The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1897-11-04
Continued from first page. ),

second-rate power.
Captain Drake had not yet done
with the Spaniards. While he was
on the Isthmus of Darien, he had
seen from mountain top the Pacific
Ocean. He now laid before the
queen project of sailing around
South America, by way of the newly
discovered Straits of Magellan and
following upon the unprotected coast
of Peru, whence the Spaniards were
drawing cargoes ofgold. Elizabeth,
we may almost say, jumped at the
proposal. With six vessels and one
hundred and sixty-four men, this
bold adventurer set sail, and made
his way to Patagonia. He was FIVE
weeks in getting through the straits,
and when he emerged into the broad
Pacific, he had but the ship COM
handed by himself, named the
Golden Hind. Two vessels he had
himself emptied and turned adrift,
and three others had turned back
and gone to England. On board his
own ship he had ifty-seven men and
three casks of water.
Undaunted, he held to his purpose,
and reached in safety the shores of
Peru. He plundered the Spanish
settlements; he captured a Spanish
ship loaded with gold and silver; he
sailed along the coast to California,
of which he took formal possession
/ in the name of the Queen of Eng
land, Then, laden deep with booty,
he thought to find northern pas
sage back into the Atlantic. North
ward he sailed until he reached the
region of eternal cold, but found no
gap in the ice-bound coast. Desir-
Gus, above all things, to avoid the
Spanish cruisers, he came to the
resolution to sail westward, and en-
deavored to reach England by COM
pleting the decentralization of the
globe. He accomplished his pur-
pose, and reached England in 1880,
after an absence of two years, nine
months and thirteen days. This was
regarded as an immense achieve
ment. The queen knighted Captain
Drake, and came on board his ship,
where she partook of banquet, and
when the Spanish king demaded his
surrender as buccaneer: she reufs-
ed to GIN him up.
Drake soon had an opportunity OF
Cutting his vengeance against the
Spaniards. Such exploits as his
sanctioned and rewarded by the
Queen of England, led finally to oper
and declared war between the two
powers. Again, in command of a
powerful fleet, he ravaged and plum
dered the Spanish towns in America
and visiting Virginia, brought away
to England the settlers planted there
| by Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1857
with fleet of thirty armed ships, he
sailed boldly into Cadiz, and there
destroyed hundred Spanish vessels
which he called "singeing the bearC
Of the king of Spain" Next year
the Invincible Armada approached
the shores England. On the great
immortal day which saw that mighty
armament defeated and dispersed
Sir Francis Drake was second il
command of the British fleet, anC
bore mans part in the tremendou
conflict. In the year following, h
was again on the coast of Spain will
a great fleet desolating every poin
which he attacked, and keeping tn
whole peninsula in terror.
There was then a short interva
of peace between the two countrie
during which Admiral Drake repre-
sented the town of Plymouth in par
lament. War being renewed in 1894
we see him once more in the Yves
Indies under his old patron, ST
| John Hawkins. This was the last O
his services. Hawkins dying from
wound received in action, Drake as
sumed command of the forces, ant
committed great havoc among TIL
Spanish settlements; but part of hi
troops having ct with a reverse, h,
took it so much to heart that he fel
sick of a fever. He died on boar(
his ship, aged fifty years, and his re
mains were committed to the deep.
| 1t thus app ears that this BRAY,
man spent his life in warning upol
the Spanlard. What ought we tC
think of him? Was he buccaneer
or patriot sailor waging Legitimate
warfare? | answer the question thus
The worst man of whom history
gives any account, and the most for
midable enemy modern civilization
has had to encounter, was Philip ii
King of Spain. He was a moody
ignorant, cruel sensual, cowardly
hypocrite. So long as that astrocious
tyrant welded the resources of the
Spanish monarchy-then the most
powerful on earth--the first interes,
OF human nature was the reduction
of his power. To do this was the
great object and the almost ceaseless
effort of Queen Elizabeth and the
protestant powers in alliance with
her. In lending a hand to this work.
Fracis Drake was fighting on the
side of civilization, and preparing a
way for such an America as we see
around US now; for in limiting the
power of Philip, he was rescuing the
falrest portions of America from the
blight of Spanish superstition, Span
ish cruelty and Spanish narrowness.
That he fought his share of this fight
in wild, rough, buccaneer manner,
was the fault of his age, more than
his own. His voyage round the
world, too, marks an era in the his
tory of navigation.