Give me

12 laudable and 18 honest 14 enterprise; for if through pleasure or idleness we purchase shame, the pleasure vanisheth but the shame abideth for ever. leave, therefore, without offence, always to live and die in this mind: that he is not worthy to live at all that for fear or danger of death shunneth his country's service and his own honour, seeing that death is 15 inevitable, and the fame of virtue immortal, wherefore in this behalf 16 I despise fear or change."

Gilbert's prayer was granted. With a fleet of five ships he was sent to discover and take possession of that part of America lying between 45° and 50° N. One of his vessels deserted at the beginning of the voyage; the united 17 capacity of the other four was only two hundred and ten tons, the smallest of them— the Squirrel-being a mere boat of ten tons. The party reached Newfoundland in safety, took possession of 18 St. John's, and founded a colony there. Then Sir Humphrey carefully 19 explored the coast southward, losing one of his ships while doing so. Another had been left at St. John's. The remaining two started for England at the end of August. The "general" (as his men called him) sailed in the Squirrel. On account of her size he had used her when 20 surveying the shore, and when urged to return in the other vessel he said, "I will not forsake my little company going homewards, with whom I have passed so many storms and perils."

Rather more than half-way across the Atlantic the vessels 21 encountered fearful weather, the oldest sailors could not remember worse. Sir Humphrey, sitting book in hand in the stern of his ship, shouted when the other ship came close, "We are as near to heaven by sea as by land." How near he was he soon

found out at midnight the Squirrel went down with all on board.

Another of the great sailors of Elizabeth's time was John Davis. His "epitaph is written upon the map of the world, where his name still remains to commemorate his discoveries." In the voyage to the Arctic regions he had two ships under his command. When he had gone as far north as latitude 63° he fell in with a barrier of ice, along the edge of which he sailed for thirteen days without finding an opening. His men, who had never before seen an iceberg, began (in his own words) "to feel sick and faint hearted," and begged him to go no farther. He "thinking it better to die with honour than to return with infamy," decided to continue his course in the smaller vessel (a mere cutter of thirty tons) with such of the men as would volunteer, and to give up the larger vessel to the rest. Then he went on, discovered the strait named after him, and discovered also Hudson Strait.

We know little of the remainder of Davis's life, but we do know how it ended. Nearly twenty years after the Arctic voyage just described he was sailing to India, when he saw, drifting without provisions in a leaky junk, a crew of Japanese whose ship had been burnt. Though he supposed they were pirates, he would not leave them to the miserable death which threatened them, and so took them on board. In a few hours they showed their gratitude by murdering him.

1 Precede, to go before. 2 disposition, inclination, leaning towards. 3 smack, a small coasting vessel. 4 vast continent, America; discovered by Columbus in 1492, seven years after Henry VII. became king. 5 manifest, to show. 6 maritime, be

longing to the sea. 8 7 cleave, to cut. busy port, Dartmouth, in Devonshire. It was then one of the chief ports of the kingdom. Many of the most famous of the sixteenth century sailors were Devonshire men. 9 adventurous, hazardous, daring. 10 the northwest passage. For many years it was thought that there was a short and easy passage to India north of America. Many ships were sent to discover this passage. It has now been proved that the American continent is bounded on the north by the sea, but this sea is useless for purposes of traffic, because it is mostly covered with ice. 11 memorial, petition. 12 laudable, praiseworthy. honest, honourable. 14 enterprise, undertaking. 15 inevitable, cannot be avoided. 16 I despise, etc. These words were in Latin. 17 capacity, what a thing is able to contain. 8 St. John's, a town in the south-east of the island of Newfoundland. 19 20 explore, to search out. survey, to look over, examine. 21 encounter, to meet.

13

18

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE.

FRANCIS DRAKE (a Devonshire man by birth) was brought up at Chatham, and took early to the water. He was apprenticed to the captain of a Channel coaster, who, dying, left him his vessel. The young sailor then joined his famous kinsman John Hawkins, in a voyage to the Spanish main.

Spain was at that time, for wealth, for power, and enlightenment, the first country in the world. Her king ruled over the Netherlands, the greater part of Italy, the Philippine Islands, the West Indies, and a broad band stretching more than half-way round South America. The sovereign of this mighty empire was Philip II., whom the English hated since he had been the husband of their Queen Mary. They disliked him and his people also because they were Catholics. For these and other reasons the two countries were gradually drifting into war. English sailors entering a Spanish

port for purposes of trade were often seized and thrown into prison on the ground that they were Protestants. They, on the other hand, thought it a virtuous deed to attack Philip's vessels whenever they could: they were not less disposed to be virtuous because these vessels were often richly laden.

Hawkins, in the expedition wherein young Drake took part, had amassed over a million pounds, partly by trading in negro slaves and partly by plundering stray ships. He was lying in harbour, getting ready for the homeward voyage, when a Spanish fleet bore down upon him, and there was a desperate fight, wherein he lost many of his men with the whole of his treasure.

Drake soon made himself even with the Spaniards. He spent a whole summer in the West Indies, burning, killing, and taking prizes; then he landed in Panama, lay in wait for the mules which were bringing gold and silver across the isthmus, and secured enormous booty ; finally he caught a treasure ship on the way home.

When on the isthmus, he had from the top of a mountain seen the Pacific Ocean, and had fallen on his knees "and prayed God that he might one day 2 navigate those waters," which no Englishman had yet done. Six years later his prayer was granted. In 1577 he sailed from Plymouth Harbour in command of five ships and one hundred and sixty-four men. The little fleet reached the 3 River Plate in safety, and then one of the barks disappeared. Her master, Thomas Doughty, who had before shown a disposition to mutiny, had deserted. Drake, afraid his evil example might corrupt the others, went in search of him. He was overtaken and his ship burnt, while he and his crew were transferred to the commander's own vessel, the 4 Pelican. Even then he seems to have misbehaved, so Drake put

into 5 Port St. Julian, and called the crews together to try him. "The cause being throughly heard," says an eye-witness, "and all things done as near as might be to the course of our laws in England, it was concluded that Mr. Doughty should receive punishment according to the quality of the offence." After taking the communion with Drake, he was beheaded.

People did not then know that it was possible to get round Cape Horn; they thought Terra del Fuego was the northern part of a vast continent stretching to the pole. The little fleet therefore entered the Straits of Magellan. No English ship had been there before, and Drake had to thread his way through the rocky channel without a 7 chart. After much toil and anxiety, he reached the Pacific, but it did not prove to be the

8