Under Drakes Flag | Page 7

plumed hats to the burghers of
Plymouth, and the sailors giving a hurrah, as they bent to the oars. Ned

Hearne, who had received a kind word of greeting from Mr. Drake, had
taken his place in the bow of one of the boats, lost in admiration at the
scene; and at the thought that he was one of this band of heroes, who
were going out to fight the Spaniards, and to return laden with
countless treasure wrested from them. At the thought his eyes sparkled,
his blood seemed to dance through his veins.
The western main, in those days, was a name almost of enchantment.
Such strange tales had been brought home, by the voyagers who had
navigated those seas, of the wonderful trees, the bright birds, the
beauties of nature, the gold and silver, and the abundance of all
precious things, that it was the dream of every youngster on the
seaboard some day to penetrate to these charmed regions. A week since,
and the realization of the dream had appeared beyond his wildest hopes.
Now, almost with the suddenness of a transformation scene, this had
changed; and there was he on his way out to the Swanne, a part of the
expedition itself. It was to the Swanne that he had been allotted, for it
was on board that ship that the boy whose place he was to take had
been seized with illness.
Although but twenty-five tons in burden, the Swanne made a far greater
show than would be made by a craft of that size in the present day. The
ships of the time lay but lightly on the water, while their hulls were
carried up to a prodigious height; and it is not too much to say that the
portion of the Swanne, above water, was fully as large as the hull which
we see of a merchantman of four times her tonnage. Still, even so, it
was but a tiny craft to cross the Atlantic, and former voyages had been
generally made in larger ships.
Mr. Francis Drake, however, knew what he was about. He considered
that large ships required large crews to be left behind to defend them,
that they drew more water, and were less handy; and he resolved, in
this expedition, he would do no small part of his work with pinnaces
and rowboats; and of these he had three fine craft, now lying in pieces
in his hold, ready to fit together on arriving in the Indies.
As they neared the ships the two boats separated, and Ned soon found
himself alongside of the Swanne. A ladder hung at her side, and up this

Ned followed his captain; for in those days the strict etiquette that the
highest goes last had not been instituted.
"Master Holyoake," said Mr. John Drake, to a big and
powerful-looking man standing near, "this is the new lad, whose skill in
swimming, and whose courage, I told you of yesternight. He will, I
doubt not, be found as willing as he is brave; and I trust that you will
put him in the way of learning his business as a sailor. It is his first
voyage. He comes on board a green hand, but I doubt not that, ere the
voyage be finished, he will have become a smart young sailor."
"I will put him through," John Holyoake, sailing master of the ship,
replied; for in those days the sailing master was the navigator of the
ship, and the captain was as often as not a soldier, who knew nothing
whatever about seamanship. The one sailed the ship, the other fought it;
and the admirals were, in those days, more frequently known as
generals, and held that position on shore.
As Ned looked round the deck, he thought that he had never seen a
finer set of sailors. All were picked men, hardy and experienced, and
for the most part young. Some had made previous voyages to the West
Indies, but the greater portion were new to that country. They looked
the men on whom a captain could rely, to the last. Tall and stalwart,
bronzed with the sun, and with a reckless and fearless expression about
them, which boded ill to any foes upon whom they might fall.
Although Ned had never been to sea on a long voyage, he had sailed
too often in the fishing boats of his native village to have any qualm of
seasickness, or to feel in any degree like a new hand. He was, therefore,
at once assigned to a place and duty.
An hour later the admiral, as Mr. Francis Drake was called, fired a gun,
the two vessels hoisted their broad sails and turned their heads from
shore, and the crews of both ships gave a