At The Same Time, To Revenge The Wrongs Offered
To Her Crown And Dignity, And To Resist The Preparations Then
Making
against her by the king of Spain, her majesty equipped a fleet of
twenty-five sail of ships, and
Employed them under the command of Sir
Francis Drake, as the fittest person in her dominions, by reason of his
experience and success in sundry actions.
[Footnote 334: Church. Collect. III. 155.]
It is not my intention to give all the particulars of the voyages
treated of, but merely to enumerate the services performed, and the
mistakes and oversights committed, as a warning to those who may read
them, to prevent the like errors hereafter. As this voyage of Sir
Francis Drake was the first undertaking on either side in this war, for
it ensued immediately after the arrest of our ships and goods in Spain,
I shall deliver my opinion of it before I proceed any farther. One
impediment to the voyage was, that to which the ill success of several
others that followed was imputed, viz. the want of victuals and other
necessaries fit for so great an expedition; for had not this fleet met
with a ship of Biscay, coming from Newfoundland with fish, which
relieved their necessities, they had been reduced to great extremity. In
this expedition Sir Francis Drake sailed in the Elizabeth Bonadventure;
captain Frobisher, in the Aid was second in command; and captain Carlee
was lieutenant-general of the forces by land, Sir Francis having the
supreme command both as admiral and general.
The services performed in this expedition were, the taking and sacking
of St Domingo in Hispaniola, of Carthagena on the continent of America,
and of St Justina in Florida, three towns of great importance in the
West Indies. This fleet was the greatest of any nation, except the
Spaniards, that had ever been seen in these seas since their first
discovery; and, if the expedition had been as well considered of before
going from home, as it was happily performed by the valour of those
engaged, it had more annoyed the king of Spain than all the other
actions that ensued during that war. But it seems our long peace had
made us incapable of advice in war; for had we kept and defended those
places when in our possession, and made provision to have relieved them
from England, we had diverted the war from Europe; for at that time
there was no comparison betwixt the strength of Spain and England by
sea, by means whereof we might have better defended these acquisitions,
and might more easily have encroached upon the rest of the Indies, than
the king of Spain could have aided or succoured them. But now we see and
find by experience, that those places which were then weak and
unfortified, are since fortified, so that it is to no purpose for us to
attempt annoying the king of Spain now in his dominions in the West
Indies. And, though this expedition proved fortunate and victorious, yet
as it was father an awakening than a weakening of the king of Spain, it
had been far better wholly let alone, than to have undertaken it on such
slender grounds, and with such inconsiderable forces[335].
[Footnote 335: It must be acknowledged that the present section can only
be considered as a species of introduction or prelude to an intended
narrative of an expedition: Yet such actually is the first article in
Sir William Monson's celebrated Naval Tracts, as published in the
Collection of Churchill; leaving the entire of the narrative an absolute
blank. Nothing could well justify the adoption of this inconclusive and
utterly imperfect article, but the celebrity of its author and actor:
For Sir William Monson, and the editor of Churchill's Collection, seem
to have dosed in giving to the public this _Vox et preterea nihil_. - E.]
SECTION III.
_Cruizing Voyage to the Azores by Captain Whiddon, in 1586, written by
John Evesham_[336].
This voyage was performed by two barks or pinnaces, the Serpent of 35
tons, and the Mary Sparke of Plymouth of 50 tons, both belonging to Sir
Walter Raleigh, knight. Leaving Plymouth on the 10th June 1586, we
directed our course in the first place for the coast of Spain, and
thence for the islands called the Azores, in which course we captured a
small bark, laden with sumach and other commodities, in which was the
Portuguese governor of St Michael's Island, with several other
Portuguese and Spaniards. Sailing thence to the island of Gracioso,
westward of Tercera, we descried a sail to which we gave chase, and
found her to be a Spaniard. But at the first, not much respecting whom
we took, so that we might enrich ourselves, which was the object of our
expedition, and not willing it should be known what we were, we
displayed a white silk ensign in our maintop, which made them believe
that we were of the Spanish navy laying in wait for English cruizers;
but when we got within shot, we hauled down our white flag, and hoisted
the St Georges ensign, on which they fled as fast as they were able, but
all in vain, as our ships sailed faster than they; wherefore they threw
overboard all their ordnance and shot, with many letters and the chart
of the straits of Magellan, which lead into the south sea, immediately
after which we took her, finding on board a Spanish gentleman named
Pedro Sarmiento, who was governor of the straits of Magellan, whom we
brought home to England, and presented to the queen our sovereign.
[Footnote 336: Hakluyt; II. 606. Astley, I. 196. The command of this
expedition is attributed by the editor of Astley's Collection to captain
Whiddon, on the authority of the concluding sentence. - E.]
After this, while plying off and on about the islands, we espied another
sail to which we gave chase, during which our admiral sprung his
main-mast; yet in the night our vice-admiral got up with and captured
the chase, which we found was laden with fish from Cape Blanco on which
we let her go for want of hands to bring her home.
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