^J(/it^. Sl^ u^te^^/t/niO. ^li^/^eh

Digitized by tine Internet Archive

in 2007 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/balladsoffleetotOOroddrich

BALLADS OF THE FLEET

/

BALLADS OF THE FLEET

AND OTHER POEMS

H mew BMtton Mttb several at)Mttonal pieces

BY

;5^^,. RENNELL RODD h^-rc^^ ^<s-v>

LONDON EDWARD ARNOLD

37 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND 1901

-aacroft Ubva^

The poems included in the present volume have mostly

appeared before, either in the first edition of " Ballads of

the Fleet " or in the " Violet Crown," both of which are now

out of print. The story of Drake has been completed by the

addition of some new pieces, and the former divisions of the

subject have been broken up into shorter poems, in deference

to friendly criticism. " Abou Hamed " appeared in the

Spectator, to whose editor my acknowledgments are due

for the permission to reprint it here.

R. R.

CONTENTS

Greenaway ....

The Story of Sir Francis Drake : i. children of the sea ii. san juan de lua . iii. the reprisal iv. st. julian's bay - v. the wind of god - vi. the treasure galleons - vii. the world encompassed - viii. the homecoming - ix. the singeing of the beard x. the armada xi. the burial of drake

The Ballad of Richard Peake • The First of June - quiberon

PUMWANI

To Gerald Portal - The Duke has Friends At Strathfieldsay - Thobal Tennyson Abou Hamed - Spring Thoughts Notes -

PAOB 11

17

23

39

61

74

79

87

95

100

105

115

117 124 128 130 134 136 138 139 142 144 146 149

GBEENAWAY

BALLADS OF THE FLEET

GBEENAWAY.

The mother looked out from the window-bay, looked over

the woods to the sea, And, "Where are those four bonny boys of mine?" and

" "Where are they gone ?" said she.

The gardener's lad with the wave -tanned face looked up

from the blush-rose bed, " They have taken the boat and dropped on the ebb at dawn

of the day," he said.

The mother turned from the window-bay, she was fair as

three-months' bride, " Ah well-a-day for my four wild boys and their lust of the

sea," she sighed.

But deeper yet had the mother sighed, could she know what

the years would bring, The gift of the sea, and the doom of the sea, and the faith of

a craven king.

A stone's throw under the windows, by dale and covert and

down, The Dart winds home from its moorland source to the roads

and the haven town ;

12 GREENAWAY

And thither it was in an old sea-boat from their home at

Greenaway The eager sons of the manor-house would fare for their

hoHday ;

There were Humphry and Adrien Gilbert, with their friend

from over the moor, The yeoman's son John Davies, to tug at the heavy oar,

And the boy that held the tiller, and the younger one at his

side, Were the lads of Walter Baleigh and the same fair mother's

pride.

What deeds of wild adventure they have dared on that Devon stream

When the fabled West was an easy quest to a boy's light- hearted dream.

When the river -reach was their tropic sea, and the coast was

the Spanish Main, And the bHstered wreck on the ebb-tide shoal was a great

galleass of Spain.

And so they would come to the haven, where, moored to the

laden quays, Were the ships at rest with their canvas furled from a

hundred marvellous seas ;

The lofty poops and the painted hulls of the beautiful ships

of old. The carven prows and the open ports with their guns that

shone like gold ;

For the boys that were born and cradled where the breeze of

the ocean blows. They loved those ships with the passion that only the sea

child knows.

GREEN A WA Y 13

And the Channel rovers knew them, the men of the western

shire, And told them tales of the ocean life and the world of a boy's

desire ;

There was one that had sailed with Strangways, another

with red Tremayne ; They could tell of the Holy Oflace and the rule of the monk

in Spain ;

Of the corsair folk in the eastern isles with the long brass

guns on deck, Of the north sea spray, of a gale in the bay, of a fight, of a

run, of a wreck ;

Of the fur- clad folk and the frost-bound shores, where the day and night are one.

And the drifting ice-floes sparkle to the gleam of the mid- night sun ;

But the tale that held them longest was the tale of the isles

that lie Far over the great Atlantic and the land of the sunset sky ;

Where veiled in rumour and fable, withdrawn as a virgin

bride, The world to be wooed and conquered was a quest that was

still untried.

Then the lips would part and the eager eyes go westward

over the sea, •' A little while, but a little while, and the time will come for

me."

Now back— for the tide sets inland, and the mother frets in

the hall, " We have far to go ere the sun be low — good hap to ye,

masters all 1"

14 GREEN A WAY

" God speed to ye, gentle worships — good hap to ye, honest

John, Good luck to you, young Squire Baleigh, and keep your eye

on the Don I"

The mother looked out as the westering sun went under the

steep moorside, And " Where are those four bonny boys of mine ? they are

long from their home," she sighed.

But deeper yet had the mother sighed, could she know what

the end would be, The golden dream of the after years and the doom that came

from the sea.

THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

I

CHILDREN OF THE SEA In the Medway mouth by Chatham the King's ships lay at

The fleet that Tudor Hem:y built, who was lord of the narrow

seas;

Across the bay were the shipwrights' yards, where they laid

the sturdy keel, And there day through rang hammer stroke, and hissed the

strident steel ;

And there they bent the good ship's ribs, and trimmed the

taper tree. To lift the wide wings windward that bear men over sea ;

The old dismasted war-hulks, whose travelling days were

done. Lay moored in the quiet reaches, where they blistered in the

sun.

And many a shore-bird there had found a cranny for its

nest. And children's faces thronged the ports of those old barques

at rest.

In such an ark of olden days, moored hard by Chatham

dock, There was lodged a sturdy man of God, one Drake of

Tavistock ;

2

i8 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

A hard, unyielding Western man, who held with the stern

new creed, And deemed that the word was lifeless which did not prompt

the deed ;

The creed that yet had its evil days of blood and of fire to

face Before the faith was 'stablished that has formed the English

race.

He had seen his homestead burning long since, and fled for

Ufe Across the Dartmoor highlands with his new-bom child and

wife;

What time the Western counties rose, that famous Whit- suntide, When stalwart Keformation men were on the losing side.

But now was peace in all the land through Edward's ebbing

days, Before the torch Queen Mary lit had set the shires ablaze ;

And here of a Sunday morning, in sunshine, rain, or sleet, The rough sea-folk would gather to the chaplain of the Fleet :

For they that go abroad in ships are earnest men at prayer, And they prayed as they would in their own plain way, and as yet none vexed them there.

So half a score of sturdy lads grew up between the decks, And paddled in the ebbing shoals, and played at raids and wrecks —

Their small black boats would bear them over the reaches

wide, Where the mimic billows tossed their manes when the home-

wind met the tide,

CHILDREN OF THE SEA 19

With quick young hands for tiller and sheet alert to the

pulse of the breeze, And frank young fearless laughter tuned to the tumbled

While the mother would watch with anxious eyes from the

deck of their floating home The track where the children guided a nutshell craft in the

foam.

They were nursed on the cradling water by fostering wind

and wave, And as they had lived, so in after years in the sea they found

their grave.

There, half in wonder and half in awe, they had heard grave

men debate Dark rumours of the death of kings, and tidings big with

fate;

And they saw the Kentish yeomen arm, and march with pike

and sword, When Wyatt mustered round his flag the servants of the

Lord ; —

They heard of the battles lost and won, and the good blood

spilt in vain. And the infant lips were taught to curse the league with Eome

and Spain.

So years rolled on, and the eldest-born went forth and took

his chance, A 'prentice hand on a ketch that plied to the Channel ports

and France.

Dark days had set on England, dark days for such as Drake, And lurid through the darkness shone the fagot and the stake ;—

2—2

20 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

It was little enough like boyhood's dream, a dreary life at the

best, "With danger and toil for shipmates, and hunger oft as a guest ;

It was Httle enough like boyhood's dream — when the light on

a sunset sail, To eyes that followed the outward bound, was more than a

fairy tale ;

To crouch chilled through on the dripping planks, and watch for the roving lights,

When green seas break on the dipping prow through the end- less wintry nights.

When the blast drives down from Bergen, and the cloud-banks

blot the moon, And the evil sea is a churning race from the chalk chfifs to the

dune ;

But the mariner's boy was taught his craft, and in service

learned to rule, And he braced his nerve and he trained his eye in a hard and

thankless school.

He saw the lilied flag of Guise at Calais oust his Queen's, And the fleet of England sail with Spain to battle at Grave- lines ;

And in the ports of Maas and Scheldt they found no better

cheer. There too the shadow of the cowl fell deeper year by year : —

For a great unrest had touched the time, the world's deep

heart was stirred, There rang across the northern blasts a voice that would be

heard —

CHILDREN OF THE SEA 21

A voice that shook the ocean shores where freedom wills to

dwell, From Zealand and the EngUsh chfifs to Nantes and

La Kochelle :

The night of years broke into dawn, and now in a broader

day Men's conscience craved for warrant from those who bade

obey;

And lest this dire contagion spread, and free thought breathe

again, The Holy Office raised her flag in all the ports of Spain ;

And through the Flemish sand-hills and up the Holland

dykes The hounds of God were on the trail to flesh the Spanish

pikes.

But where their withering mandate fell deep slumbering

passions woke. For simple men grew great of heart and turned against their

yoke,

And deeds of high endeavour were no more to the favoured

few, But brain and heart were the measure of what every man

might do.

The wronged took arms and sought redress at their own risk

and fee. Shook off their feet the bloody dust, and gathered in the

The London merchants mounted guns, and armed the

trading barque. The boatmen left their nets and lines to follow de la Mark ;

22 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

So corsairs swept the narrow seas, and watched the highway

south, While justice in her ruder form spoke through the cannon's

mouth ;

Long years the trembling nations paused, the red fires

smouldered low. While monarchs knew within their gates the internecine

foe;

Till there rose in island England a Queen, by God's own

grace. Who gathered in her ample heart the heart of all her race —

The race which, loving freedom, of their own free will obeyed, Till champions mustered round her, and trust with trust repaid ;

She saw the crisis of the age, absorbed her nation's faith, And faced a world's defiance with battle to the death.

Through those dark years of doubt and stress the coaster

plied her trade. The preacher's lad grew great and strong — and so the man

was made.

II

SAN JUAN DE LUA

This is a tale of treason, with the fate of a world in its

wake — The treason of Don Martine and the oath of Francis Drake 1

It was nigh twelve months since Captain John had beat out of Plymouth Sound

With the Queen's tall ships the Jesus and the Minion south- ward bound ;

And Drake in the little Judith had sailed in his kinsman's

train, With his all on earth in the venture to trade on the Spanish

Main.

They met with a gale in Biscay, they had started late in the

year, And the Queen's tall ship the Jesus was leaky and ill to

steer ;

So they halted in Grand Canary and righted their disarray, Kecaulked the straining timbers and then to the South away !

They harried the Lisbon traders with Fenner's name for a

plea, For the law of quick reprisal was the grim old law at sea ;

24 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

And the Grace of God got an English name and an English

flag at the main Ere they sailed for Margarita and the ocean world of Spain.

There's many a tale were well forgot, — there's little enough

to boast Of the work they did those winter months in the bights

of the Guinea coast.

They did not barter their EngMsh gold for the palm-oil or

the date, But the hulls that came in ballast went out with a hving

freight ;

On an evil day, John Hawkins, you took up with an evil

trade, And you set your course by a luckless star with the fruit of a

bloody raid I

Though many had held it was God's work too, while in that

dark Afric hell Before the inhuman altars the weak and the captive fell ;

While the wretch foredoomed to the slaughter might live to

be sold a slave. The brand be plucked from the burning and a soul be won to

save.

But little recked they of doubts or fears that vexed the soul

of the wise. They did as the world did round them, and they claimed

their share of the prize :

And their sons shall make atonement, in the years that are

to be. For the freight they bore to the New World's shore through

the still Sargasso Sea.

SAN JUAN DE LUA 25

They were seven weeks in the ocean and never a sail

went by, Cramped in the lonely vastness of infinite sea and sky :

But ever the stars moved eastward, and the new stars rose to

ken, The awe of the waters soared them, and they longed for the

paths of men :

Till at last with the sunrise glimmer there rose through an

opal sea A shadowy range of islands and the haze of a land on the lee ;

And the mariner's boy stared wondering eyed — for the wings

of the wind were furled. And the capes hung high in the still mirage of dawn on

a phantom world ;

A land where never our island oaks had fared since the years

began, Until John Hawkins taught them the path of the Englishman.

Then a breeze came perfume-laden from the heart of the

tropic zone, And crinkling waves tossed round them the drift of a shore

imknown :

And the winged fish rose on the face of the deep to skim like

a cloud of spray From edge to edge of the curling blue and into the blue away ;

But the sun still beckoned them westward till he sank in a

blaze of fire On the fabled hills of a thousand dreams and the goal of a

world's desire ;

While the parting mists wreathed upwards in delicate rosy

whirls, And there peered through a rift in the broken veil the peaks

of the isle of pearls.

26 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

Now Philip in his great wisdom had laid England under a

ban, And never a New World settler might trade with an EngUsh-

man.

But the lust of the land was on them, the craving of men

confined For a draft of the fresh spring water, a breath of the off-shore

wind,

So they landed in Margarita in despite of the King of

Spain, They paid their footing in honest gold and quickened their

hearts again.

And they saw the unsealed mountains that rose from the

New World's edge, Where the long surf rollers thunder and burst on the coral

ledge ;

But they skirted steep La Guayra till they came to a lonely

bay. In the gulf that men called " Sorrowful," where was none to

say them nay ;

And there they abode careening, refitting masts and spars. And they learned the signs of the seasons and the march of the tropic stars.

Here all was a land of marvel: the fireflies' glimmer at

night, The shore where the sea-weed gardens rock under the

phosphor light ;

The great tree-ferns and the coco palms, and the wild lime's

sweet perfume. The edge of the forest crimsoned with the great hibiscus

bloom,

SAN JUAN DE LUA 27

Where clinging from each green tangle hang down like a

cluster of bells, Purple and pink and scarlet, the frail convolvulus cells ;

Where the moth-birds pause and flutter a shower of gems in

the air, Dip slender bills in the waxen cups and drink of the nectar

there.

