were published in his prayse, his opinion and judgment concerning marine affayres stoode currant."

It must be noticed, however, that Drake had for five months been held in suspense, as to the view which the Queen would take of the business, upon which, of course, his future fame would mainly depend. He was now, however, to be highly honoured and amply gratified.

They came home into England," continues Stow, "in the year 1580; and in the year next following, to wit, 1581, on the 4th of April, her Majesty dining at Deptford, after dinner entered the ship which Captain Drake had so happily guided round about the world, and being there, a bridge which her Majesty had passed over, brake, being upon the same more than two hundred persons, and no man hurt by the fall; and there she did make Captain Drake knight, in the same ship, for reward of his service; his armes were given him, a ship on the world, which ship, by her Majestie's commandment, is lodged in a dock at Deptford, for a monument to all posterity, of that famous and worthie exploite, whereof a worshipfull gentleman, Maister William Borough, in his preface to a book entitled 'A discourse of the variation of the compasse or magnetical needle,' hath these words: So now at length (saith he) our countrieman Sir Francis Drake, for valorous attempt, prudent proceeding, and fortunate performing his voyage about the world, is not only become equal to any of them that live, but in fame farr surpassing.'

The Queen, it appears, commanded that the Golden Hind should be preserved, as a striking monument of Drake's services and his country's glory; and for a long series of years it remained in Deptford dock-yard as an object of curiosity and admiration. When it was too far decayed to receive repairs, a sufficient quantity of sound wood was selected out of it, and converted into a chair, which was presented to the University of Oxford, with the following appropriate verses written by the celebrated Cowley :

"To this great ship which round the globe has run,
And match'd in race the chariot of the sun;
This Pythagorean ship, (for it may claim,
Without presumption, so deserv'd a name,)

By knowledge once, and transformation now,

In her new shape, this sacred port allow.

Drake and his ship could not have wish'd from fate
An happier station or more blest estate.

For lo! a seat of endless rest is given

To her in Oxford, and to him in heaven."

Among other verses in praise of the circumnavigator the following, said to be written by some of the scholars of Winchester School, were set up upon the main-mast of the Golden Hind :

"Plus ultra, Herculeis inscribas, Drace, columnis,
Et magno dicas Hercule major ero.
Drace, pererrati novit quem terminus orbis,
Quemque semel mundi vidit uterque Polus,
Si taceant homines, facient te sidera notum ;
Sol nescit Comitis non memor esse sui.

Digna ratis quæ stet radiantibus inclyta stellis ;
Supremo cœli vertice digua ratis."

"But these things," says Camden, “ may seem too light, and to proceed from an idle brain, and not beseeming the gravity of an historian."

This grave historian, however, deals in queer stories occasionally. Speaking, in his 'Britannia,' of the shire of Buchan, in Scotland, he says

"It is hardly worth while to mention the clayks, a sort of geese, which are believed by some, with great admiration, to grow upon trees on this coast, and in other places; and, when they are ripe, to fall down into the sea, because neither their nests nor eggs can anywhere be found. But they who saw the ship in which Sir Francis Drake sailed round the world, when it was laid up in the river Thames, could testify that little birds bred in the old rotten keels of ships, since a great number of such, without life and feathers, stuck close to the outside of the keel of that ship. Yet I should think that the generation of these birds was not from the logs of wood, but from the sea, termed by the poets, the parent of all things." "

Camden evidently was not acquainted with the fact of there being a barnacle shell, as well as barnacle goose.

It would appear that after a time the Golden Hind became a resort of holiday people, the cabin being converted into a sort of banqueting-house.

Among the indiscriminate captures that Drake had made there was a considerable amount of property belonging to private individuals, and he could not doubt that, as soon as it should be

discovered he had returned home, these individuals personally, or through their agents, would attack him for indemnification; and such very shortly was the case. The Spanish Ambassador, Don Barnardin de Mendoza, was instructed by his Government to make representations to Queen Elizabeth regarding the enormities committed by Drake in his late voyage, and the depredations on the inhabitants of the territories in America, which belonged exclusively to his nation; and to demand, in the name of his Sovereign, full restitution for the property so seized, and punishment of the offender. Mendoza carried his insolent demand to such a length, as to imply that the English had no right to navigate the Indian Ocean. To whom the Queen returned this spirited reply :—

"That the Spaniards, by their ill treatment of her subjects, to whom they had prohibited commerce, contrary to the law of nations, had drawn these mischiefs upon themselves. That Drake should be forthcoming to answer according to law, if he were convicted by good evidence and testimony to have committed anything against law and right. That the goods in question were purposely laid by, that satisfaction might be made to the Spaniards, though the Queen had spent a greater sum of money than Drake had brought in, against those rebels whom the Spaniards had raised and encouraged against her, both in Ireland and England. Moreover, she understood not why her, or any other Prince's, subjects should be debarred from the Indies, which she could not persuade herself the Spaniards had any just title to, by the Bishop of Rome's donation (in whom she acknowledged no prerogative, much less authority, in such cases, so as to lay any tie upon Princes which owed him no obedience or observance, or, as it were, to infeoffe the Spaniard in that new world, and invest him with the possession thereof), nor yet by any other claim, than as they had touched here and there upon the coasts, built cottages, and given names to a river or a cape; which things cannot entitle them to a propriety. So that this donation of that which is another man's, which is of no validity in law, and this imaginary propriety, cannot hinder other princes from trading into those countries, and, without breach of the law of nations, from transporting colonies into those parts thereof where the Spaniards inhabit not (forasmuch as prescription without possession is little worth), neither from freely navigating that vast ocean, seeing the use of the sea and air is common to all. Neither can a title to the ocean belong to any people, or private persons: forasmuch as neither nature nor public use and custom permitted any possession thereof."

A certain sum of money was however ordered to be paid by Drake to a person of the name of Pedro Lebura, whom the Ambassador presented as an accredited agent for certain individuals, who had made good their claims on account of private property.