Nearly five years elapsed between Drake's return from his Famous
Voyage and the despatch of the formidable armament commemorated in the
following pages. During the last of these years the march of events
had been remarkably rapid. Gilbert, who had been empowered by
Elizabeth, in the year of Frobisher's last expedition, to found
colonies in America, had sailed for that purpose to Newfoundland
(1583), and had perished at sea on his way homeward. Raleigh, who had
succeeded to his half-brother's enterprises, had despatched his
exploring expedition to 'Virginia,' under Amadas and Barlow, in 1584,
and had followed it up in the next year (1585) by an actual colony. In
April Sir Richard Greenville sailed from Plymouth, and at Raleigh's
expense established above a hundred colonists on the island of
Roanoak. Drake's Great Armada left Plymouth in September of the same
year. It marked a turning-point in the relations between the English
and Spanish monarchs. Elizabeth, knowing that the suppression of the
insurrection in the Netherlands would be followed by an attack upon
England, was treating with the insurgents. Philip deemed it prudent to
lay an embargo on all her subjects, together with their ships and
goods, that might be found in his dominions. Elizabeth at once
authorized general reprisals on the ships and goods of Spaniards. A
company of adventurers was quickly formed for taking advantage of this
permission on a scale commensurate with the national resources. They
equipped an armada of twenty-five vessels, manned by 2,300 men, and
despatched it under the command of Drake to plunder Spanish America.
Frobisher was second in command. Two-thirds of the booty were to
belong to the adventurers; the remaining third was to be divided among
the men employed in the expedition.
Drake's armament of 1585 was the greatest that had ever crossed the
Atlantic. After plundering some vessels at the Vigo river, he sailed
for the West Indies by way of the Canaries and Cape Verde Islands,
hoisted the English flag over Santiago and burnt the town, crossed the
Atlantic in eighteen days, and arrived at Dominica. At daybreak, on
New Year's Day, 1586, Drake's soldiers landed in Espanola, a few miles
to the west of the capital, and before evening Carlile and Powell had
entered the city, which the colonists only saved from destruction by
the payment of a heavy ransom. Drake's plan was to do exactly the same
at Carthagena and Nombre de Dios, and thence to strike across the
isthmus and secure the treasure that lay waiting for transport at
Panama. Drake held St. Domingo for a month, and Carthagena for six
weeks. He was compelled to forego the further prosecution of his
enterprise. A deadly fever, which had attacked the men during the
sojourn at Santiago, still continued its ravages. In existing
circumstances, even had Nombre de Dios been successfully attacked, the
march to Panama was out of the question; and after consultation with
the military commanders, Drake resolved on sailing home at once by way
of Florida. He brought back with him all the colonists who had been
left by Sir Richard Greenville in 'Virginia.' Drake had offered either
to furnish them with stores, and to leave them a ship, or to take them
home. The former was accepted: but a furious storm which ensued caused
them to change their minds. They recognized in it the hand of God,
whose will it evidently was that they should no longer be sojourners
in the American wilderness; and the first English settlement of
'Virginia' was abandoned accordingly.
Ten years afterwards (1595) Drake was again at the head of a similar
expedition. The second command was given to his old associate Hawkins,
Frobisher, his Vice-Admiral in 1585, having recently died of the wound
received at Crozon. This time Nombre de Dios was taken and burnt, and
750 soldiers set out under Sir Thomas Baskerville to march to Panama:
but at the first of the three forts which the Spaniards had by this
time constructed, the march had to be abandoned. Drake did not long
survive this second failure of his favourite scheme. He was attacked
by dysentery a fortnight afterwards, and in a month he died. When he
felt the hand of death upon him, he rose, dressed himself, and
endeavoured to make a farewell speech to those around him. Exhausted
by the effort, he was lifted to his berth, and within an hour breathed
his last. Hawkins had died off Puerto Rico six weeks previously.
The following narrative is in the main the composition of Walter Biggs,
who commanded a company of musketeers under Carlile. Biggs was one of
the five hundred and odd men who succumbed to the fever. He died
shortly after the fleet sailed from Carthagena; and the narrative was
completed by some comrade. The story of this expedition, which had
inflicted such damaging blows on the Spaniards in America, was
eminently calculated to inspire courage among those who were resisting
them in Europe. Cates, one of Carlile's lieutenants, obtained the
manuscript and prepared it for the press, accompanied by illustrative
maps and plans. The publication was delayed by the Spanish Armada; but
a copy found its way to Holland, where it was translated into Latin,
and appeared at Leyden, in a slightly abridged form, in 1588. The
original English narrative duly appeared in London in the next year.
The document called the 'Resolution of the Land-Captains' was inserted
by Hakluyt when he reprinted the narrative in 1600.
DRAKE'S GREAT ARMADA
NARRATIVE MAINLY BY CAPTAIN WALTER BIGGS
A Summary and True Discourse of Sir Francis Drake's West Indian
Voyage, begun in the year 1585. Wherein were taken the cities of
Santiago, Santo Domingo, Carthagena, and the town of St. Augustine, in
Florida. Published by Master Thomas Cates.
This worthy knight, for the service of his prince and country, having
prepared his whole fleet, and gotten them down to Plymouth, in
Devonshire, to the number of five and twenty sail of ships and
pinnaces, and having assembled of soldiers and mariners to the number
of 2,300 in the whole, embarked them and himself at Plymouth
aforesaid, the 12th day of September, 1585, being accompanied with
these men of name and charge which hereafter follow:
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