So a passion of high adventure came over that English

crew, — They had seen the New World's promise and the way that

the east wind blew ;

They had only stood on the threshold, on the marge of the

siren west. But the magic wand had touched them, and now they would

never rest.

From thence they began their trading — ^the peace of the

realms their plea. And the right of open harbour to all from the open sea.

The Spanish governors shook their heads, but they made

protest in vain. And the Guinea freight was bartered in despite of the King

of Spain ;

For the settlers made them welcome, and came off in the

night aboard. Or they claimed their rights of market at the point of the

naked sword ;

And it prospered those free-traders till deep in the Jesus'

hold Was a smouldering fire of jewels and a shimmer of virgin

gold.

28 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

Then merry at heart they hoisted sail with a homeward

facing prow, For each had a share in the venture, and each was a rich

man now.

It was northward first, then eastward, the course that the

Gulf Stream ran, Where it swept to the bend of Cuba from the elbow of

Yucatan ;

And there the storms broke on them, and the wave came nigh

to whelm : The hulls were foul, and they made no way, and the Jesus

lost her helm.

Oh nerve of iron and heart of oak were set in the simple

mould Of the men who sped to the unknown seas in the crazy craft

of old 1

They drove past misty headlands with the chill of death on

their souls. And they heard the thunders breaking over uncharted shoals ;

And thrice each deemed that the rest were lost, and scoured

the seas in vain, And thrice each fought in a week of storm with the might

of the hurricane ;

They saw no sun in the daytime, and the stars at night were

bUnd, And they sped for a week on an unknown course at the

mercy of the wind ;

Till their desperate hearts were broken, and as men who

have nought to lose, They ran right in to the hornet's nest in the port of Vera

Cruz.

SAN JUAN DE LUA 29

So they moored in the outer harbour, while the ships' bells

rang to prayer, And they cried on the Lord who had spared their lives to be

with them even there ;

For this was the way with the western folk in storm or

battle or raid, They wrought with a will, and they fought with a will, and

so with a will they prayed.

For strong, they said, are the whirlwinds, and long is the arm of the foe,

But the finger of God is strongest in the path where sea- men go.

Now it chanced that there in the haven the Indies' Plate

Fleet lay, To wait for the convoy galleons that were due since many a

day;

And all Potosi's hoarded gold, and the wealth of half Peru, Lay under the guns of Captain John, of Drake, and his trusty few.

So the governor manned his galley, and the Dons put out to

greet The long-expected vanguard, as he deemed, of the convoy fleet ;

But he found himself on an alien deck, and he stared at

Captain John, And he bowed a cold obeisance, and made haste to get him

gone;

While couriers sped fast inland to ride with the evil news, There were pirate craft and heretics in the port of Vera Cruz.

Then stoutly smiled John Hawkins, and he said, " Sith need

must be, I wiU hold this port of the King of Spain till my ships can

face the sea :

30 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

" By the chance of storm and our evU star we are here in the

lion's jaw; And here, my lads, we must hold our own by the need that knows no law I"

Now the haven pass is narrow, but it widens deep inland From the isle which bars the entrance and the long low spit of sand ;

So they warped their ships to the new sea-wall in the lee of

the island south, Where the lead gave seven fathoms, and they held San Juaji's

mouth.

And they landed guns on the island, they worked with might

and main, And they built the fort Defiance in the jaws of the King of

Spain.

No moon betrayed their counsel as they laboured through the

night, And dawn broke over a freshening sea with the convoy fleet

in sight.

There were six tall ships on the starboard line, and seven

more on the port. But the English flag was waving from a spar on the island

fort.

So Don Martine Enriquez hove to outside the bar, — And "Bring me word forthwith," said he, "who these in- truders are I"

But a boat shot out from the haven and drew to the flagship's

lee, John Hawkins sat in the stem-sheets, with his cutlass on his

knee ; —

SAN JUAN DE LUA 31

*' To the Lord High Admiral greeting, for the peace that is

between King Philip's royal majesty and my own most gracious Queen ;

" We be English seamen weather-bound in a port of the King

of Spain, As we came in peace we would bide in peace, and in peace

sail out again ;

"We met with a gale off Cuba, we are leaky and out of

gear,— But yet, my Lord, by your evil chance we are like to be

masters here.

" There is one way into the haven, and that is a narrow way, And not one ship can make it if I choose to say you nay ;

" If the breeze should freshen to half a gale, as it blew for a

week and more, You'll find no break five hundred miles in the surf on the

long lee shore, —

" We hold the fort on the island bar, and I swear by book

and creed, I will sink you all in the narrow pass if my warrant must be

my need.

" But if you will pledge your honour in the name of the King

of Spain You will do my ships no violence so long as we shall remain,

" You will neither let nor hinder my men upon shore or sea, And leave the ward of the island fort to my captains and to me;

" If you sign these terms of treaty here under your hand and

seal. Ye shall pass in peace to your moorings, and all shall be to

your weal ;

32 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

"But if you will give me no such bond, in the name of

England's Queen I give you the bond of an Englishman that ye shall not enter

in I"

Then the face of Don Martine grew dark with an evil frown, As his captains came about him and they paced it up and down ;

For he held the King's commission to chase and harry and

take The bodies of one John Hawkins and his kinsman Francis

Drake.

The day wore by debating while the freshening north wind

grew, And the waves came crisply curling with a long white edge

to the blue ;

The shrill breeze sang in the cordage, and panic grew with

the wind, He looked at the lee-shore breakers, he looked at the bond,

and signed.

So the stately galleons entered between the isle and the crags, While our men stood all to quarters and the Queen's ships dipped their flags.

The Spaniards moored in the inner port where the laden

Plate Fleet lay, The EngHsh bode by the new sea-wall, but the breeze died

down with the day.

Then all went well for a little while, there was change of

courtesies. The men took heart of confidence and they landed on the

quays ;

SAN JUAN DE LUA 33

They marvelled much at the giant ships tti^t were nigh two

thousand tons, With castles set on the poop and prow and tier over tier of

guns:

Not all the fleet of England could have mustered such a line, And they pledged the Dons in fellowship, and they tasted Spanish wine.

It was noon on the third day after, we had half of our crews

away When the sudden rattle of musket fire rang over the silent

bay;

The galleons slipped a cable's length and drifted down the

tide. While a great black hulk towed seaward swang round to the

Minion's side.

There was never a word of warning till the ships' sides

clashed, and then Their boarders sprang to the ratlins and the hulk grew quick

with men ;

But the war drums beat to quarters, and a cry went round

our ships, The crews sprang up the hatchways with "Treason I" on

their lips ;

And they snatched up pike and hatchet and capstan-bar and

sword. And they dashed out on the Spaniards, and they flung them

overboard ;

While stricken men with gaping wounds came swimming off

from shore. And boats put back in frantic haste to the ships they reached

no more.

8

34 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

They hoisted sail in a hail of shot, and they cut the hawsers

free, So the Minion and the Judith won safe to the open sea.

But the Jesus lay dismantled where the galleons ringed her

round, And they opened fire at the stroke of noon in black San Juan's

Sound.

The land troops crossed in barges by the shoals from the

haven town, They took the fort on the island, and they mowed the gunners

down;

They trained their guns on the Jesus, and she fought like a

wolf at bay. With the wolf-hounds barking round her, cut off from the

narrow way.

They will plead reserves of conscience, and the oath that is

no oath. But dearly Don Martine shall pay for his broken troth, —

For the gunners of the Jesus have laid their pieces true. And they struck him hard on the water-line, and they lacked the flagship through ;

The wave rushed in by the breaches, and there rose a shudder- ing cry

From the soldiers penned in the fighting-decks to every saint in the sky ;

The main-mast snapped and toppled with the banner of proud

Castile, The poop sank down in the churning sea, and the stem showed clean to the keel ;

While far away from the JiicUWs deck the sound of cheering

broke, As the Admiral's great Armada went down in a cloud of smoke.

SAN JUAN DE LUA 35

" So the devil comes to his own again !" laughed grim old

Captain John, And his blue eyes flashed through the powder smirch, as he

roared from the poop, " Fight on 1"

There were four great galleons silenced when the powder was

spent at last, When they loosed their fireships on him, and then the end

came fast ;

So he manned his boats with the rest of his crew, and they

cut their desperate way To the harbour gate and the narrow strait and into the outer

bay;

And there as they won to the Minion and climbed to the

Judith's decks. They could see the Jesus burning in the midst of a ring of

wrecks ;

And all the fruits of the voyage, the silver and gems and gold, The charts they had made and the traitor's bond went down with the burning hold.

But none made bold to follow of all they had fought so

well, — The kindlier sea received them and the shadow of evening

fell.

Day broke on a dreary ocean, San Juan was far behind, — And the God of the just and unjust tethered the wings of the wind.

So they hugged the reefs long days and nights, till they

chanced on an inland reach, Where the surf was still, and the lead sank deep, and the

wave lay asleep on the beach ;

8—2

3^ THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

Where the smooth transparent water was clear as a film of

air, O-^er fathom-deep weed gardens and sea things marvellous

fair;

Where the forest pressed to the blue tide's marge, and never

ma^^hap till then Wide wandering ships had carried the venturous lives of

men.

And a hundred souls of their own free will were left on the

tropic shore. Since they never might win to England with the burden that

they bore.

Solemn was that leave-taking, where they knelt in the alien

sand, Commending these their comrades into their Maker's hand ;

For a year and more in an alien world they had shared in

weal and woe. Had breasted storm and affronted toil, and had held their

own with the foe ;

And those rough old dogs of ocean were tender of heart and

true. And comrade clung to his comrade staunch as captain clung

to his crew ;

There were salt wet tears on the furrowed cheeks that the

tropic suns had tanned As they bade farewell, aad they left them there to their

chance in an unknown land ;

To an evil fate, and an unforeseen, as it proved in the years

to be, When the curse of the Holy Office fell over that island sea.

SAN JUAN DE LUA 37

It was well-nigh three months later the watch on the Hoe

descried The wraith of a battered warship beat in on the flooding

tide ;

Through the dismal wintry waters, through infinite trials

past, Hungry and lean and spent with storm, it was Drake come

home at last.

And later yet in the new year's dawn came the little Minion

too, Smitten with plague in the ocean and manned with a

stranger crew.

But the length and the breadth of England took fire at the

news they brought, The treason of Don Martine and the fight John Hawkins

fought.

And Drake has got him another ship, and sworn to the Lord

of Hosts He will claim redress at the cannon's mouth round all their

ports and coasts.

Till the treasure stores of the Indies have atoned to him fifty- fold

The loss of the good ship Jesus and her men and the Guinea gold;

And so he has gathered a willing crew with the rest of his

Judith's men, And they're off once more on the same old trail, and it's

Westward Ho again ;

And wherever the wide seas open he will brook no bar nor

And there's never a wave but English sails shall claim for their free highway ;

38 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

Till the sceptre shall pass of ocean, and the whole of the

world shall know That an English life is a sacred thing wherever a keel can

go!

And Captain John was on all men's lips, and his loss was

England's gain, For his single ship had shattered the myth of the might of

Spain.

Ill

THE BEPBI8AL

Being the veracious narrative of John Killigrew, gentleman adventurer, who accompanied Captain Francis Drake on his second voyage to Darien ; done into the modern manner.

Oh, sweetly rang the Plymouth bells on the day we put to

sea, "When May and June were nearly met and the new leaf on

the tree ;

And sweetly over Edgcumbe's isle the setting sun declined, It was Whitsun-Eve of May-time, and the May thriU in the wind.

There were hats that waved and kerchiefs, a cheer rang

round the quays As the fiddler played our anchors up and the new sails took

the breeze.

The highlands drew their mantle round, and high up on the

Hoe, And nestling deep in shadowy hills red lights began to show ;

But the eager heart looked never back on a world so good to

leave. To the orchard lawns and the cowslip fields and the bells of

Whitsun-Eve.

40 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

Our captain stood on the Pasha's poop as we won to the

open sea ; " Now lay her straight in the sunset track, for it's Westward

Ho !" said he.

I sailed with Drake and with Oxenham, and the captain's

brother John With the rest of those who ventured were aboard of the little

Swan.

We were three-and-seventy men and boys when the muster- log was told,

And only one of the seventy-three who was thirty summers old.

The crew were Dart and Plymouth men, with the four I

brought from Looe, Jack Basset and the Widdicombes, and my foster-brother

Drew.

Two years were gone since the Dragon ship sailed out with

the self- same men, And Drake had won him his right of way to the Gulf of

Darien ;

And the little Swan got an evil name last year on the

Spanish Main, For the long white wings of the tiny craft were a match for

the best of Spain.

The breeze was fair, with the topsails square, and never a

reef we flew. And the heart of our little captain was a fire to the heart of

his crew ; *

It passed to a proverb in after-years with the men who had

loved him well — You were sure of heaven with Gilbert, but with Drake you

had daunted hell I

THE REPRISAL 41

At last we had sight of the Windwards limned like a cloud in

the sky, It was five weeks out from the Lizard, and the second day

of July ;

And not in vain we had proved those seas and charted the

reefs last year. And laid the course by the star and sun that the venture had

to steer,

For we saw strange sails to the eastward, and ran for a week

of days Past flowery chfifs where the blue wave winds through the

calm of the island maze.

The men were mad to be landing, but he suffered it not to be Till our track was lost in the wildering isles, and we struck on the Carib Sea.

We voided the path of traders, ran west yet awhile, and then Bore down on the midmost channel of the Gulf of Darien ;

And we came to the hidden haven he had found two years

before. We anchored under the high chfifs' lee, and at last we went

ashore.

We felled the forest timbers and planted a high stockade, Where they pieced the jointed pinnace under the ceiba's shade ;

While we shot the mark with the arquebus, we measured

swords in play, And Drake assigned the prizes that the Dons would have to

pay;

The chattering monkeys swarmed to watch and swung on

the climbing vine. The parrots screamed in the branches, but of man was never

a sign.

42 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

A week from the day we landed they had launched three

handy craft, Twelve-oared and low in the water, and long with a shallow

draft.

