This money, it afterwards turned out, was never paid to the proper owners; but was, by order of the King, employed against Elizabeth in paying the Spaniards serving in the Netherlands. What the sum was does not appear; but there is a minute of the Lord High Treasurer of certain sums of money paid by Sir Francis Drake into the Royal Mint, of which the following is a copy extracted from the State Papers of Lord Burleigh :"A Briefe Note of all such Silver Bullion as was brought into the Tower by Sir Fras. Drake, Knight, and laid in the Vaute under the Jewel-House, as also what hath been taken out, and what remaineth, (viz.) 26 Dec., 1585: £. S. d. £. s. d. There hath been coyned, as by her Majesty's Warrant appeareth, for the Right Hon. Sir Christopher Hatton, knight, to the 2,300 00 sum of the Item, As by another Warrant of her) Majesty, there hath been coyned for the Right Hon. Sir Fras. Walsingham, knight, to the sum of 4,000 0 0 Item, by another of her Majesty's Warrants there hath been coyned for the Right 4,000 0 0 Hon. the Earl of Leicester, to the sum of. Item, there is refined and molten of the said silver into clean ingotts to the sum of 29,625 15 9 Totall Sum taken out of the vaute is More in gold bullion brought in by the said Sir Fras.) Drake, knight, in cakes and ingotts of severall fines, weighing 101 lb. 1oz., which said gold is refined, molten and coyned into 30s. and 15s. pieces, the charges being deducted to the sum of There remaineth in coarse ingotts of silver in the vaute under the Jewel-House, by tale, 243, which are to be refined and molten, weighing in gross weight More remaineth in the said vaute, the small pieces called corento, which is coarse silver as above said, weighing in gross weight * * Burleigh's State Papers. 66 The following passage occurs in Purchas:— Captain Drake carried from the coast of Peru, eight hundred sixtie-six thousand pieces of silver, which is eight hundred sixty-six kintals, at a hundred pound waight the kintal, and every kintal is worth twelve hundred duckets of Spaine, which is a million, thirty-nine thousand and two hundred duckets. Besides this, he carried away a hundred thousand pieces of gold, which is ten kintals, and every kintal is worth fifteen hundred duckets of Spain, which amounteth to a hundred and fiftie thousand duckets, besides that which he had in the ship that was not customed, which I do not know of; as well pearls, precious stones, and other things of great value, besides the money he had in coine.” Whether the money mentioned by Purchas be any part of the bullion adverted to in the preceding account would probably be shown by the inaccessible documents of the Lord Treasurer at Hatfield House. We see by this account in what manner something above 10,000l. was disposed of, but there is no statement showing how the balance of 29,6251. was accounted for, nor of the additional gold and silver brought in by Drake, amounting to about 27,1607., and which, taken together, amounts to the sum of 56,8007., or thereabouts. It is not clear, however, that any part of this was appropriated to meet the claim of the Spanish agent, who nevertheless did, from some fund or other, receive and misapply a certain sum of money; nor does it appear that all or any part of it was restored to Drake. There is, however, an old volume, The Merchant's Mappe of Commerce, by Lewes Roberts,' printed in 1638; and now very little known, but highly esteemed at the time, which states the amount of profit obtained by the adventurers who assisted in fitting out and joining Drake's expedition. The volume is dedicated to Sir Maurice Abbot, Governor of the East India Company, and Mr. Alderman Garraway, Governor of the Levant Company; of both which Companies Mr. Roberts was a member. He says "This voyage made profit to himself (Drake) and merchants of London, his partners and fellow-adventurers, according to an account made up at his return, all charges paid and discharged, which I have seen, subscribed under his own hand, 471. for 1l.; so that he who adventured with him in this voyage 100l., had 4700l. for the same, by which may be gathered the benefit that redounded thereby; though accompanied with many rubbes, delaies and dangers."* * Communicated by Mr. Bolton Corney, from whom much valuable information has been received by the Author. It does not appear that any inquiry was made, after Drake's arrival in England, regarding the extraordinary trial and execution of Doughty at Port St. Julian. The whole affair must have been well known at home from the report of Captain Winter and his ship's crew; and if, during the five months that Drake was excluded, as it were, from the Court, and various attempts were made to disparage his fame, no case was got up against him on the score of this transaction, we may consider him to have been fully acquitted in public opinion of any impropriety in the proceedings regarding this unfortunate business. Prince, in his Worthies of Devon,' gives the following story, which, although it appears to be unsupported by any evidence, and is highly improbable, has obtained so great a degree of credit that we do not deem it right to pass it by unnoticed :— "It was about this time," says Prince, "that there fell