MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,
That this brief Treatise is yours, both by right and by
succession, will appear by the Author's and Actor's ensuing
Dedication. To praise either the Mistress or the Servant, might
justly incur the censure of Quis eos unquam sanus vituperavit;
either's worth having sufficiently blazed their fame.
This Present loseth nothing, by glancing on former actions; and
the observation of passed adventures may probably advantage future
employments. Caesar wrote his own Commentaries; and this Doer was
partly the Indictor.
Neither is there wanting living testimony to confirm its truth.
For his sake, then, cherish what is good! and I shall willingly
entertain check for what is amiss. Your favourable acceptance may
encourage my collecting of more neglected notes! However, though
Virtue, as Lands, be not inheritable; yet hath he left of his
Name, one that resolves, and therein joys to approve himself.
Your most humble and loyal subject,
FRANCIS DRAKE [BART.]
The Dedicatory Epistle, Intended To
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Written By SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, Deceased.
To The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty,
my most dread Sovereign.
Madam,
Seeing divers have diversely reported and written of these Voyages
and Actions which I have attempted and made, every one
endeavouring to bring to light whatsoever inklings or conjectures
they have had; whereby many untruths have been published, and the
certain truth concealed: as [so] I have thought it necessary
myself, as in a Card [chart] to prick the principal points of the
counsels taken, attempts made, and success had, during the whole
course of my employment in these services against the Spaniard.
Not as setting sail for maintaining my reputation in men's
judgment, but only as sitting at helm, if occasion shall be, for
conducting the like actions hereafter. So I have accounted it my
duty, to present this Discourse to Your Majesty, as of right;
either for itself being the first fruits of your Servant's pen, or
for the matter, being service done to Your Majesty by your poor
vassal, against your great Enemy: at times, in such places, and
after such sort as may seem strange to those that are not
acquainted with the whole carriage thereof; but will be a pleasing
remembrance to Your Highness, who take the apparent height of the
Almighty's favour towards you, by these events, as truest
instruments.
Humbly submitting myself to Your gracious censure, both in writing
and presenting; that Posterity be not deprived of such help as may
happily be gained hereby, and our present Age, at least, may be
satisfied, in the rightfulness of these actions, which hitherto
have been silenced: and Your Servant's labour not seem altogether
lost, not only in travels by sea and land, but also in writing the
Report thereof (a work to him no less troublesome) yet made
pleasant and sweet, in that it hath been, is, and shall be for
Your Majesty's content; to whom I have devoted myself [and] live
or die.
FRANCIS DRAKE [Knight].
January 1, 1592 [i.e., 1593].
TO THE COURTEOUS READER
HONEST READER,
Without apology, I desire thee, in this ensuing Discourse, to
observe, with me, the power and justice of the LORD of Hosts, Who
could enable so mean a person to right himself upon so mighty a
Prince; together with the goodness and providence of GOD very
observable in that it pleased Him to raise this man, not only from
a low condition, but even from the state of persecution. His
father suffered in it, being forced to fly from his house, near
South Tavistock in Devon, into Kent: and there to inhabit in the
hull of a ship, wherein many of his younger sons were born. He had
twelve in all: and as it pleased GOD to give most of them a being
upon the water, so the greatest part of them died at sea. The
youngest, who though he was [went] as far as any, yet died at
home; whose posterity inherits that, which by himself and this
noble Gentleman the eldest brother, was hardly, yet worthily
gotten.
I could more largely acquaint thee, that this voyage was his Third
he made into the West Indies; after that [of] his excellent
service, both by sea and land, in Ireland, under WALTER, Earl of
ESSEX; his next, about the World; another, wherein he took St.
Jago, Cartagena, St. Domingo, St. Augustino; his doings at Cadiz;
besides the first Carrack taught by him to sail into England; his
stirrings in Eighty-seven; his remarkable actions in Eighty-eight;
his endeavours in the Portugal employment; his last enterprise,
determined by death; and his filling Plymouth with a plentiful
stream of fresh water: but I pass by all these. I had rather thou
shouldest inquire of others! then to seem myself a vainglorious
man.
I intend not his praise! I strive only to set out the praise of
his and our good GOD! that guided him in his truth! and protected
him in his courses! My ends are to stir thee up to the worship of
GOD, and service of our King and Country, by his example! If
anything be worth thy consideration; conclude with me, that the
LORD only, can do great things!
FRANCIS DRAKE [Bart.]
SIR FRANCIS DRAKE REVIVED
Calling upon this dull or effeminate Age, to follow his noble steps for gold and silver.
As there is a general Vengeance which secretly pursueth the doers of wrong, and suffereth them not to prosper, albeit no man of purpose empeach them: so is there a particular Indignation, engrafted in the bosom of all that are wronged, which ceaseth not seeking, by all means possible, to redress or remedy the wrong received. Insomuch as those great and mighty men, in whom their prosperous estate hath bred such an overweening of themselves, but they do not only wrong their inferiors, but despise them being injured, seem to take a very unfit course for their own safety, and far unfitter for their rest. For as ESOP teacheth, even the fly hath her spleen, and the emmet [ant] is not without her choler; and both together many times find means whereby, though the eagle lays her eggs in JUPITER'S lap, yet by one way or other, she escapeth not requital of her wrong done [to] the emmet.
Among the manifold examples hereof, which former Ages have committed to memory, or our Time yielded to sight: I suppose, there hath not been any more notable then this in hand; either in respect of the greatness of the person in whom the first injury was offered, or the meanness of him who righted himself. The one being, in his own conceit, the mightiest Monarch of all the world! The other, an English Captain, a mean subject of her Majesty's! Who (besides the wrongs received at Rio de [la] Hacha with Captain JOHN LOVELL in the years 1565 and 1566) having been grievously endamaged at San Juan de Ulua in the Bay of Mexico, with captain JOHN HAWKINS, in the years 1567 and 1568, not only in the loss of his goods of some value, but also of his kinsmen and friends, and that by the falsehood of DON MARTIN HENRIQUEZ then the Viceroy of Mexico; and finding that no recompense could be recovered out of Spain, by any of his own means, or by Her Majesty's letters; he used such helps as he might, by two several voyages into the West Indies (the first with two ships, the one called the Dragon, the other the Swan, in the year 1570: the other in the Swan alone in the year 1571, to gain such intelligences as might further him, to get some amends for his loss.