Their crews were picked and a course was buoyed as the sun

dropped low to the west, — The Devon muscle was good to see on shoulder and arm and

chest, —

And the chffs of the silent haven rang to the helmsman's

cries As the Minion raced the Jesus and the Judith won the prize,

When round the sheltering headland, traced black on the

even glow, Came sailing in a barque of war with a caravel in tow 1

In a flash we were back to the Pasha's side, and Oxenham,

mighty of lung, Hailed them over the waters, for he spoke with the Spaniard's

tongue ;

While the gunners stood to their pieces with linstocks over

the breech, But the answer came in the Devonshke with a " Plague on

your foreign speech 1"

It was Ranee the Channel rover in Sir Edmund Horsey's

barque, Grown tired of his privateering in the Downs with de la

Mark ;

And so he had sailed on fortune's wind right into the heart

of the west ; And here was a man to our captain's hand — we were far too

few at the best ;

THE REPRISAL 43

For the mettle of Drake had fired us, we were set on the

wildest plan That ever perchance had dazzled the desperate dreams of

man; —

On the coast due east from Nombre lay a cluster of isles he

knew Girded in jeefs and white with shoals that had daunted an

older crew ;

He would hide his ships in the wooded isles, and thence with

a chosen band Creep on by night in the launches under the lee of land ;

He would enter the port of Nombre, the great treasure-house

of Spain, And carry a year's gold harvest back to his ships again.

So a bond was made and a treaty signed, and the forty with

Eance were sworn To stand by Drake in the venture, and we sailed with the

break of morn.

We came to the fir-grown islands — we sounded wary and

slow Till we found a way through the sunken rocks where the

ships might pass in tow,

And we laid them up in a shore-locked bay that ran like a

lake inland, With the world-old forest ringing the rim of its silver sand ;

We drew the lot and we started, night through we tugged at

the oar. Seventy men in the launches, and with day drew in to the

shore ;

44 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

We fought with the surf and conquered, we slept through the

sultry noons, We woke with the shadow of evening and toiled by the

waning moons ;

Till the fifth sun sank in a stormy sky, and at last the

launches lay Adrift on a murky midnight off the point of Nombre Bay.

Great clouds shut out the starlight, the moon would be late

to rise. There was one black void of water under one black void of

skies ;

Far off the long surf thundered on an unseen shingle shore. And between its measured pulse-beats you felt the silence more;

And the awe of the shifting darkness wrought into each

straining sense Till you heard your own heart beating in the stillness of

suspense.

Then eastward rose a glimmer as it might be, faint and dim, The first white touch of dawning over the ocean rim.

It was only the moon belated, but "Yonder," he said,

" comes day, One last pull round the headland and Drake will show the

wayl"

There was hardly a light in Nombre but the lamp at the

haven head. And away beyond at the landing-place where the cresset

fires shone red ;

So we stole in under the shadow at the edge of the new

sea-wall. While the moon sailed up through a cloudy bank and we

heard the sentry call ;

THE REPRISAL 45

There were ten men left in the launches, there were threescore

sprang to the land, And we rushed to the fort at the haven mouth and tumbled

the guns in the sand :

But the gunners dropped in the fosses and fled through the

night unhurt, And they roused the sleepy watchmen, and the darkness grew

alert :

The great bell tolled from the belfry, it clanged with a sullen

stroke, And rumour swelled to a stormy cry as the shuddering city

woke ;

For Drake had carried the market-place, and the guards were

full m flight As I fell on their flank with Oxenham, and panic screamed in

the night, —

We charged with a babel of horn and drum, we yelled our

rallying cry. And the torches fixed on our ten-foot pikes blazed into the

murky sky.

So we fought our way to the treasure-house, and the guards

fell back once more, The bowmen kept them at bow-shot length while we rammed

through the iron door.

And we stared on an Empire's ransom in the torchlight's glare,

untold "Wedges of silver shoulder high and the Inca's virgin gold.

There were gems imbedded in rough-hewn quartz that caught

the flickering gleam, There were pearls to be had for the snatching, wealth over

our wildest dream 1

46 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

But the great Church bell of Nombre boomed on with its

call to arms, And we heard their war-drums beating and the bugles' shrill

alarms,

We heard the rattle of musket fire where our boats were left

behind, While clouds rolled over the moon again and a chill struck

into the wind ;

" They never must form to rally. Back, lads, to the market- place I" And lo I as he sprang to lead us our captain fell on his face ;

Long since he had gotten a grisly wound, and his strength

had ebbed as it bled, But our hearts stood still for a moment's space at the thought

he had fallen dead ;

For a sudden volley had struck the ground, and the sand

splashed into our eyes As we staggered blind from the lightning-flash shot over the

purple skies :

Then the tropic rain burst o'er us, and our matchlock fires

were drenched, Our bow-strings would not serve us, and the blazing tow was

quenched ;

We raised our wounded captain, and we bore him back to the

quay, While he cursed us all for cravens — "Will you lose this

chance ?" said he.

For his men with a gentle violence had forced him out of the

strife — Not all the gold in the west, they said, would pay for their

captain's life.

THE REPRISAL 47

So the Spanish footmen raUied, and the streets grew live with

men, And we fought with the pike and the musket-butt, and we

charged them one to ten.

We laid our wounded under the thwarts with the spoil we

had brought away, And never a man was missing as we pushed out into the bay.

We climbed on board of a seventy-ton, and we cut the

hawsers free, We towed her out, and we hoisted sail, and made for the

open sea.

While day-dawn scowled through a sullen sky, and ever our

captain railed, " Had I been quit of my wound," he said, " the venture had

not failed."

But we found good store on the captured ship of red and of

amber wines, And our wounds were nigh forgotten when we came to the

Isle of Pines.

So Bance took his share of the Nombre gold, and the barque

sailed home again, And that was the first reprisal that we made on the Spanish

Main.

But we ran for Cartagena, and we steered right up the port, 'Mid clanging of bells from the churches, and thunder of guns from the fort ;

And the launches dashed through the musket fire, and under

the Governor's eyes Laid hands on a Cadiz transport, and carried her out a prize.

He sent the prisoners back to shore in their boats for his good

name's sake. For there never was gentler pirate or kindlier foe than Drake ;

48 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

But he freed the slaves we had found on board at work in

collar and chain, And thus we won to our service these the deadliest foes of

Spain.

It was first at Cartagena we were 'ware of the evil news That the men of the Holy Office had landed in Vera Cruz.

And they told of our good comrades in the hands of a ruth- less foe,

The Judith's men and the Minion's that were left three years ago ;

And they told us four great galleons had sailed in the Pasha's

track Because of the raid on N ombre, with an oath to bring us

back.

So we made as though we were eastward bound, and scuttled

the little Swan On the rocks near Cartagena, and with nightfall we were

gone.

We were sore at heart for the brave little craft, but our hands

were all too few To work one ship with the prizes and to man the launches

too.

So we turned and steered for a lonely bay, far out of their

mariners' ken, He had found in a deep reef- sheltered blue elbow of Darien :

Long creeks run up from its shelving shore to the foot of the

hills inland. Where the rain-born torrents cleave their way through the

mud swamps and the sand ;

Where over the banks untrodden, in mist and in fever- breath, The silent mangrove forest broods on a world of death ;

THE REPRISAL

49

Their black stems rise from the waters, their thin bent roots

divide, And clutch with crooked fingers the drift of the shifting

tide ;

We hid our ships in the gloomy creeks, with the topmasts

stowed away. And we built us huts on the upland, with an outlook over the

It were long to tell of the raids we made from our lair in

Plenty Cove, How we built a fort at the forest edge, and our every venture

throve ;

For thence the swift black launches would creep through the

island maze, By the channels still uncharted to the edge of the great

highways ;

They would board the coastwise traders becalmed on the

tropic nights. They claimed sea -toll from the victualling ships and fought

in a hundred fights ;

But we paid the price of rashness, when at last on an evil

day With a weary stroke and a bleeding crew the boats crawled

back to the bay

With the tale of a raid too well repelled, of the few that were far too few,

With the mangled bodies of Captain John and my foster- brother Drew.

We dug their graves in the alien world, as a sailor's grave

should be. On a spur of the hill at the forest edge where it looks to the

open sea ;

4

50 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

And we mourned as you mourn for the first to fall, and there

stole on the brooding mmd A thought of the lights last Whitsun-Eve and of all we had

left behind.

Now the slaves we had freed and friended were gone to the

jungle folk, The fierce black tribes of the Cimaroons with the links of the

chain we broke,

A symbol of peace and friendship, that their great cacique

might know The men of the woods and the men of the sea were at war

with a common foe ;

They were sprung, they claimed, from the mutineers that had

once been a galley's crew. And a deadly hate of their lords of old was the only law they

knew ;

They had got them wives of the Indian folk, and here on the

free hillside. In the tracking of game and the plunder of man, they had

thriven and multiplied.

So the chiefs came down to our camping ground, and the

tribe abode with us there. And we learned the lore of their forest craft, and the trick of

the woodman's snare.

They told us priceless tidings, how the rains were near at

hand. When the hill streams swell in the torrent beds and travel is

barred by land.

But so we would wait in our hiding-place till the dry months

came again. When the plate stores cross from the southern sea to the ports

on the Spanish Main ;

THE REPRISAL 51

They would guide us over the jungle waste through the crags

by an unknown way To the path of the laden mule-trains, and the road to Nombre

Bay.

So the rains came on in their season, and the hills raced down

to the seas. And ever it poured on our cranky thatch, and it dripped in

the night of the trees ;

The weeks went by in a shadow of gloom till the camp was

a dismal fen, Till the chill of the rain wrought into our souls, and the heart

died out of our men.

Then the gray skies broke and the sun pierced through, bu

the white mist rose like a shroud From the ooze and slime of the mangrove creek, and death

was abroad in the cloud.

And one by one in the fever camp our men dropped down

and died ; There were twenty-and-nine of the seventy-three that are

laid there side by side ;

Till we cursed the sea and the hoarded gold, and the toil we

had spent for its sake ; But stronger than death, and the fear of death, was the

quenchless heart of Drake.

Though his youngest brother, the lad we loved, dropped down

in his strength and prime. And I saw great tears in the stern blue eyes for the first and

only time, —

Yet he came and went with a cheery smile, he sat by each

sick man's bed. He nerved the doubting surgeons, and at night bore out his

dead.

4—2

52 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

We dug him a grave by Captain John at the head of that line

of mounds, — They will rise up first on the judgment dawn when the last

great muster sounds ;

They will call their lads to quarters, and my foster-brother

Drew Will pipe on his boatswain's whistle that the men of the

Pasha knew,

And I pray the Lord have mercy, when the angel reads the

scrolls. For the bitter death that they died out there, on those poor

seamen's souls.

For look you it is sweet and weU in the day we come to die. To know familiar presences and kindred faces by ;

To watch from sheltering windows wide the happy light that

plays On pleasant scenes that seem to soothe the ebbing of our

days;

To see the shadows lengthen down the quiet fields we knew, And the farewell sunset purpling the distant hiUs of blue ;

While tender voices whisper near with gently bated breath, So softly in its season falls the kindly kiss of death.

But it's iU to pass in the wilderness on the bed of wattled

reeds. With only the swamp to cool the fire of the fever that it

breeds.

Yet they that march in England's van have such grim death

to face, And alien suns shall bleach the skulls of our unquiet race.

The desert wastes shall gather them, the red sand choke their

groans. And every tide of all the seas roll up their restless bones.

THE REPRISAL 53

So there we endured and conquered; the evil drew to an

end, The murmur hushed in his greater loss, and the sick began

to mend.

And yet we were hardly a score in all that were strong to

march and fight, "When the scouts brought news from N ombre of the Plate

Fleet hove in sight ;

But thirty men of the Cimaroons marched out with their

great cacique, And they suffered us bear no burdens from the day we left

the creek.

We struck through the gloom of the forest, where the dark

arms lace and cross, And the huge dead trunks rot slowly under their pall of

moss,

"Where there dwells eternal silence, and never the sunlight

breaks The roof that tents the twilight of a sleep where no life

wakes.

They found us a track where no track was, and we crept on

their noiseless trail, Through the steamy shade and the fungus slime, to the world

of a fairy tale.

"We climbed the CordiUeras, up steps of the mountain rills That yet ran full with the overflow from the springs in the heart of the hills ;

"We passed through untrodden valleys where the shrubs had

an odour of balm, And the wild wood creatures dwelt unscared in the old

primeval calm ;

54 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

The sap of those trees ran white like milk, the wounds in the

bark ran blood, The fruit hung luscious on every bough, and the ripe fruit

grew by the bud ;

The cotton blanched in a silky tuft, the bamboos waved their

flags. The acacia pods were a sabre's length, and the wild gourd

clung to the crags.

We came to a break in the mountain chain at end of a weary

day, A pass hewn deep in the great rock wall, and the late moon

rose that way ;

The upland hollow was dense with bush, and the grass rose

shoulder high, There was nought to see for its forest ring but the stars far

up in the sky ;

And lone in a jungle clearing one monster ceiba stood, The last of a race of giants of the patriarchal wood ;

Its wide arms stretched to the rock's high crest, and its

branches bar on bar Were the rungs of a mighty ladder that reached right up to

the star ;

The great lianes wound through them and drooped to the

earth again. And myriad blooms of orchids had Hf e from the living chain ;

They pitched our camp in the mighty roots, and they waved

their hands on high, And they said, " CHmb up, Seiiores, for this is the Mountain's

Eye!"

So Drake swung up through the creepers, and he scaled the

ancient tree, And first of all living Englishmen had a sight of the Golden

Sea.

THE REPRISAL 55

Beneath him forests lay in gloom, dim gorges wound between White crags Uke billows cresting in the moonlight's marble sheen.

Behind the vast Atlantic rolled, and widening glimmering

west The sister ocean rose and took the moon-kiss on her breast.

He clambered down with a bursting heart, and fell on his

bended knee, And awe came over us all who watched as he said, " Go

up and see I"

And I went aloft through the twisted coils, and Oxenham

climbed, and then The mariners each went up in turn to the last of the Pasha' 8

men:

And the mystic secret was no more hid, and the jealous lords

of Spain Had veiled the face of the virgin sea and had barred her

gates in vain I

We stood ringed round together, bared heads by the flickering

fire. We sang the Nunc Dimittis, and Jack Basset led the choir ;

And we swore the oath of a fellowship in the shade of the

ceiba-tree, We would never rest till an Enghsh keel had sailed on the

Golden Sea.

