After taking the Communion and listening to a sermon, they eased the ship by casting goods into the sea—“three ton of cloves, eight big guns, and certain meal and beans”; making, as an old writer says, a kind of gruel of the sea round about. After they had been in this state from eight o’clock at night till four o’clock next afternoon, all in a moment the wind changed, and “the happy gale drove them off the rocks again, and made of them glad men.”

The rest of the homeward voyage was less adventurous, and on the 18th of June they passed the Cape of Good Hope, “a most stately thing, and the fairest cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth.”

On the 26th of September they “safely, and with joyful minds and thankful hearts, arrived at Plymouth, having been away three years.”

CHAPTER IX
SIR FRANCIS

It was in the autumn of 1580 that Drake returned from his three years’ voyage. Wynter had brought the news home that Drake had entered the Straits of Magellan, but since then only vague rumours of his death at the hands of the Spaniards had reached England. Had he met such a fate, Sir William Cecil (now Lord Burghley) and his party at Court would not have been sorry; for they disliked piracy, and wished to avoid a war with Spain.

This was more to be dreaded than ever, as at the death of the King of Portugal Philip had seized his crown and vast possessions, and was now the most powerful prince in Europe, since he owned the splendid Portuguese fleet. Hitherto, Philip had only warships for the protection of his treasure-ships, and they could not be spared. He was now known to be preparing, in his slow way, a great Armada.

But Drake had not been hanged for a pirate, and this the Spaniards knew very well. They clamoured for the restoration of his plunder, or the forfeit of his life. At this time an army of Italian and Spanish soldiers, under the command of a famous Spanish officer, had been landed in Ireland to help the Catholic Irish in their rebellion against Queen Elizabeth. These soldiers were said to have been sent by the orders of the Pope. Finding the prospects of success too poor, the Spanish officer withdrew his men, and they escaped by sea; but the Italian soldiers, who numbered 600, were overpowered by the English, and all except a few officers, who could pay a ransom, were slaughtered in cold blood. Thus Philip’s attempt to strike a secret blow in Elizabeth’s fashion was met by her with cruelty as relentless as his own; but Elizabeth made this attempt an excuse for refusing to make an inquiry into Drake’s doings in the West.

“The news of his home-coming in England was,” we are told, “by this his strange wealth, so far-fetched, marvellous strange, and of all men held impossible and incredible. But both proving true, it fortuned that many misliked it and reproached him. Besides all this there were others that devised and divulged” (made up and spread about) “all possible disgraces” (base charges) “against Drake and his followers, terming him the Master Thief of the Unknown World. Yet nevertheless the people generally with exceeding admiration applauded his wonderful long adventures and rich prize.”

Drake at once sent a message to tell the Queen of his return. He was told he had nothing to fear, and was summoned to Court. He took with him some horseloads of gold and silver and jewels. The Queen treated him with great favour, and refused to take the advice of Burghley and others, who wished to send the treasure back to Spain. Unlike them she took her share of the profits, and also the fine gifts Drake had brought for her. “But it grieved him not a little,” we are told, “that some prime courtiers refused the gold he offered them, as gotten by piracy.” He and his men had made golden fortunes.

The Spanish Ambassador naturally “burned with passion” against Drake, and considered his presence at Court an insult to his king. “For he passes much time with the Queen,” he wrote to Philip, “by whom he is highly favoured.”