Sir Francis Drake, the Queen's Greatest Seaman. page 2

Then came the startling news that the English Drake had again flouted and crushed the maritime power of Spain. Not only had he weakened her for actual warfare, but her prestige was shaken by his exploits, and the banks of Seville and Venice were on the verge of ruin. Philip found himself unable to raise a loan of half a million ducats.

The sinews of war were cracked by this sea-rover, who was raising the hopes of Protestant Europe once more, and winning the clamorous applause of the west country openly, and of Burghley in private.

"This Drake is a fearful man to the King of Spain!" he could not help confessing, though he wondered if England would not be obliged to give him up to the wrath of Philip. War was so expensive, to be sure! Then, to the delight of Elizabeth and the consternation of all true Catholics, Philip wrote and accepted the Queen's timorous excuses.

The King of Spain was not quite ready for war. Drake's condign punishment must be deferred for a season; there was a time for all things. Meanwhile Drake with Sir William Winter had been employed in getting ships ready and watching the narrow seas.

As autumn waned and no Armada came, the Queen summoned the bold sea-rover to Court, and once more she listened to his brave words, feeling almost convinced that boldness in action was safer than a crooked diplomacy.

Anyhow she sent Sir Francis over on a secret mission to the Low Countries, where he was everywhere received almost with royal honours, and had conferences with leaders in all the great Dutch cities.

But in November Leicester returned to England, a confession of failure, and in January the fort of Zutphen was betrayed to the Spaniards.

Again the scene shifted and the characters changed; for when Drake returned to England, Walsingham gave him the cheering news that the Queen's eyes were at last opened. He had shown her a paper taken from the Pope's closet which proved that all Philip's preparations in port and harbour and storehouse were intended solely for her destruction and the religious education of her heretic realm. Then she flashed out in patriotic spirit and threw economy to the winds.

Sir Francis Drake was made her Majesty's Admiral-at-the-Seas, and William Burrows, Comptroller of the Navy, esteemed to be the most scientific sea officer in England, was selected as his Vice-Admiral.

The people cheered and sang and made ready to fight for hearth and home. One favourite stanza was that which had been nailed to the sign of the Queen's Head Tavern at Deptford -

"O Nature! to old England still
Continue these mistakes;
Still give us for our King such Queens,
And for our Dux such Drakes."

Drake's commission was to prevent the joining together of the King of Spain's ships out of their several ports, to keep victuals from them and to follow any ships that should sail towards England or Ireland.

On the 2nd of April Sir Francis Drake wrote to Walsingham to say all was ready for starting. "I thank God I find no man but as all members of one body, to stand for our gracious Queen and Country against Anti-Christ and his members."

We always see that with Drake the motive for war was a religious motive; it was to secure religious freedom of thought and put down the Inquisition.

He ends thus: "The wind commands me away; our ship is under sail. God grant we may so live in His fear, as the enemy may have cause to say that God doth fight for her Majesty as well abroad as at home... let me beseech your Honour to pray unto God for us, that He will direct us the right way."

Besides the Elizabeth Bonaventure, which Drake commanded, Captain William Burrows as Vice-Admiral was in the Golden Lion, Fenner in the Dreadnought, Bellingham in the Rainbow - these all Queen's ships.

The Merchant Royal was sent by the London citizens; the rest were given by voluntary subscribers and private persons. There were twenty-three sail in all, and the soldiers and sailors numbered 2648.

But while Drake was busy at Plymouth making ready for the voyage, paid emissaries of Philip and those who hated Walsingham and the Reformation were busy with the Queen, frightening her with threats of foreign interference; so that she absolutely turned round again and issued an order that all warlike operations were to be confined to the high seas. Philip's ships being all snug in port, Drake's fleet would have nothing to do, and no captures to win, if he merely sailed up and down the coast.

Swiftly rode the Queen's messenger, spurring from Surrey to Hampshire, from Dorset to Devon, with many a change and relay of smoking steeds.