Then we dropped down the gorges, and we came on the

second day To the meeting of roads in a mountain pass, and they said,

" There winds the way !"

And we looked once more on the western sea, and saw from

the ridge afar The fleets of the sister ocean in the roads of Panama.

56 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

The black folk sent their scouts to spy while the moon was

sultry yet, And they saw the mule-trains gathered to march when the

sun should set.

So we chose a place in the level way and the narrow strait of

the pass, Between the gates of the east and west, and hid in the jungle

grass;

And there we had ease of our weariness as we lay by twos

and threes Through the trance of the burning noontide in shadow of

rocks and trees.

They rolled us leaves of a priceless herb that grew in their

hill domain, Whose fumes are better than meat and drink, a drug to the

heart and brain ;

And our hmbs, worn out with the mountain march, were

soothed with a sweet rehef As our lips inhaled its fragrance, and our souls forgot their

grief.

Then the sun went down on the western sea, the stars in the

east grew bright, And the fireflies lit their lanterns in the sudden tropic night ;

And since the moon would be late to rise each man drew on

his shirt Outside of his seaman's jersey, and we lay by our arms alert.

There were twenty men in the ambush with the breast-high

grass for screen, On either side of the mountain track, and a bow-shot's length

between.

THE REPRISAL S7

The drowsy night air hummed with Ufe, the forest things

gave tongue, While measured on the throbbing pulse the minutes dragged

along.

Then far and faint on rustling breaths that seemed to move

in sleep, We could hear the mule-bells tinkle far down the misty

deep;

And ever they mounted nearer, till we heard the hide-whips

crack, Till the echoes rang with the jangling chime, and the hoofs

that sHpped on the track.

They hummed an air as they rode along, the guards at the

head of the Hne, They rode right into the ambush, and then Drake gave the

sign;

And the night was rent with a wild war-cry, the bolt rang

keen from the bow. The black men sprang to the pack-mules' heads, and we all

dashed out on the foe.

The escort stood for one moment's space in the jungle path

at bay, And then fled clattering madly back, or on to Nombre Bay.

And we loosed the packs, and we lashed the mules behind

them left and right, And headlong down the desperate paths they galloped

through the night.

But all the cost of our voyage was paid us a thousandfold In the gems we took from the rifled packs and the red Potosi gold;

58 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

And as for the silver ingots that we had no hands to bear, We stuffed them into the crannied rocks and under the tree- roots near.

Then we clambered up by the hill-stream's course, though

the way was dark to find. Where our feet on the dripping boulders would leave no trail

behind.

We were far away on the mountain's crest before the alarm

had spread, When dawn broke rosy wakening out of her ocean bed ;

For panic grew with the morning hght, gave wings to the evil

news, And they landed guns from the ships of war, and they armed

at Venta Cruz.

And still folks say that in Panama you may hear the settlers

teU How the Dragon came in his devil- ship, and he made a

league vsdth heU ;

For their own guards saw the black fiends swarm and gather

at his call, And they cross themselves as they tell the tale : " From such

God save us all !"

But we went down by the pathless crags through the thorn- brakes' tangled coil,

Where the face of the cliff was sheerest, bent under the weight of spoil :

And we came to the edge of ocean at eve on the second

day,— Our hearts were glad for the salt waves' smell and the beat

of the tossing spray, —

THE REPRISAL 59

We came to the gorge with its winding stream where our

trysting- place should be, And there were our launches hidden in a sheltered arm from

the sea ;

And there were our comrades waiting, grown hearty and hale

once more, And wild at the sight of the treasure loads that our black

companions bore.

We gave the chiefs to their hearts' desire of our arms and

stores and loot, And we left them all the launches and a Spanish prize to

boot;

And we got on board of our own good ship, we tested spar

and mast. Streamed all the silken pennants and shook sail out at last.

We skirted Cartagena with the red cross at our main, To fire one last defiance to King Philip and to Spain :

And gaily through the tropic sea we ran before the wind, And left the name of Francis Drake and the fear of God behind.

Oh, sweetly rang the Sabbath bells across from shore to shore The merry August morning when we sighted home once more;

We heard them ring to matins from Cawsand and the Rame, And sweetly up the off-shore wind the homely voices came.

We thundered out our last salute to the Admiral of the Port, And old John Hawkins answered with the gims in Plymouth fort.

6o THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

But how the folk streamed out of church, and hurried down

the Hoe, And left the parson preaching, all lads in Plymouth know.

So there, my sons, the tale must end of what we did afloat. You must ask good Master Walsingham what Philip's envoy wrote.

They say Mendoza still protests — and long he may in vain, — But Spain will pause before she breaks her solemn bond again.

ST. JULIAN'S BAl

It was summer now in the world they knew, mid June and

the month of mirth, But Drake was stayed in the winter's grip on the dreariest

coast of earth.

They had sailed in a bleak November and assembled in

Mogador, He had taken a prize of the Portingals and had set her crew

on shore :

He had made the Brazils in April and watered in Kiver

Plate, And now two months he had sought in vain for the pass

to Magellan's Strait.

In fog and in heavy weather, through wildering sleet and

snow, They had fought with the leaden waters in a track where no

ships go,

Where the storm wind howls with a human voice, where the

long swell flings its spray Up chffs where never a green leaf breaks the gloom of the

wintry gray ;

And still it blew from the frozen pole, and they beat in the

icy breath. The Pelican and the Marygold and the barque Elizabeth.

62 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

The heart of his men was broken, and ever the discord

grew, And a haunting dread of that unknown world crept over his

simple crew ;

Till they wrought with a grudging labour, till they answered

with sullen lips, And the breath of a mutinous murmur went up from the

weary ships.

But the general watched and waited till the time should be

ripe for speech ; Till the hidden evil had come to light, and the sickness craved

the leech.

They had won to an inlet isle -enclosed, by the reckoning

fifty south, And the battered fleet put in at last through the reefs that

barred its mouth.

There were spars to be refitted, and the standing gear was

worn, The hulls were foul from the long sea-way, and the sails

were frayed and torn.

There was never a ship sailed here but once, and now it was

fifty years Since the great Magellan anchored to deal with his

mutineers ;

There was never a trace of living thing in that arm of the

lonely sea. But high on the cliff in the silent world stood the frame of

his gaUows tree ;

And there, clean picked of the vultures, and washed by the

driving rain, The bones of a man swung to and fro, held up in a rusty

chain.

ST. JULIAN'S BAY 63

They stared at the silent witness of the great sea-captain's

hand, And the sense of an ill-foreboding came up from that dismal

strand.

Now once more here at this world's far end among the

boulders gray Shall a court be called for judgment in bleak St. Julian's

For at last the leech has probed the wound and the bitter

charge is framed, Long-hidden things shall come to Hght and the traitor's name

be named.

So Drake has called his captains and the mates and the

volunteers, And Master Thomas Doughty shall be tried before his peers ;

As ran the law in England, so ran their law at sea, Who stood within its danger might claim his due degree.

The chaplain brought the book to kiss, and swore them man

by man. And grimly that mid- winter morn the ocean court began.

And witness after witness rose, to tell the sordid tale

Of all the arts the man had used to make the venture fail.

Then he, since Drake so humbled him, replied with taunt

and jest, And by his own lips' railing stood a traitor self-confessed ;

There were those at home in England of the counter-plot,

said he, Who knew the end of this fool's design long ere they had put

to sea :

King Philip had ambassadors to guard the rights of Spain, And when the watchman waketh the wolf will prowl in vain.

64 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

But the eye of Drake grew cold and hard with the glance it

was ill to meet, And he called the crews together to the least man in the

fleet;

From first to last he had said no word till then for good or

ill— And he faced his wavering captains while his trumpet blew

the " still."

He stood erect in the midst of all with his drawn sword in

his hand At the foot of Magellan's gallows by the edge of the dreary

land,

While the chill wind moaned in the gully and the waves

boomed far away On the sunken reefs and the broken crags at the gate of the

wintry bay.

And he said : " My masters, hearken, friends old and comrades

new, While I tell you all that my purpose holds and the things we

have sailed to do.

*' There was no man questioned whither on the day we set

to sea, I am used to be trusted all in all by the men that sail with

me ;

" But your discords, aye and your mutinies, have left me

nigh distraught, I must have this left, my masters, though the price be dearly

bought ;

" I would have you know that the gentlemen shall take their

place with the crew, Shall haul and draw with the seamen when their captain

bids them to ;

ST. JULIAN'S BAY 65

" I will brook no more division — I would know who dares

refuse. God's life 1 am I not your master ? — I will break you all if I

choose I

"Let the Pasha's men stand forward, you five that were

with me then, When we looked across to the unknown side from the tree in

Darien.

" Do you mind my oath in the camp-fire light, how I swore,

God helping me, I would sail a ship with an English flag through the heart of

the Golden Sea 1

*' Since then five years have come and gone, and now, so He

hath willed, The oath that I swore in Darien shall surely be fulfilled.

'• For it fell in the appointed time that the Queen, whom

God defend, Had heard her subjects' bitter cry from Berwick to Land's

End:

"And since the Spanish King protests his arm may not

control The Holy Office in his realm, which lie be on his soul,

" Since in the councils of her peers she had found small help

or stay, And still unchallenged at her feet the King's defiance lay ;

" So in her bitter need she turned from the grave and proved,

and wise, And she called a poor sea-captain who had found grace in

her eyes,

" And thus it chanced upon a day, a year gone by and more, There came a summons to the court from the great who guard her door.

6

66 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

" A hand put back the arras and beckoned round the screen, And I was kneeling at the feet of England's injured Queen.

" She stood against the oriel frame and looked me up and

down, Who wondered how so frail a brow could bear so great a

crown :

'* * And this is Captain Francis Drake, and that the guilty

head My kinsman Philip long hath craved, and craveth still,' she

said.

" She won my heart with mild reproof — with frowns that

died in smiles, She learned the tale of all we did beyond the western isles ;

" She hearkened and she never tired as I told it all again. How we stripped the mules at Nombre and scared the Spanish Main :

" And then herself, with broken voice, she spake of all her

woes : The peace proclaimed where no peace is ; the bitter cry that

rose

" From cities where her merchant fleets lie idle by the quays, With rotting sail and fouling keel, debarred from half the

" From httle havens in the clififs, where their mothers watch

in vain For the lads that the fever dungeons will never yield again ;

" From wretches maimed in torture cells, whose bodies show

the scar Where peace has struck the craven stroke they had never

brooked in war ;

ST. JULIAN'S BAY 67

" From those an alien judge hath doomed, and who for con- science' sake

Were greater than their fear of death and English at the stake, —

"And womanlike she sighed and said, 'And is there none to

aid?' And queenly with a burst of scorn, ' Are all but I afraid ?'

" So there and then with halting breath, but all the brain on

fire, I told our glorious Lady Liege of all my heart's desire.

" I told her of the great South Sea, the secret of our foe. Where unperceived of prying eyes his Plate -fleets come and go —

" How there the sword he wields so well, the serried pikes of

Spain, The guns that menace every sea are wrought for England's

bane ;

"And so the glorious scheme was planned to raid the Golden

Sea, — Now let me know who turns his back on England and

on me !

" Still southUer yet through seas unsailed Magellan found

the gate Where the sister oceans meet and mix at war in the stormy

strait :

"And though it shall blow ten times as wild, though the

pass be blind with snow. Though its whirlpools spin with the drifted ice, — where he

went I will go ;

" Though the foul fiend have dominion there as the seamen's

fables say. Though the devil in hell would hold me back, — I have sworn

to find the way ;

5—2

68 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

" But when we have won to the farther side, to the breeding

seas of the seal, We shall sail on the gentlest ocean that ever has rocked a

keel:

"For these crags that freeze on the eastward face slope

green to the westward blue, And a land breeze gently northing bears up for rich Peru.

" There, where the treasure galleons ply secure from all

attack, Drop down to Valparaiso and bring the buUion back,

" I look to find the ransom that will more than buy again The lives of all the Enghsh lads that rot to death in Spain.

" Then when the lockers burst with gems, and when the

ballast hold Of every ship in this my fleet is packed with bars of gold,

"We'll trust the luck of the sun's wake still, and it's West- ward Ho once more.

And home, my lads, by an ocean-track ship never has tried before 1

"Now if I have told you only here what but I and my

captains knew. It was that I learned in Venta Cruz of the harm loose

tongues may do ;

" Therefore whoso hath no stomach to bear hand in this

emprise. Hath welcome and leave to take his choice as it seemeth

best in his eyes ;

"Let him go aboard of the Marygold — let him steer for

home this day, — But look to it whoso chooseth that he steer no other way ;

ST. JULIAN'S BAY 69

" For I swear to you as God liveth, wherever my bark be

blown, I will sink his ship if I meet him, though he be of my blood

and bone."

It was Captain Philip Wynter first, of the barque Elizabeth^ Stept forth and clasped the general's hand, and he said, " For life and death I"

And Thomas Moon the carpenter, the oldest hand at sea, Spake up and swore a grisly oath, " Lord do so unto me,

" If ever a skulk shall turn his back while I have a head to

break On the spoiling of the Phihstine and my Captain Francis

Drake I"

And there rose from twice a hundred throats a mighty

EngUsh cheer, The voice of hearts in unison the sea-queen loves to hear.

And Doughty heard it far away where he paced the lonely

shore, He heard and knew his doom was sealed — but the general

spake once more ;

He said they were timid surgeons who were loath to use the

knife, — He spoke of their state endangered by their jealousies and

strife,

Of the rule of ocean broken with brawls and mean affrays, Of the slights put on the seamen, contentions, doubt, dis- praise ;

And all that smouldering discontent had rallied round one

name, And the very hand he had trusted most was the hand that

fanned the fiame ;

70 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

Gentle and brave he had deemed him of old, of purpose

steady and pure, Master of manifold learning, venturous, strong to endure ;

But for all the love he had borne him once, yet he dared not

be untrue To the Queen's high expectation and the safety of his crew,

And so, since warnings naught availed, and the evil might

not mend. He had called a court in judgment on his own familiar

friend :

And there they had heard from his lips confessed the bond

he had pledged to the foe, The trust betrayed and the plot to bring this scheme to its

overthrow.