out a contest between Sir Bernard Drake, and the immortal Sir Fras. Drake: chiefly occasioned by Sir Francis his assuming Sir Bernard's coat of arms, not being able to make out his descent from his family; a matter in those days, when the court of honour was in more honour, not so easily digested. The feud hereupon increased to that degree that Sir Bernard, being a person of a high spirit, gave Sir Francis a box on the ear; and that within the verge of the court. For which offence he incurred her Majesty's displeasure; and most probably it proved the occasion of the Queen's bestowing upon Sir Fras. Drake a new coat of everlasting honour to himself and posterity for ever; which hath relation to that glorious action of his, the circumnavigating the world, which is thus emblazoned by Guillim: 66 'Diamond, a fess wavy, between the two pole-stars, artic and antartic, pearl; as before. "And what is more, his crest is a ship on a globe under ruff, held by a cable rope with a hand out of the clouds; in the rigging whereof is hung up by the heels a wivern gules, Sir Bernard's arms; but in no great honour, we may think, to that knight, though so designed to Sir Francis. Unto all which Sir Bernard boldly replied: "That though her Majesty could give him a nobler, yet she could not give an antienter coat than his.' "This relation, I had from Sir John Drake, of Trill, knight and baronet, my honourable godfather." This story is as absurd as it is improbable. Sir Francis Drake was not the man to be struck with impunity, nor was Elizabeth the woman to have rewarded him had he done so. Drake's arms were given to him immediately after his knighthood in 1581: over the globe was the motto Auxilio divino, and underneath the words Sic parvis magna. The fact probably was, that Sir Francis Drake, being ignorant of the family arms, asked his relation Sir Bernard for such information as the Heralds' College required. Some time after Drake's return from his circumnavigation voyage, he received the following letter from Davis, the celebrated Arctic voyager : 66 : Right honourable, most dutifully craving pardon for this my rash boldness, I am hereby, according to my duty, to signify unto your honor that the north-west passage is a matter nothing doubtful; but at any time almost to be passed by a sea navigable, void of ice; the ice tolerable, the waters very deep. I have also found an isle of very great quantity, not in any globe or maps discovered, yielding a sufficient trade of furs and leather. Although this passage hath been supposed very improbable, yet, through God's mercy, I am in experience an eye witness to the contrary; yea, in the most desperate climates, which, by God's help, I will very shortly more at large reveal unto your honor, so soon as I can possibly take order for my mariners and shipping. Thus depending upou your honor's good favour, I most humbly commit you to God. This 3rd October. "Your honor's for ever "Most dutiful, Strype, in introducing this letter, says "JOHN DAVIS." "I have one note more to make of one Davys, a mariner, sometime belonging to Sir Francis Drake, who being employed to find out a north-west passage into those seas in that part of the world, came back this year (in 1585), and upon his return, in a letter, acquainted the said Drake with some account of those seas, and how navigable they were. The letter shewing the first discovery of that passage, and wrote to so eminent a seaman, may deserve to be preserved, and is, as I take it from the original, to this tenor." From this statement it is probable that Davis had served under Drake, and perhaps on the circumnavigation voyage, when the latter contemplated a passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic ; which was at the time, and has been since, so vigorously attempted in a contrary direction by Frobisher, Davis, Baffin, Gilbert, and many others-"men," as old Purchas describes them, "of heroike courage, marine worthies, beyond all names of worthinesse." The Straits which Davis discovered still bear his name. Drake was always kind to his followers, and ever ready to assist them. The following letter, among many others, affords proof of this : "Good Mr. Doctor Cæsar, This bearer, Roger Roffe, is like to have some cawse in question before you: it is supposed that he hath wronge, therefore I presume the rather to intreat your favour towards him, prayinge that for my sake you will shew yt in his behalf, being willinge, in that he will becom one of my companie to steed him in any honest cawse. And so with my right hertie commendations do bid you farewell. "From your father's howse in Chepside, this 24 June, 1585. "To the Worshipful my very "lovinge friend, Mr. Doctor Cæsar, "Judge of the Admiraultie. "With speede." "Your assured friend, "FRA: DRAKE.* Sir Francis remained on shore for the next four or five years, but not without active employment. In 1582 he was mayor of Plymouth; but the records of that place contain no entries of any transactions during his mayoralty beyond the ordinary routine of business, unless his "having caused the compass to be put upon the Hoe," and having put in execution the order for wearing scarlet gowns, be considered such. * Lansdowne MSS., British Museum. G |