Drake, Nelson and Napoleon | Page 3

insensible to fear, and knew how to make other people fear and
obey him. He was not only an invincible crusader, but one of those rare
personalities who have the power of infusing into his comrades his own
courage and enthusiasm. The Spanish said he was "a magician who had
sold his soul to the devil." The Spanish sailors, and Philip himself,
together with his nobles, were terror-stricken at the mention of his
name. He was to them an invincible dragon. Santa Cruz warned his
compatriots that the heretics "had teeth, and could use them." Here is
another instance, selected from many, of the fanatical superstitions
concerning Drake's irresistible power. Medina Sidonia had deserted the
Andalusian squadron. Drake came across the flagship. Her commander
said he was Don Pedro de Valdes, and could only surrender on
honourable terms. The English commander replied, "I am Drake, and
have no time to parley. Don Pedro must surrender or fight." So Don
Pedro surrendered to the gallant captain of the _Revenge_, and lavished
him with praise, evidently glad to have fallen into the hands of so
famous and generous a foe. Drake is said to have treated his captive
with elaborate generosity, while his crew commandeered all the vast
treasure. He then sent the galleon into Dartmouth Harbour, and set off
with his prisoners to chase Medina Sidonia.
In the whole range of Drake's adventurous career there does not appear
to be any evidence of his having been possessed with the idea of
supernatural assistance, though if perchance he missed any of Philip's
treasure-ships he complacently reported "the reason" to those in
authority as "being best known to God," and there the incident ended.
On the other hand, the Deity was no mystery to him. His belief in a
Supreme Power was real, and that he worked in harmony with It he
never doubted. When he came across anything on land or sea which he
thought should be appropriated for the benefit of his Queen and country,
or for himself and those who were associated with him in his piratical
enterprises, nothing was allowed to stand in his way, and, generally
speaking, he paralysed all resistance to his arms into submission by an
inexorable will and genius. The parsimonious Elizabeth was always

slyly willing to receive the proceeds of his dashing deeds, but never
unduly generous in fixing his share of them. She allowed her ships to
lie rotting when they should have been kept in sound and efficient
condition, and her sailors to starve in the streets and seaports. Never a
care was bestowed on these poor fellows to whom she owed so much.
Drake and Hawkins, on the other hand, saw the national danger, and
founded a war fund called the "Chatham Chest"; and, after great
pressure, the Queen granted £20,000 and the loan of six battleships to
the Syndicate. Happily the commercial people gave freely, as they
always do. What trouble these matchless patriots had to overcome!
Intrigue, treason, religious fanaticism, begrudging of supplies, the
constant shortage of stores and provisions at every critical stage of a
crisis, the contradictory instructions from the exasperating Tudor
Queen: the fleet kept in port until the chances of an easy victory over
England's bitterest foes had passed away! But for the vacillation of the
icy virgin, Drake's Portugal expedition would have put the triumph of
the Spanish Armada to the blush, and the great Admiral might have
been saved the anguish of misfortune that seemed to follow his future
daring adventures for Spanish treasure on land and sea until the
shadows of failure compassed him round. His spirit broken and his
body smitten with incurable disease, the fleet under his command
anchored at Puerto Bello after a heavy passage from Escudo de
Veragua, a pestilential desert island. He was then in delirium, and on
the 28th January, 1596, the big soul of our greatest seaman passed
away beyond the veil. His body was put into a lead and oak coffin and
taken a few miles out to sea, and amidst manifestations of great sorrow
he was lowered down the side and the waters covered him over. Two
useless prize ships were sunk beside him, and there they may still lie
together. The fleet, having lost their guiding spirit, weighed anchor and
shaped their course homewards.
Drake was not merely a seaman and the creator of generations of
sailors, but he was also a sea warrior of superb naval genius. It was he
who invented the magnificent plan of searching for his country's
enemies in every creek into which he could get a craft. He also imbued
Her Gracious Majesty and Her Gracious Majesty's seamen with the
idea that in warfare on sea or land it is a first principle to strike first if
you