" Henceforth," he said, " the watchman wakes, the foe has a

thousand eyes. And wealth and fame, or the gallows-tree, are the end of

this emprise :

"Let no man look for quarter, henceforth who sails with

Drake, I warn him, if the voyage fail, his life will pay the stake ;

" Henceforth we are bound on a venture that is well-nigh

past my wit. We have set three kings by the ears, my lads, and we needs

must through with it ;

" Howbeit I trust that the galleons will cruise on our trail in

vain, For we shall fare by the southern pass while they watch by

the western main :

"But there waits one doom for treason at sea as it is on

land, — Who deems his crime has been worthy death, let him hold

forth his hand !"

ST. JULIAN'S BAY 71

Then a murmur rose from the listening ranks, an oath, and

an angry cry. And twice a hundred clenching fists condemned the wretch

to die.

The crowd fell back, the general passed to where Doughty

strode aloof — Henceforth in all his words an.d deeds might no man find

reproof ;

He had played the stake for Hfe or death as a gambler throws

the cast, And so, hke a gallant gentleman, he would bear him to the

last:

He heard his doom with fearless eyes, he doffed his hat to

say, *' My cause be with the Judge of hearts untU that latter

dayl"

He craved no grace save such an end as his gentle blood

might bear, To have his dues as a Christian man, and to shrive his soul

in prayer.

So it came to pass on the second day that the crews were

called ashore. And they spread a banquet near the strand of the best they

had in store ;

And there, unseen in the chUl gray dawn, high up on a crest

of rock. In the face of Magellan's gallows-tree, Tom Moon set up the

block :

They dressed an altar near at hand with the red cross banner

spread. Where the chaplain, stoled and surpliced, set on the wine and

bread :

72 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

And Drake and Thomas Doughty knelt down there side by

side, In Nature's vast and awful shrine above the yellow tide,

While Master Fletcher ministered and blessed the bread and

brake, And gave the cup in brotherhood to Doughty and to Drake.

And those rough souls were awed and cowed, while moaned

the rainy wind, And the deep voice of ocean boomed its measured chant

behind.

Then, the long quarrel reconciled, each kissed the other's cheek, And held his hand for a little space, but no man heard them speak.

So they passed to where the board was spread in a sheltered

spot to lee. They made good cheer together there, each after his degree.

But Doughty jfilled a cup and cried a pledge in Spanish wine, " Here's luck in all your ventures, lads, and a better end than mine 1"

And in a little while he rose, and with a courtier's bow, " "With your good leave, my captain," he said, " I am ready now."

They climbed the crest of broken hiU to where the block was

set. As men unmoved by craven fear, by passion or regret.

And Doughty passed along the ranks with a word to each

and all, And as he knelt to try the block the rain began to fall

But Drake unclasped his seaman's cloak and spread it on the

ground, And bared the sword his arm alone might wield in honour

bound ;

ST, JULIAN'S BAY 73

The shivering blade whirled round and fell cold, cruel, swift

and keen. " So perish all her enemies 1" said Drake ; " God save the

Queen I"

He spread his cloak about the corse, and raised the severed

head. The shuddering crews drew slowly back and left him with

the dead :

And long he gazed in that pale face he shielded from the

rain ; Thereafter, saith the chronicle, Drake seldom smiled again.

The grave is on that bleak foreshore, and the crime is purged

away, But steadfast stands while England stands her ocean law,

" Obey I"

V

THE WIND OF GOD

It was late in the wintry August when the ships were fit

for sea, From stem to stern-post caulked and paid, for the fierce

fight yet to be ;

And they double-braced the standing-gear, reshipped their

spars and stores. And beat out seaward eagerly from those ill-omened shores.

It was noon on the third day after, they had sight of the

ocean gate Where the long black wall of mountain is cleft by the fabled

strait.

They saw the headlands break the swell, the great walls

yawning wide, And up the foam of shoaling reefs a path of steely tide ;

Thereat he streamed his banners out, and as he passed

between Drake struck his topsails on the bunt in homage to the

Queen ;

And since his bird of wilderness had met with fortune's

wind, New named henceforth the Pelican shall sail the Golden

Hind.

THE WIND OF GOD 75

Their track wound in through narrowing gulfs with bastioned

walls o'erbowed 'Neath drifted snows on the dripping shelves and a tent of

inky cloud ;

Fierce wind-flaws drave with an angry blast at the turns of

the winding way, Bleak breaths that swept from the misted crags and lashed

the freezing spray ;

Wild currents raced through the twisting tides that washed

round wilderness isles, And the shadow of night hung all day long in the deep

scarred rock defiles ;

And ever at even wandering fires showed glimmering through

the gloom, While prisoned deep in the tunnelled caves they heard the

pent seas boom ;

There many a stout heart shook for dread that had feared no

earthly foe, For the weird of night is an awesome thing in the paths

where seamen go.

And at times the strait way broadened out till the white

mists hid the shore. And they drifted on in a veil of fog till they heard the

breakers roar.

Then the lead would fly from the sounding-chains, and the

starboard line raced free. While the larboard caught on a sunken edge of the shoal

they might not see :

They were fifteen days and fifteen nights in the throat of the

dismal strait, And the shadow of death was near alway, but as yet they

could smile at fate,

76 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

For ever the eye of the master watched, and a master-hand

was laid To sail and tiller and sounding gear, and a master-voice

obeyed ;

Till the dreary battle was all behind, and at last the deed

was done, And the keel of an English ship ran out on the sea of the

setting sun.

They watched him drop to the ocean rim, and they felt the

old sea-spell As with joy they beat to the open wave, and the long south

twilight fell.

But lo, when the dawn came gray with cloud there was no

more land on the lee. And they met the tail of the western gale that is lord in

the southern sea ;

And a tempest rose such as never yet they had hoped for

heart to brave, These men who had spent their whole hard lives at the

chance of the evil wave.

It flung them south and it drave them east, while the moun- tain tides ran past

With death in the hiss of the breaking swell and death in the boom of the blast ;

The sky pressed down on their bare mast poles as they

scudded before the wind, As they climbed the seas and shuddered at the sheer green

gulfs behind ;

And swiftlier raced the following tide with the white comb

reared to whelm. And they knew how nigh was the dread lee-shore, but they

dared not change the helm.

THE WIND OF GOD 77

The nights grew brief in that wintry world, but there broke

no friendly sun Through the cumbered cloud and the drifting scud, and the

night and the day seemed one.

So ever they toiled at the creaking pumps and the breach

that the green seas made. And ever they cried on the Lord of Storms, and their hearts

were unafraid.

"Week after week at the tempest's will the Golden Hind

ran on. Till the blast died down to a whispering breeze and a clean

sun rose and shone ;

And the albatross came wheeling to stare at their ribboned

sail As he dropped from the calm of the upper sky in the wake of

the dying gale.

They rode alone in a lonely sea, — it was months before they

knew They would meet no more with their sister ships at the tryst

in far Peru,

For the great untraversed ocean had claimed its first-fruit prey,

And never a sign from the Marygold shall be till the judg- ment day ;

But Wynter ran with the warning wind back into the

sheltered strait, And there three weeks he had lingered on, for the storm

would not abate ;

Till at last with a waning hope or will, grown weary of fight

and foam, He turned his back on the venture and set the course for

home.

78 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

So the might of the waves was broken, and the might of the

sun shone forth, And eastward stretched a broad sea-way, but the land lay

west and north ;

Till then they had deemed that the austral earth with a long

unbroken shore Kan on to the Pole Antarctic, for such was the old sea -lore ;

But here were the sperm whales spouting for joy that the

storm was done. And the ice-floes sailing round them and the waves blue

under the sun.

The sick men crept from their reeking bunks, and climbed to

the decks again, To see where the sister oceans met to the south of the

gloomy main ;

And they hailed that storm for the wind of God, for the

might of its blast had borne The Hind on her path of glory a sea-league past the Horn.

They steered for the shadowy land they saw low under the

northern sky. To an isle unveiled by the lifting cloud, and they found good

haven nigh :

They laughed and sang as they scaled the cUfifs, the New

World rang with mirth. And they stretched glad arms to heaven on the southernmost

earth on earth.

VI

THE TBEA8UBE GALLEONS

Beyond the gloom of ice-scarred bliffs that bound that austral

land The coast trends north two thousand miles through plains of

yellow sand ;

And darkly shadowed far inland the sudden Andes rise With bleak and barren flanks that turn towards the sunset skies;

For bounteous earth looks eastward there, and from her

snow-capped crests Great rivers flow to meet the dawn among her fruitful

breasts.

But rarely some lone mountain tarn spills westward down

the chain A stream that feeds its borderlands of garden in the plain ;

So the ports where ships may enter are few and far between, Where some such silver thread winds down to make the desert green.

They watched the snows of Andes sHde past beneath the

moon, And felt the summer's breath once more blow down the

mellow noon :

8o THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

The eager zest of life came back, they drank a glorious air, Forgot the toil of weary months and winter's long despair.

It was a fair November eve in Valparaiso Bay,

Where all aboard made taut for sea the treasure -galleon lay.

The crew were lounging o'er her sides to watch the setting

sun, And sweetly feU the end of day to men whose work was

done.

A lazy mist hung o'er the stream and yelled the hills in blue, And up the lime-washed belfry tower the rose of evening grew.

The ripple from the river ran a sheet of quivered flame, And softly on the dropping breeze the bell's low tinkle came ;

When round the distant headland a dark sail hove in sight, A gallant bark stood up the bay, and swiftly fell the night.

An hour more and the last red glow on ocean's margin

waned, And through the pale star-clusters the queen moon rose and

reigned.

The Spaniards broached a cask of wine, the crew stood by to

greet The ship come in from Panama with tidings from the fleet.

A boat has left the stranger craft, they hailed, and one

replied. And a score of sturdy Devon lads have swarmed the galleon's

side ;

A sudden rush has cleared the decks, and up swarmed

twenty more. And the galleon's crew are overboard and striking out for

shore ;

THE TREASURE-GALLEONS 8i

But her pilot hailed them friends, not foes, a Greek long

years impressed, An eager guide to steer the Hind along the unknown west.

Oh, never draught of wine hath seemed so sweet to parching

mouth As that first cup they pledged on board the Captain of the

South I

A panic seized the little port, the townsfolk fled inland, And left their stores of Chili wine and all good things to hand.

So three days more Drake lingered here and stocked the ship

afresh, They had lived too long on melted snow and the bitter

penguin flesh ;

And the scurvy - stricken wretches laughed out for very

mirth As they culled the fruits they craved for and blessed the

mother earth.

Then wind and current bore them north along the yellow

main, And the sound of fife and hautboy was heard on board

again ;

For keen as lads let loose from school, with reckless jest and

boast They raided every bight and bay that frets the silver coast.

And ere they left Arica's quays with all her ingots stored, There was half-a-miUion ducats' worth of silver bars on board.

In splendid scorn of circumstance, with desperate odds to

face. They sailed, those first intruders of our adventurous race ;

6

82 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

To-day a wiser, wearier world will brand them buccaneers ; They did not doubt their cause was just in those distracted years.

In a little while all England's isle, like them, shall gird for

fray: The first who battle with the strong must use what arms

they may.

But still no tidings came to hand of Wynter and his crew, So they bore away for Lima and the spoils of rich Peru.

For every bark they had overhauled confirmed their pilot's

tale, That the richest prize in all those seas lay there and due to

sail.

They left the Captain of the South without a crew to drift, Henceforth the Hmd must sail alone, for the race is to the swift:

And fleeter than the tidings ran from shores their advent scared.

They sailed beyond their ill-renown and found men un- prepared.

They lay hove-to a sea-leagne off, and then with never a

light Ban up Oallao di Lima in the dead of a murky night.

But the giant Cacafuego had sailed ten days before, Deep laden to the water-line with all Potosi's ore ;

And while they ransacked empty hulls a wild alarum broke From clamouring bells and signal-guns, and startled Lima woke;

Eed torches flitted through the gloom, men mustered on the

quay, And Drake must cut his cable-tow and hurry out to sea.

THE TREASURE-GALLEONS 83

But the light night breeze died down with dawn, and there

the rovers lay With flapping sails struck motionless a short sea -league

away ;

While rumour rode with panic spur, their one ship grew to ten.

And the Viceroy of Peru marched down with twice a thou- sand men.

He has manned and armed four galleons, with the charge to

take or burn The Dragon in his devil-ship, or nevermore return.

But still across a cloudless sky the slow sun climbed and

crept, While hke a sheet of milky glass the breathless ocean slept ;

And morn and morrow's morning dawned, and still like a

drowsy spell On land and water, friend and foe, the trance of nature fell.

And now the watchers on the Hind beheld from those clear

shores Two galleys move like living things on hundred- footed oars ;

They heard their pulsing measured thud far off across the

calm As they cleared their deck for action and sang the battle

psalm.

The general's clear blue eye surveyed the narrowing space

between, " Now, lads," cried he, " to play the man, for God and for

the Queen 1"

But ere the answering cheer died down a dark flaw crimped

the seas, The ripple rattled on the stem, they sniffed the coming

breeze :

ft--2

84 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

The white sails filled, the good ship heeled, the merry land- wind blew,

And as a scared swan skims the lake she shook her wings and flew.

And now to crowd all canvas on and dog the Spitfire's wake. There sails no craft of Panama shall show clean heels to Drake.

They tracked her north from port to port, they never lost the

trace. Eight hundred weary miles of sea, and yet she baffled chase.

She had lingered in Truxillo to load more treasure still, She had watered at Paita, she had touched at Guayaquil.

It was hard on the Line on the first of March when the

morning broke at last. They were 'ware of her square-rig far away, and they knew

that they held her fast.

So they shortened sail in the Golden Hind to wait till the

end of day. And they trailed great casks and breakers at her stern to

check the way.

The sun was dropping down the west as they cut her fetters

free, And like a greyhound slipped from leash she bounded through

the sea :

They hauled the chase as twilight fell — one flight of arrows

flew. One broadside brought the mainyard down, and the giant

ship hove to.

Night strode across the heaving deep, night and the un- known foe.

And the richest prize that ever sailed has struck without a blow.

THE TREASURE-GALLEONS 85

Her captain sits at meat with Drake, a sore unwilling guest, And prize and captor side by side have set their courses west.

