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.
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