DRAKE, SIR FRANCIS, was born in or after the year 1539 (Barrow's ` Life of Drake,' eh. L) in an humble cottage on the banks of the Tavy, in Devonshire. His father, who was, according to the common accounts, a poor and obscure yeoman, had twelve eons, of whom Francis was the eldest. According to Camden, who derived his information from Drake himself, Francis Russel, afterwards earl of Bedford, stood as his godfather, and John llawkins, a distinguished navigator, defrayed the alight expenses of hia short school education. In the days of persecution under Queen Mary, his father, who was known in his neighbourhood as a zealous Protestant and a man of some acquirements, fled from Devonshire into Kent, where Drake was brought up ; " Ood dividing the honour," says Fuller, "betwixt two counties, that the ono might have his birth and the other his educa tion." Under Elizabeth his father obtained an appointment "among tho seamen in the king's navy to read prayers to them ;" and soon afterwards is stated by Camden and others, to have been ordained deacon, and made vicar of Upnor church on the Medway, a little below Chatham, where the royal fleet usually anchored. But there must be some inaccuracy here, as "there is not now and never was either church or chapel at Upnor, but a small castle was built there by Elizabeth to protect the anchorage." (Barrow.) The suggestion of Mr. Barrow has considerable likelihood : "he was more probably one who in those days bore the title of preacher' or minister,' who had received holy orders, but was without church preferment, and engaged in giving instruction to the neighbouring people, and reading prayers to them." Francis thus grew up among sailors; and while ho was yet very young, his father, "by reason of his poverty, apprenticed him to a neighbour, the master of a bark, who carried on a coasting trade, and sometimes made voyages to Zeeland and France." This master kept Drake close to his work, and "pains, with patience in his youth," says Fuller, "knit the joints of his soul, and made them more solid and compact." When his master died, having no children of his own, he bequeathed to young Drake the bark and its equipments. With this he continued in the old trade, and had got together some little money, and was in the fair way of becoming a thriving man, when his Imagination was inflamed by the exploits of his protector Haw kins in the New World; and suddenly selling his ship, ho repaired to Plymouth, and embarked himself and his fortunes in that cora 'Dander's last and unfortunate adventure to tho Spanish Main. In
this disastrous expedition Drake lost all the money he had in the world ; he suffered moreover somewhat in character, being charged with having disobeyed orders, and deserted hie superior. He however showed skilful seamanship, and brought the vessel he commanded— the `Judith,' a small bark of fifty tons—safely home. A chaplain belonging to the fleet comforted Drake with the assurance that, as he had been treacherously used by the Spaniards, he might lawfully recover in value upon the King of Spain, and repair his losses upon him whenever and wherever he could. Fuller rays, " The case was clear in sea divinity; and few are such infidels as not to believe doctrines which make for their profit. Whereupon Drake, though a poor private man, undertook to revenge himself on so mighty a monarch, who, not contented that the sun riseth and setteth in his dominions, may seem to desire to make all his own where ho shineth." Being readily joined by a number of sea adventurers, who mustered among them money enough to fit out a vessel, Drake made two or three voyages to the West Indies, to gain intelligence and learn the navigation of those parts; but Camden adds, that ho also got some store of money there, "by playing the seaman and the pirate." lu 1570 he obtained a regular commission from Queen Elizabeth, and cruised to some purpose in the West Indies. lu 1572 he Bailed again for the Spanish Main, with the`Pasha' of seventy tons, and the `Swan' of twenty-five tons, the united crews of which amounted to seventy three men and boys—the oldest man being fifty, all the rest under thirty years of age. At Port Pheasant ou the coast of South America he landed and put together the three pinnaces, of which they had brought the frame-work with them, and here they were joined by auother bark, from the Isle of Wight, with thirty-eight men. With this insignificant force he partly plundered the town of Nombre de Dios, and made great spoil among the Spanish shipping. He partially crossed the Isthmus of Darien, and obtained a view of the great Pacific, an ocean as yet closed to English enterprise; and with his eyes anxiously fixed upon its waters, he prayed God to grant him "life and leave once to sail an English ship in those seas." After some extraordinary adventures, Drake returned to England, with his frail barks absolutely loaded and crammed with treasure and plundered merchandise ; and on the 9th of August 1573 anchored at Plymouth.