Far off in ocean's solitude, secure from all pursuit, They overhauled the priceless freight and they found an empire's loot :

There were thirteen chests of minted coin, there were pearls

and gems untold. And all the ballast under decks was silver bars and gold.

The admiral of the treasure fleets at Nombre waits in vain, For not one ounce of all that gold shall find its way to Spain.

The cruisers sent from Lima long since had cried despair, The Dragon came they knew not whence, and was gone they knew not where.

So all the coast rose up in arms, and, as the panic grew, The great ship came to Panama, a long month overdue ;

They had met, they said, with a corsair, whose like there

was none on earth, For the men at arms who served him were of England's

gentlest birth ;

There was never a crew so ordered, so quick to the captain's

call, He Hved Hke a prince in his state on board, and his will was

a law for all.

They had brought a letter signed and sealed with a haughty

word from Drake, And the king's vicegerent gnashed his teeth as he read for

anger's sake ;

"There be English seamen here," he wrote, "of my own

old fellowship. Whose limbs are chained to your galley bench, and red from

the driver's whip,

86 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

'Henceforth I bid you give good heed that they come to

no more harm, Or I'll hang me a thousand Spaniards at the Golden Hind'a

yard-arm."

So frigates with despatches sailed post haste from Venta Cruz, And soon Madrid and Lisbon rang with this disastrous news ;

Then Sarmiento put to sea to block Magellan's Strait, And Philip's envoy found the Queen no novice in debate ;

Once more El Draque had dared transgress the sea's for- bidden bar,

Had set the bulls of Eome at naught, perplexing peace with war;

His liege of Spain would learn forthwith whose flag these

corsairs fly I — Not Cecil, but the Queen herself, returned the proud reply :

" For proven wrong waits due redress ; but ill-timed comes

your plea When hireling bravos land and league with Desmond's

Irishry :

"When all the claims myself have urged for wrongs to be

redressed Still wait my kinsman's courtesy to be answered — for the

rest,

*' I have yet to learn what papal bulls run west of Finisterre To bar my people's birthright in ocean, earth, and air 1"

And thus the war of words ran high with claim and counter- claim,

And weeks and months rolled on for years — but of Drake no tidings came.

VII

THE WOBLD ENCOMPASSED

Three thousand miles to the frozen north on a track untried

of man, They had sought for the fabled outlet of the Straits of

Anian ;

As many a stout heart yet shall sail in the years that are to

be, On the phantom quest of the drift north-west, through the

heart of the iceberg sea.

But ever they beat in the teeth of storms, half blind with the

threshing hail, While the spray froze fast on gear and mast and starched

their fretting sail ;

They came to the edge of a mountain world, where clouds hung heavy and low

On the gloom of the great fir forests, black under the crown- ing snow :

The sparkle died from the merry sea, and the fogs lay dank

and thick On the wan unfriendly waters, and half of his men feU sick.

But the trend of the land lay westward still, and icier stmck

the blast, The work of three grew a toil for six, and they gave up hope

at last.

88 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

So the Hind ran south with the wind in her wake till they

chanced on a kindlier land, And they set up forge and workshop, and they beached her

on the strand.

The gentle tribes of the Indian folk came down to their camp

unscared, On a shore that the Old World's lust for gold or hunger of

earth had spared :

They hailed them welcome, they brought them gifts, in

wonder and love and awe. And bowed at the feet of the great white gods who were

come to give them law ;

They brought the wand of their chief of chiefs to set in the

general's hand, And with mystic rights proclaimed him the lord of the

Indian's land.

So the English went to their upland towns, for the fringe of

the hiUs was near, Looked over the boundless pasture world and the untold

herds of deer ;

The dust of that earth was agleam with gold, the skirt of the

slopes was rare "With the tender growth of a northern chme, and spring was

quick in the air.

There was many a lad was tempted then — begged hard to be

left behind, For they said, "We have wandered two full years at the

chance of the fickle wind.

" So long we roam, and it's far to home, and weary of fight

are we," But the captain frowned in silence as he led them down to

the sea.

THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 89

He piled a cairn on the cliffs' high crest with a graven plate

thereon, And Her Grace's name writ large to mark when her latest

realm was won ;

He called that land New Albion, with a tender thought for

home, As they bade farewell to the gleaming rocks that rose through

the whiter foam ;

The wild folk watched with wondering eyes, the women

crooned low wails. For the fair white gods went seaward and the Hind shook

out her sails.

But the sea-queen's brood shall come once more to that shore

where the white cliffs are. When the sons of their children's children have followed the

evening star ;

Their bounds shall be either ocean, for the same divine

imrest Shall drive their teeming millions to seek new fortunes west ;

And a great sea-city havened here shall leap to sudden fame, -- Re-echoing in an alien speech the great sea-captain's name.

He laid his course by the Spaniard's chart, " For we'll trust

to the open sea, And it's "Westward Ho till the home-wind blows, as it was

from the start," said he.

" We are half-way round the world, my lads, and it's half- way romid once more.

Till we've ploughed a track on the ocean's back that never *^ was ploughed before."

So they dropped to the edge of the North-East Trade, and

they ran west sixty days. With never a sight of shore or sail in the infinite ocean

ways;

90 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

And the mariner's boy through the long night-watch would

brood on his heart's desire, While the strange stars played with the dancing yards and

the wake ran blue with fire ;

For the craving came that the wanderer knows for the lilt of

his own folk's speech, For the damp moss scents in the ancient grass and the shade

of elm and beech.

For the rook's loud call in the twilight fall and the thin blue

smoke that weaves, The veil of mist on the red farm roof and the gold of the

autiman leaves.

But weary wide were those seas untried, and little avail

to sigh For the home stars in their places and the old famiUar sky.

Light lie the snows on byre and thatch, and windless falls

the rain, Deal gently with them, summer sun, till we get back again !

And at last they came to a mid-sea isle, and a cluster of isles

beyond Swam up through the white mirage of dawn as if by a fairy's

wand;

Up rose the sun, the long low swell slid landward flushed

with day. And the golden message climbed the brows of an upland far

away;

The flighting sea-bh'ds overhead went clanging through the

sky. But the ripple showed the white reef's edge, and they dared

not venture nigh.

So they left the clustering isles to dream through their

drowsy moons and noons, Safe walled in the coral girdles that glass their still lagoons

THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 91

And they bore away for the Line once more till a fairway

broadened free, Where the perfume-laden breezes blow through the blue

Molucca sea.

The bloom of the clove was harvested as they lingered to

explore The garden ways of the ocean realms of Ternate and

Tidore ;

And they beached the Hind in a lonely isle where foot never

yet, maybe, Had stirred the sand of the shell strewn strand since the isles

came up from the sea.

All over its hills gigantic, weird, the silent forest grew, "With tapered stems to the tented roof that never a sun looked through,

And even at midmost noon was gloom in the branchless

colonnade, Where the bats and the flying foxes were lords of the

twilight shade.

Where great land-crabs in the twisting roots stared out of

their towering eyes, And night was quick with the shifting light of the myriad

phosphor flies.

So there they abode for a month intrenched with the bullion

stacked on shore. Till trimmed and taut for her long run home, she shd to the

deep once more.

Then west and south through the infinite isles, through

treacherous reefs that hide. Where the dead volcanoes cumber the drift of the parcelled

tide;

92 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

They were bound for the Sunda Channel, for the chart gave

free-way there, They were two days out from Celebes, and the topsail wind

blew fair ;

There was never a sign on the false sea's face as she struck

with a grinding shock, As the keel ploughed through and the ship held fast in

the crust of a sunken rock ;

Oh, many a time these two years back they had fought with

the ague breath That chills the heart of the bravest man when he looks in

the face of death ;

But not in their mad race past the Horn, nor the jaws of the

fearsome strait. Not yet at the hand of God or man had they stood so near

their fate.

And then, as ever in dh'est need, they bent the stubborn

knee. And said the brief and earnest prayer to the God who made

the sea.

It was all deep water round the Hindy and the warps could

find no stay. And fast at the chance of a freshening breeze and a rising

swell they lay ;

So they rolled the great guns overboard, and the spoils of

rich Peru, The shimmering ingots one by one went diving down the

blue.

No craven panic blanched their cheeks though the good ship

never stirred, The ocean drUl was perfect now — one voice alone demurred :

THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED

93

What ailed you, Master Fletcher, there, brave heart in all beside.

To prate about the hand of God, and the death that Doughty- died ?

The little captain turned in wrath and flung him on the

deck, Set both his ankles in the stocks, and a posy round his neck :

" Lo, here sits Parson Fletcher, the falsest knave alive I" "For till her timbers part," said he, "I'll have no croaker thrive."

And so the weary day went down, and up the full moon

sailed, The broken waters tinkled by, and nought their toil availed ;

But tired and spent and sick at heart they watched the

watches through : "We are in the hand of God," said he ; "we have done what

men may do."

And lo, the hand was stetched to save ; as it drew towards

the day The breeze that held her broadside up grew slacker, died

away;

She heeled towards the deep once more, and so with never

a strain, By the mercy of God, as the morning broke, slid back to her

own again.

Now, drawers, bring the Ahcant of which we robbed the

Donl Go loose the parson from the stocks, and get his surplice on 1

The leadsmen to the chains again, for Drake's triumphant

star Shall guide us through the Flores Sea and past the eastern

bar !

94 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

So on by treacherous reef and shoal, by cape and channel

and sound, They groped then* way through the island belt that gurds the

South Sea round ;

Behind them sank the shadowy shores, and they came on the

ocean swell Where the great tides heave untrammelled, and they knew

that all was weU.

VIII THE HOMECOMING

Now it fell one mom in the after-year there was stir in

Plymouth fort, And the guard turned out as the daylight broke to the

Admiral of the Port,

For the watch on the Rame had sent him word of a warship

hove in sight That beat in the teeth of the keen north-east at fall of the

autumn night ;

He searched the dawn with his keen sea eyes, for there sailed

neither Dutch nor Don, But veiled his tops to the EngHsh flag in the days of Admiral

John.

And need was then for wary eyes, for the news was fresh to

hand Of galleons off the Irish coast with companies to land.

The white mist rose, a bare mile off she stood in over the

bay, And she bore her topsails proudly as one that had right of

way:

"If ever the dead came back to life," it was old John

Hawkins spake, '' I had sworn to that rig in a thousand ships for my kinsman's

Frankie Drake."

96 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

And e'en as he spake the red cross flag shook out from her

taper mast, A thunder of guns broke right and left and the Hind was

home at last !

Her beardless boys were seasoned men with necks set firm,

and face Tanned ruddy by the winds and suns that shape the sea-born

race;

Her fluttering sails were patched and frayed, her bulwarks

all a wreck. The pitch ran through her open seams and stained her

sphntered deck ;

Her painted prow was rusty brown with the crust of ahen

And half her ports were blind of the guns she had dropped in Celebes :

But every hand was up on deck, or aloft on mast and spar. To cheer the dropping anchor down behind the harbour bar.

Oh, golden spread the Edgcumbe woods and purpling leaned

the down, And hngering wreaths of yellow furze lit up the moorland

crown;

The world of home lay passing fair beyond the weary seas, As all the beUs began to ring and the folk ran down the quays.

From house to house, from street to street, the news ran far

and wide. To Dart and Tamar, east and west, and up the country-side.

The dead had all been duly mourned long since, time out of

mind, There was only clasp of welcome hands and mirth on board

the Hind.

THE HOMECOMING 97

They have brought the Hind to Deptford town, they have

moored her by the quay, A bridge of plank athwart her waist — she will go no more to

sea.

But pilgrims come from far and near and climb her poop in

pride, And many a barge from Tower steps drops down there on

the tide ;

There's not a 'prentice in the Fleet but has felt a sailor bom The day he saw the famous ship that found and named the Horn;

And scholars learned in the lore of great adventures past Have turned conceits and epigrams to hang about her mast ;

While Drake's tall lads, in silk and stulff, went swaggering up

and down. With tales that turned the staidest heads, and ale ran free in

town.

But now the windows all are wide, there are flags in every

street. For the Queen herself has come to-day to sit with Drake at

meat.

The Golden Hind's great ordnance has fired the last salute, The crew are marshalled on the poop with drum and fife and flute;

The board is spread between the decks among the brazen

guns. For to-day the great Queen honours the bravest of her sons.

The captain of her guard was there in doublet slashed and

pearled. For Hatton's was the proud device they had carried round

the world;

7

98 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

And subtle Master "Walsingham with the long thin nervous

hands, Who knew the minds and manners of many folk and lands ;

And there was Martin Frobisher, the pUot of the Pole, And Grenville, than whom England held no knightUer sailor soul.

There sat Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the untimely lost — not yet In the vengeful night of ocean scorned his storm-tossed star had set ;

And Walter Ealeigh new to court, and flushed with fortune's

smile, The travelled Earl of Cumberland and Christopher CarlUe ;

With Sanderson, the man of maps, who drew the first sea- card,

And Osborne, Mayor of London town, and the elders of his ward.

Whose merchant fleets shall sail henceforth untrammelled

east or west ; And they spoke of deeds adventurous and all the world's

unrest.

So went she forth accompanied, that unforgotten day She flung the Spaniard's challenge back, defiant ; these were they

Who first dared dream and dreaming dared — while all was

yet to do, To roll the bounds of empire back beyond the bounds they

knew;

To bind the winds their bondsmen, and hold the tide their

slave. And claim for island England dominion o'er the wave.

THE HOMECOMING 99

" Now hearken, lords and gentlemen, we have heard to-day,"

said she, " Of the world beyond the sunset and the sea beyond the sea,

"But of piracies and plunderings, of trespass, raid, and

wrong — Of this we learned from Philip's self, and the tale is passing

long;

" And still my kinsman claims to know whose flag this bark

hath flown Which Master Drake hath dared maintain through seas he

claims his own.

" Now therefore to such questionings let this my answer be, Down, truant rover, down, and crave my pardon on your knee I"

Then he who fear had never known stood blanched before

her seat, Ungirt his sword and bowed and knelt to lay it at her feet.

And roundly there she rated him, and looked him up and

down, With eyes that knew a true man's worth, and smiled away

their frown.