The messenger knew well the purport of the fateful order:

"You shall forbear to enter forcibly into any of the said King's ports or havens, or to offer violence to any of his towns or shipping within harbour, or to do any act of hostility upon the land." The messenger and his armed escort had been ordered to gallop in all haste, and they entered Plymouth and dismounted before the Admiral of the Port. "In the Queen's name! a despatch for Sir Francis Drake."

"For Drake? When, sir, did you leave London?"

"On April the 9th, last Sunday, your honour."

"Why! see! the roadstead is empty! The fleet sailed last Sunday week!"

We can with difficulty realise how slowly news was carried in what we call "the good old days," though horse-flesh was good, and little time was spent on meals and beds. The Queen was too late by a week, and Drake was gone!

He had started on Sunday, 2nd April, and on Monday afternoon had attached to his fleet two private vessels from the Isle of Wight and a few other stray ships.

Three days of quick sailing brought him off Cape Finisterre, for he lost no time, not wishing those traitors at home to stop him on the way.

But a great storm arose and scattered his ships for a whole week or more. When they met again on the 16th he heard that the Dreadnought had been nearly wrecked and that a pinnace had been lost.

But Drake had learnt from prisoners taken at sea that Cadiz harbour was full of transports and store-ships, and he smiled a grim smile.

Signal was made - "Officers assemble for council of war."

Drake sat at the head of the table arid Burrows sat opposite him.

It was usual for Sir Francis to ask very courteously for the advice of his officers, and then - to take his own way!

On this occasion he made a slight change in his method. He forgot to ask Burrows or the others for their advice, and bluntly spake out: "Gentlemen, I am going to attack the shipping in Cadiz harbour."

The vice-admiral was shocked, and for a moment paralysed, by the outrage upon his reputation as a scientific tactician.

"Good God! did Sir Francis know what it meant to run into that harbour close to the guns of the town batteries, with rocks and shoals everywhere, and no entrance possible except by the help of the port pilots! Then there were the galleys to reckon with, the most formidable war-ships in confined waters! Surely the matter required a fuller consideration."

Drake laughed aloud, and waving his hand to dismiss them to their ships, said -

"I think my officers believe in me - and we enter Cadiz harbour this very Wednesday at set of sun."

One of Drake's comrades, perhaps Fenner, describing the English attack, wrote thus: "So soon as we were descried, two of their galleys made towards us, and judging what we were, made haste into shore again, not offering to shoot one shot at us. Yet before they could return, our admiral, with others of our fleet, shot them through and slew ten of their men. Presently there came forth from the town ten other galleys and fought with us; but we applied them so well with our great ordnance that two of them were fain to be hauled up that night."

The sudden appearance of El Draque struck such consternation in the harbour and city that ships cut their cables and sought shelter through the Puntal passage leading to the inner harbour. To meet the galleys, which could only fire straight ahead, Drake steered with the Queen's four battleships athwart their course and poured in heavy broadsides before the galleys had got within effective range. Two new lessons the Spaniards were learning: first, how to make galleys harmless, for they could not turn quick enough to bring their front fire into action; secondly, how to fire effectively, for never before had such gunnery been seen, and it was the result of Drake's long and careful practice. The galleys were raked from side to side and broke away to the cover of the batteries, many in a sinking condition.

The city expected to be assaulted; the women and children were hurried for safety into the fortress, twenty-seven poor creatures being crushed to death in the confusion. But the English did not land; their business was to damage King Philip's navy as much as possible; so they sailed on beyond the batteries and began plundering, burning, and scuttling amongst the many ships that remained. Drake's letter to Walsingham calmly describes how "we found sundry great ships, some laden, some half laden, and some ready to be laden with the King's provisions for England. I assure your Honour the like preparation was never heard of, nor known, as the King of Spain hath made, and daily maketh, to invade England. His provisions of bread and wines are so great as will suffice forty thousand men a whole year, which if they be not impeached before they join, will be very perilous."