She bared his blade, she rose a queen, a queen to mar or

make — "My little pirate, rise," she cried, "and rise Sir Francis

Drake I"

7-2

IX THE SINGEING OF THE BEABB

The Queen's ships and the London ships were mustered in the Sound,

For Drake had streamed his pennant there an Admiral out- ward bound ;

No more a lawless rover now he signalled *' Follow me !" With the Queen's good leave and warranty to watch the Southern sea.

For Parma held the northern ports and all the Spanish

coasts "Were live with gathering armaments and marshalling of

hosts.

At last the word was open war since Drake had swept the

main, The champion of his Queen avowed against the might of

Spain :

He had sailed to Cartagena, had stormed the fort and town, And held to pawn the fairest gem of PhiUp's western crown :

And the merchant guilds of Venice were scared and ill at

While ruined Seville closed her bank and mourned her argosies.

THE SINGEING OF THE BEARD loi

The hand to check," the Queen had said, " the bridle and curb for me 1 This folk be too high-mettled to run with a rein too free.

•' But now I have given this realm of mine good space to

breathe and grow, And the time is ripe for action ; I will let my sea-dogs go."

So twenty bold adventurers beat out beneath the Kame, And the Queen's ship Bono/venture, with a fortune in her name;

Light winds this side the Lizard, without a north-west gale. On board the stoutest companies that ever handled sail ;

They rounded Cape St.Vincent — it dropped to a merry breeze — And ten days out from the Lizard light they had mustered off Cadiz.

The city on its headland bluff that eve of April-tide

On tower and fane and gable roof took all the sunset pride :

The batteries on the bastion heights frowned grimly o'er the

bay, But none may choose but follow where Drake shall lead the

way.

He stood right in for Maryport — the tide was at the flow — As, twinkling through the orange-groves, the lights began to show.

The batteries dared not open fire, for roimd the crowded ports

The victualling ships by hundreds rode beneath the shelter- ing forts ;

But, shadowlike, with measured pulse unchecked by bar or

shoal. The dreadful galleys oared with life across the twilight stole :

103 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

His broadsides flashed, the galleys turned, like wounded

Uving things, With bleeding decks and splintered ribs and trailing broken

wings.

That night in shuddering Cadiz no weary eye might close, But round her dim-lit altar shrines wild htanies arose :

Far inland through the vineyard hills ran tidings of despair. The scourge of God had led the foe where none but Drake would dare :

No monk might preach the panic down, no saint stood by to

save, As the ruddy glare of burning ships lit up the moonless wave.

The galleons lay a helpless prey, their ordnance all in store. The sails unbent, the anchors down, and the crews at work on shore.

Adrift on night with cables cut he fired them as they fled, From road to haven, wharf to dock, the flame of vengeance spread ;

And, reddening in the dreadful glow, flashed spar and sail

and mast, Where, lit by floating torches, the Bonaventure passed.

So there they looted, fired and fought, till none were left to

fight. While Cadiz watched the devil's work that long disastrous

night ;

And when on shores made desolate another day began He led the fleet in triumph out and had not lost a man.

So plucking at the giant's heart he dared his strength deride, And Spain, who loves a gallant deed, applauded while she sighed.

THE SINGEING OF THE BEARD 103

Then west by Seville's river-gates and on to Lagos Bay, They raided every creek and cove where mustered shipping lay.

This year the Algarve coast shall see no fishing fleets put

forth When the great schools of tunny go scatheless shoaling

north.

The brine-tubs in the sun may crack along deserted quays, This year shall no man gather in the harvest of the seas.

But far in quiet English homes shall summer wane in peace, While good folk tend their harvesting and store the year's increase.

Unscared along her white chalk cHffs shall child and mother

sleep ; Unscared the coaster ply his trade while Drake patrols the

deep.

He had set his course for Floras isle, for now the home wind

blew. And sailing with the Northern Trade the treasure fleets were

due;

But as the ocean broadened out beyond St. Vincent's lee. Once more the wild north-west raced down across a mad- dened sea.

Three days and nights his scattered ships drove on before the

blast. Then maimed and torn, in evil case, beat up for home at last.

But Drake held on his stubborn course until the storm

went by, And saw no sign of all his fleet beneath the clearing sky.

Now it chanced that as he railed at fate and sailed his sullen

way. King Philip's great East Indiaman came up from far Cathay.

104 ^^^ STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

She saw the flag of ill-renown, she crowded on more sail, And then a desperate race began before the dying gale.

Alas 1 for Spain's unlucky star, a league off Cadiz town, In sight of help, in sight of home, her proud flag fluttered down 1

And so a month behind the rest, belying not her name, With such a prize to Saltash creek the Bonaventure came.

But Drake rode post to London town to don a courtier's

dress And kneel before the Queen and crave her pardon for success.

" Now, come you as a privateer from troubling all the sea ? Or come you as my Admiral?" — "So please my liege," said he,

"Your Grace's fleet in April gales went forth at high behest, And found a giant's head thrust out that watched your high- way west.

" For Vigo is the eye of Spain and Lisbon rock the nose, And round the chin St. Vincent the trade of Turkey goes ;

" My liege's ships rode out the gale, the wind of fortune

veered, And in his throat at Cadiz Bay I singed King Philip's beard."

X

THE ABMADA

There shall be so much forgotten of deeds beneath the sun, But not this deed of England's, till England's race be run ;

The fathers shall tell their children, and the children's

children know How we fought the great sea-battle three hundred years ago.

It was in the middle summer, and the wheat was full in ear, But men's hearts were dark and troubled, and women's faint for fear :

The fleets of Spain set sail in May, but a storm had warned

them home. The might of Spain had met again to do the will of Eome.

The Pope's high benediction had sped them on their way, With monks and priests and bishops to teach us how to pray;

And all the Southland's knighthood, well proved in many a

field, And all her great sea-captains had come to make us yield ;

And thirty thousand seamen and soldiers lay aboard ; — So England watched and waited, and trusted in the Lord.

io6 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

Then all along this southern coast there was hurrying to

and fro, And the nation's eyes went seaward to watch the coming

foe ;

The shepherds left the pasture-hills, the yeomen left their

farms, For all the squires in England were gathering men-at-arms ;

And there was vigil through the night, and ever stir and life. From the Foreland to the Landsend, before the coming strife ;

The old sea-dogs of England were met on Plymouth Hoe, And the little fleet was anchored across the Sound below ;

And rusty swords were furbished while yet the corn was

green, For a mighty cry went through the land, For God and for

the Queen !

It was a July evening, and in the waning day

The fairy woods of Edgcumbe hung rosy o'er the bay.

When through the track of sunset, full-sail and homeward

bound, A little bark came gliding in and anchored up the Sound ;

And round the quays and through the streets a wild-fire

rumour ran : A sea-league off the Lizard they've seen the Spanish van.

They say the Lord High Admiral was bowling on the green, And round him sat the goodliest men the world has ever seen ;

For there was Eichard Grenville, the bravest of the brave, Who fought the greatest sea-fight that ever shook the wave

THE ARMADA 107

And there sat old John Hawkins, and preached of loot and

prize, And the grim battle-hunger flashed through his grizzled

eyes ;

And there was Martin Frobisher, who tried the North-west

way, And saw the sunless noontide, and saw the midnight day ;

And Drake, the seaman's hero, whose saUs were never

furled. Whose bark had found the ocean-path that girdles round

the world ;

And Preston of La Guayra, and Fenner of the Azores, Who shook the flag of England out on undiscovered shores ;

And Fenton, and John Davies, and many another one. Whose keels had furrowed untried seas behind the setting sun.

Without one dark misgiving they sat and watched the play. And sipped their wine and laughed their jests like boys on a hohday.

That night men fired the beacons and flared the message

forth, From the southland to the midland, from the midland to the

north ;

And there was mustering all night long, wild rumour and

unrest. And mothers clasped their children the closer to their breast ;

But calmly yet in Plymouth Sound the fleet of England lay. The gunners slept beside their guns and waited for the day.

Then as the mists of morning cleared, up drew the Spanish

van, And grimly off the Devon cliffs that ten days' fight began.

lo8 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

Four giant galleons led the way like vultures to the feast, And the huge league-long crescent rolled on from west to

But they will not stay for Plymouth, nor check the late

advance, For Parma's armies wait and fret to cross the Strait from

France.

No grander fleet, no better foe, has ever crossed the main, No braver captains walked the deck than hold the day for Spain.

There sailed Miguel d'Oquenda, our seamen knew him well, Kecalde and Pietro Valdez, Mexia and Pimentel.

Oh, if ever, men of England, now brace your courage high, Make good your boast to rule the waves, and keep the lin- stocks dry :

For the weeks of weary waiting, the long alert is past. The pent-up hate of nations meets face to face at last.

The giant ships held on their course, and as the last was

clear The Plymouth fleet put out to sea and hung upon their rear ;

And their war-drums beat to quarters, the bugles blared

alarms. The stately ocean-castles were fiUed with men-at-arms.

All through that summer morn and noon, on till the close of

night. We harried through the galleons and fought a running fight ;

And far up Dartmoor highlands men heard the booming gun, And watched the clouds of battle beneath the summer sun.

As o'er some dead sea-monster wheel round the white-winged

gulls, Our little ships ran in and out between the giant hulls ;

THE ARMADA 109

For fleetly through their clumsy lines we steered our nimble

craft, And thundered in our broadsides, and raked them fore

and aft,

The broken spars flung havoc down, the floating castles

reeled, "While o'er our heads their cannon flashed, their idle volleys

pealed.

And the sun went down behind us, but the sea was ribbed

with red, For the greatest of the galleons was burning as she fled.

Yet hard behind we followed and held on through the night. And kept the tossing lanterns of the Spanish fleet in sight.

So past Torbay to Portland Bill they ran on even keels. And ever we hung behind them and gored their flying heels ;

And many a huU dismasted was left alone to lag,

To fall back in the hornets' nest, and, fighting, strike her

Then every port along the coast put out its privateers. And one by one our ships came in with ringing cheers on cheers ;

So sailed Sir Walter Kaleigh, the knight-errant of the sea, And all the best of Cornwall and Devon's chivalry,

Northumberland and Cumberland, and Oxford and Carew, Till from every mast in England the red-cross banner blew.

A calm fell on the twenty-fifth — it was St. Jago's day — And face to face off Weymouth cliffs the baffled warships lay.

Now, bishops, read your Masses, and, friars, chant your

psalm ! Now, Spain, go up and prosper, for your saint hath sent the

calm I

no THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

With stubborn sweep of giant oars that thresh the glassy

blue, The rear-guard galleons laboured down towards our foremost

few.

Then loud laughed Admiral Howard, and a cheer went up

the skies, King Philip's three great galleons will be a noble prize I

So we towed out two of our six ships to meet each floating

fort, And we laid one on the starboard side and we laid one on the

port;

And all forenoon we pounded them ; they fought us hard and

well, Till the sulphur clouds along the calm hung like the breath

of hell.

But a fair wind rose at noontide and baulked us of our prey, The rescue came on wings of need and snatched the prize away;

So past the Needles, past Spithead, along the Sussex shores, The tide of battle eastward rolls, the cannon's thunder roars ;

The pike-men on the Sussex Downs could see the running

figbt, And spread the rumour inland, the Dons were full in flight :

The fishing-smacks put out to sea from many a white chalk

cove. To follow in the battle's wake and glean the treasure-trove ;

Till night fell on the battle-scene, and under moon and star Men saw the English Channel one long red flame of war.

So, harried like their hunted bulls before the horsemen's

goad, They dropped on the eve of Sunday to their place in Calais

road:

THE ARMADA in

And we, we ringed about them and dogged them to theur lau* Beneath the guns of Calais, to fight us if they dare ;

But afar they rode at anchor and rued their battered pride, As a wounded hound draws off alone to lick his gory side ;

And when the Sabbath morning broke, they had not changed

their line. For Parma's host by Dunkirk town lay still and made no

sign.

So calm that Sabbath morning fell, men heard the land-bells

ring, They heard the monks at masses, they heard the soldiers

sing;

Then as the noon grew sultry came sounds of feast and mirth, And when the sun set many had seen the last on earth.

A breeze sprang up at even, dark clouds rolled up the sky, And evil-boding fell the night, that last night of July.

But in the fleet of England was every soul awake. For a pinnace ran from bark to bark and brought us word from Drake ;

And we towed eight ships to leeward, and set their bows to

shore, To send the Dons a greeting they never had before ;

No traitor moon revealed us, there shone no summer star As we smeared the doomed hulls over with rosin and with tar ;

And all their heavy ordnance was rammed with stone and

chain. And they bore down on the night wind into the heart of

Spain.

112 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

It was Prowse and Young of Bideford who had the charge to

steer, And a bow-shot from the Spanish lines they fired them with

a cheer,

Dropped each into his pinnace — it was deftly done and well — And on the tide set shoreward they loosed the floating hell !

Oh, then were cables severed, then rose a panic cry To every saint in heaven, that shook the reddened sky I

And some to north and some to south, like a herd of bulls set

free. With sails half set and cracking spars they staggered out to

sea:

But we lay still in order and ringed them as they came, And scared the cloudy dawning with thunder and with flame.

The North Sea fleet came sailing down, our ships grew more

and more, As Wynter charged their severed van and drove their best on

shore.

The Flemish boors came out to loot, and up the Holland

dykes The windmills stopped, the burghers marched with muskets

and with pikes ;

So we chased them through the racing sea and banged them

as they went, And some we sank, and boarded some, till all our shot was

spent ;

Till we had no food nor powder, but only the will to fight, And the shadows closed about us and we lost them in the night.

THE ARMADA 113

The white sea-horses sniffed the gale and climbed our sides for

glee, And rocked us and caressed us and danced away to lee.

Now rest you, men of England, for the fight is lost and won, The God of Storms will do the rest, and grimly it was done ;

Far north, far north on wings of death those scattered galleys

steer Towards the rock-bound islands, the Scottish headlands

drear;

And the fishers of the Orkneys shall reap a golden store, And Irish kernes shall strip the dead tossed up their rocky shore.

Long, long the maids of Aragon may watch and wait in vain, The boys they sent for dowries will never come again.

Deep, fathoms deep their lovers sleep beneath an alien wave, And not a foot of Enghsh land, not even for a grave I

But it's Ah for the childless mothers I and Ah for the

widowed maids I And the sea-weed, not the myrtle, twined round their rusting

blades !