As the darkness came down the crowds of soldiers and sailors that thronged the quay and seaside streets saw the red fire spring up from many a proud galleon, and in special the splendid warship of the Marquis de Santa Cruz, valued the day before at 18,000 ducats. A big Genoese argosy of 1000 tons, freighted with rich stufi's and thirty-six pieces of brass cannon, was sunk and the treasure wasted.

Then, tired out, the crews sank down and slept on the decks till morning. With the dawn poured in thousands of reinforcements, making an attack on the town impracticable; but the spoiling, sinking, and burning went on merrily, the galleys made feints and the big guns boomed, "but they did us little hurt, saving that the master-gunner of the Golden Lion had his leg broke with a shot from the town." Yet there were two hundred culverin shooting at the English fleet for twenty-four hours!

The total amount of damage done by Drake seems to come to forty or fifty ships destroyed, while the value of stores consumed was not short of £150,000. Amongst these were 4000 pipes of wine and 30,000 cwt. of wheat. In addition to this Drake had revictualled his ships with wine, oil, biscuit, and dried fruits, a very acceptable present for hungry men.

So the great Armada would not sail for England yet awhile! The Queen and her ministers and people, great and small, might sleep securely; for the only man in all England who could inspire his men to fight as heroes, the greatest sea captain, perhaps, that England has ever possessed, had disobeyed orders and angered his vice-admiral in order to save his country. One cannot but think that Nelson must have studied with some care the life of Francis Drake: rules are made for mediocrities by mediocrities: the genius must be allowed to have his own way.

By noon on Thursday all was finished, and Drake kept looking aloft; for the wind was contrary and he could not budge from the harbour. He could see the interminable line of troops marching along the isthmus into Cadiz; he could hear the buzz of voices and the song of the soldiers. Now was the time for the galleys, and they rowed out fiercely; but the thunder of Drake's broadsides swept them back time after time. At midnight a land wind sprang up and Drake forced his way put of the harbour and into the roadstead outside. By two o'clock every ship had cleared the batteries and was safe outside, without losing a single man!

"When we were a little out we fell becalmed, and ten galleys followed us and fought with us all Friday forenoon. But, whether for lack of powder and shot, or by reason of the heat of the day, I know not, or some of them shot through, they lay aloof for three hours and never after durst come within our shot."

Drake employed some of his leisure time in sending to the captain of the galleys to ask if there were any English in the galleys as slaves, and he would exchange some Spaniards for them. A box of sweetmeats came in reply, and a request that he would stay until the next day for inquiries to be made.

"Damnably civil - and treacherous," thought Drake, "I will not assent to their devilish practice. We to wait for a big fleet to come, I suppose, and they to eat us up! No! no!"

So, finding a wind for his purpose, he put out to sea before night.

For ten days he hung about near Cape St. Vincent. In the budget of letters sent home at this period occur the words of an officer: "We all remain in great love with our general, and in unity throughout the fleet."

But this unfortunately was not quite correct; for hardly a week after the Cadiz affair William Burrows, Vice-Admiral of the Fleet, wrote to Drake thus: "I have found you always so wedded to your own opinion and will that you rather disliked, and showed as though it were offensive to you that any should give you advice in anything - at least, I speak it of myself." He went on to say that he had often refrained from giving advice, which would have accorded more with the instructions issued by the Queen; for he would have merely watched the Spanish coast, and not have entered any harbour, as had been done at Cadiz.

Drake replied by placing the vice-admiral under arrest for two days. The culprit was astounded, but wrote a letter of apology, promising obedience in the future. It is probable that Drake may have fancied that he had a second Doughtie to deal with, a paid traitor sent to oppose him. In Cadiz harbour he had noticed that Burrows seemed all too careful of his ship, and this letter made his suspicions seem too well founded.