But we sailed back in triumph, our banner floating free. Our red-cross banner in the gale, — the masters of the sea I

The waves did battle for us, the winds were on our side. The God of the just and unjust hath humbled Philip's pride.

Henceforth shall no man bind us : where'er the salt tides flow Our sails shall take the sea-breeze, the oaks of England go I

And every isle shall know them, and every land that lies Beyond the bars of sunset, the shadows of sunrise.

8

114 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

Henceforth, oh Island England, be worthy of thy fate, And let thy new-world children revere thee wise and great !

Sit throned on either ocean and watch thy sons increase, And keep the seas for freedom and hold the lands for peace !

Thy fleets shall bear the harvest from all thy daughter-lands. And o'er thy blue sea-highways the continents join hands.

But should some new intruder rise to bind the ocean's bride, Should once thy wave-dominion be questioned or denied,

Then rouse thee from thy happy dream, go forth and be again The England of our hero-sires who broke the might of Spain.

XI

THE BUBIAL OF DRAKE

Hove to off Puerto Bello the Queen's Defiance lay,

The sun went down on Darien and crimsoned all the bay.

Yet once more Dame Adventure, the witch that knows no

ruth, Had smiled from out the sunset world, the siren smile of

youth.

But the merry main was silent now, no more in careless ease The treasure transports plied unscared through those en- chanted seas,

And fleets of war sailed to and fro between the island ports, The peaceful cities of the west were grim with battled forts ;

For many a year had come and gone since Drake's un-

conquered hand. The magic of his name had changed the face of all that land.

Of five that sailed from Plymouth shall one see home again, For storm and death and sickness have fought the fight for Spain.

The dauntless eyes had lost their mirth, the stricken ranks grew less,

But till the end he hugged his dream and scoffed at ill- success.

8—2

Ii6 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

Defeat nor failure had not taught that stubborn will to break, But life-long toil and fever breath wore out the heart of Drake.

So, grave and heavy-hearted, they watched the setting sun, His crews that leave untenanted the isles that he had won.

The skies were red and angry, the heaving waves were red, And in his leaden coffin lay the great sea-captain dead.

Old friends stood ringed about him and every head was

bowed, St. George's red-cross banner lay over him for shroud.

The cradle of his childhood's dream rocked on an English

wave, Here billows no more alien shall guard an Enghsh grave.

He ploughed the longest furrow that ever split the foam. From sunset round to sunrise he brought the good ship home.

His soul was wide as ocean, unfettered as the breeze, He left us for inheritance the freedom of the seas.

The death-guns echoed landward, the last brief prayer was

said, " 'Neath some great wave " they left him there, till the sea

gives up her dead.

THE BALLAD OF BICHABD PEAKE

"A good ship I knoAv, and a poor cabin ; and the language of a cannon : and therefore as my breeding has been rough, scorning delicacy, so must my writings be, proceeding from fingers fitter for the pike than the pen." — Peake's Narrative.

This is the tale of Eichard Peake,

Of Tavistock in Devon, And the fight he fought in Xeres town, —

God rest his soul in Heaven 1

I know each pool of Dart and Exe

Where trout or grayling hide, I know the moors from sea to sea

And where the red- deer bide ; I know a tall ship stem to stern

What sail to set or strike, I know to point a culverin

And how to thrust a pike. I know the star-way through the night

And the bodings in the skies, But many a man knows more than I

That is not wondrous wise. I cannot turn a silken phrase,

Nor make a sonnet sing ; Yet must I write my chronicle

For my good Lord the King.

Il8 THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKE

A western man and lowly bom,

And early sent to sea, — So simple as my breeding was,

Let this my record be.

Ye have heard my Lord of Essex

How he sailed to Cadiz Bay, With all King Charles' men of war

Upon a Saturday. We were sixteen sail of Holland,

And a hundred of the hne. And I was pricked a volunteer

Aboard the Convertine. We had stormed the fort and castle

From rising of the sun, And long ere noon they landed

And silenced every gun. But I was no shore soldier.

And so on board must bide What time my Lord of Essex

Marched up the country-side.

Now it fell on the Monday morning

I took my leave ashore, And walked up through the orange groves

A mile might be, or more. 'Twas said the country-side was bare,

The country-folk in flight, A score of miles round Cadiz town.

And not a don in sight ; — When suddenly a cavalier,

His long sword at the thrust, Came spurring down the narrow way

With a clatter through the dust. His steed was checked, his grip was loosed,

With a flap from my blue cloak ;

THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKE 119

I clutched the rider by the heel,

And caught the muffled stroke ; I dragged him down upon his face

And stripped him where he lay, I took five silver pieces

And a horse in that affray. But while he begged his life in words

That lisp on English ears, There stole down through the orange groves

His squad of musketeers : And when my hands were bound behind,

That knight, to his disgrace, Took back the sword I stripped him of

And slashed me in the face. With seven guards on either hand

And this brave knight before. They brought me bound and bloody

In through the city door ; They gored my back with halberds

And spat into my face, The urchins called me heathen swine,

God give them Mttle grace 1 They threw me into prison.

So bloodless and so weak. It needed all their leeches

To find me strength to speak ; And vain it was my Captain sent

To ransom Richard Peake. I saw our frigates hoisting sail

Upon the seventh day. And through my dungeon window

I watched them fade away. Two Irish monks came every noon

And wasted pious breath, Adjuring me from heresy

Since I must die the death.

I20 THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEA KB

And when a week had passed they said It was the Governor's mind

That I should thence to Xeres town, To the torture, they divined.

In Xeres Duke Medina lay

With many a Count and Earl, And gravely these good lords were met

To try the English churl. It was a pleasant sight to see

Where they sat in double rows, Such ruffles and such velvet cloaks

And slashen sleeves and hose I The Duke sat at the table's head

With the King's golden chain — I mind no finer gentlemen

Than gentlemen in Spain. And there and then Medina's self

Kebuked that craven knight Who struck the prisoner in the face

He dared not face in fight. They phed me well with questions —

What guns were in the fleet ? What ship was mine ? what captain ?

And I answered as was meet. They asked how strong the fort was

That watches Plymouth Sound, And boastfully I lied my best

As a Devon man was bound. Quoth one, " Why spared ye Cadiz ?

Your fleet put back to sea !" " Who loots," said I, "in palaces

May let the almshouse be." But aU this while the soldiers round

Made mirth each time I spoke.

And ugly words for English ears

Went round the common folk :

THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKE

Until some jest rang o'er the rest, And all those nobles smiled ;

Now God forbid that I should stand And hear my land reviled.

I said, *' Your king keeps gallant troops

To wear such bands and cuffs, And they should hold in battle firm

When the starch is in their ruffs. Yet were I free to pick my choice

From a score of oaken sticks, I'd stand and play my quarterstaff

For life or death with six." " Now, by the rood," Medina said,

" A braggart though thou be, " I will not take thee at thy word.

But fight thou shalt with three I"

And if I made so bold a face

Be sure it was not pride, But Kichard Peake of Tavistock

Had heard his land belied. I deemed my death was long resolved,

So basely would not die, And three to one were heavy odds

For a better man than I. A halberd was my quarterstaff —

They knocked the blade away, The iron spilje which shod the butt

Stood me in stead that day. I swung the halberd round my head

And felt my might again. And I took my stand for England

Against the arch-foe Spain.

122 THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKE

Then out stepped three hidalgos,

Steel armoured cap-a-pie, And lightly sprang into the lists

With a mocking bow to me. God save my Lord — though I must speak —

It was a pretty fight. Three long swords thrust and feinted

In front, to left, to right ; While round their heads the halberd swung

And as they closed up near, I snapped two blades, then shortened grip

And used it as a spear ; I drove it at the third one's breast,

And a horrid wound it made, The iron butt went through his heart

And out by the shoulder-blade. And now befell a wondrous thing, —

I needs must say again Earth holds no finer gentlemen

Than the gentlemen of Spain.

Those nobles rose and clapped their hands :

The Duke was first to speak. He bade no man on pain of death

Lay hands on Richard Peake. They gave me gold, a band and cuffs,

This cloak I wear, the ring, And sent me forth escorted well

To see the Spanish King ; And in Madrid on Christmas Day

I knelt before his sight. Resolving all his questionings

With what poor wit I might. He would have had me bide in Spain

To serve on shore or sea. But I've a wife by Tavy side

And she's got none but me.

THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKE 123

Wherefore he pitied my estate

And pardon free bestowed, With a hundred pistoles in my scrip

For charges on the road. And so I bade Madrid farewell,

And came without annoy Through France to Bordeaux haven,

And thence took ship to Foy.

Now while the Tamar winds to sea,

And while the Tavy runs, God bless my old west country.

And God bless all her sons ! It's not in vain we've tracked the deer

By dale and moor and fen, And drunk the morning with our lips,

And grown up brawny men. It's not in vain we swam the Sound,

And tugged the heavy oar. And braced the nerve and trained the limbs

That English mothers bore. And therefore when the fight goes hard.

And the many meet the few, She'll still find hands to do the work

That English lads must do. So here I render thanks to God,

Who brought me through the sea, Across the desert, back again.

My mother-land, to thee.

This was the tale of Eichard Peake

Of Tavistock in Devon, And the fight he fought in Xeres town, —

God rest his soul in Heaven I

THE FIBST OF JUNE

That fight shall be remembered while sea-tides ebb and flow, That fight that fell on the first of June a hundred years ago ;

What time in the mid-Atlantic, far out of the ken of shore. The flag of the double crosses was matched with the tricolor.

The fleets were even ship for ship, and man for man the

crews, And braver seaman never sailed than Villaret-Joyeuse.

When Howe broke through his battle line, the first to join the

fray. The Vengeur shook her top-sails out and raced to bar the

way;

The Brunswiclc steering for the gap was next to gallant

Howe, And driving on before the wind she struck her on the bow ; —

The forechains held her anchor fast, she swung and could not

free, So tethered in a deadly grip those two dropped off to lee.

Our English blew their ports away, the shock had jammed

them to, They rammed their guns with shot and chain and raked the

Vengeur through.

THE FIRST OF JUNE 125

While hand to hand on the upper deck the Frenchmen

swarmed to board, Eedressed the balance of the fight with grape and pike and

sword :

That long forenoon the battle raged they scarce knew how or

where, Who, shrouded in a sulphur mist, fought out their duel

there.

Our figure-head was Brunswick's Duke, who died at Auer- stadt :

Now it chanced a round shot carried off the Duke's three- cornered hat.

Brave Captain Harvey lay below with the wound of which

he died, But as the word passed round the decks he raised him on his

side,

And, "God forbid King George's fleet or Admiral Howe

should see The gallant Duke uncover to Villaret," says he.

His strength was ebbing as he spoke, but smiling through the

pain, " I shall not need," he whispered, " to wear my own

again,"

*' Take my cocked hat and brush away the powder from the

lace, And send for Jack the carpenter to nail it in its place."

The bullets snarled and spattered thick where'er a face might

show, But Jack just said, "Aye, aye, sir," and touched his hat

to go.

126 THE FIRST OF JUNE

They watched him crawl out on the boom, they lost him in

the smoke, And through a pause of battle roar they caught his hammer's

stroke.

But when the breeze a moment's space blew all the forecastle

clear There rose from half a thousand throats a ringing English

cheer :

For Jack was back at quarters, begrimed and black and

torn, — *' And the Duke does not uncover, lads, to any Frenchman

born 1"

You know the rest, — the long swell grew, the vessels strained

and heeled Till the grapple parted, and away the stricken Vengeur

reeled ;

Her spars still swung, but rudderless she drifted o'er the

seas. And lost the mastless Brunswick to close with the BamilUes.

An hour more and waterlogged she rolled a helpless wreck, But still she bore the tricolor above her bloody deck.

When seven ships had struck their flags and that great fight

was done, When the shrouding smoke drew up and off towards the

setting sun.

They saw her sinking slowly down with all her dying brave, And boats put out in eager haste to succour and to save.

Too late, alas, to rescue all — ^the sea winds took their cry, The cool waves washed their fevered wounds and they died as heroes die.

THE FIRST OF JUNE 127

All honour to the men who wore the tricolor cockade,

All honour to the Vengeur for the splendid fight she made I

And to our own brave sailor lads all honour then as now, But when the first of June comes round and you drink to gallant Howe,

Eemember Jack the carpenter who held his life in scorn, If Brunswick should uncover to any Frenchman born.

♦ -t

QUIBEBON

Sir Edward Hawke the Admiral Had trapped the French in Brest,

When a gale that blew a hurricane Came driving from the west.

The cruising fleet bore up awhile

To shelter in Torbay — The wind went round and stealthily

The Frenchmen sUpped away.

So the quidnuncs of the coffee-shops,

The loafers of the Strand, And the watermen from Tower stairs

Had a merry job in hand.

They made a mimic man of straw,

With hose and buckled shoe. With frogged tail-coat and gold-laced hat-

An Admiral of the Blue.

They hauled him down to Westminster

And fixed him on a pike. And there they burned in effigy

The Hawke that did not strike.

But while that mob in London town

Proclaimed their panic spite, Between the shoals and Croisic roads

He had fought his great sea-fight

QUIBERON 129

Five days he chased them southwards

And east before a gale, Till 'twixt Bellisle and Quiberon

They counted twenty sail.

That angry sea was thick with reefs,

A lee-shore loomed behind, But Hawke dashed in at headlong speed

Close-reefed before the wind ;

And in the gate of Quiberon,

At noon the self- same day That rabble burned his effigy,

The Hawke had struck his prey.

Choiseul may sell his transports now

To quench his troopers' thirst. The fleet that menaced England

Is shattered and dispersed.

September rang with Minden's news,

October won Quebec, November's gales and Quiberon

Achieved the final wreck.

And the quidnuncs of the coffee-shops

Felt very big and brave, And swore once more that EngHshmen

Were born to rule the wave.

PUMWANI

Comrades mine of Blanche and Swallow^ scattered now a

hundred ways, Such a march we made together once in torrid August

!

Up the mangrove creeks we laboured, where the crooked

roots divide, Clutching fast the shoaling mud-banks and encroaching on

the tide ;

Gaunt and hideous rose the baobabs with their bloated stems

and bare, And their gray arms stretching naked to the rank and

steamy air ;

There we slept beneath the mangoes on forsaken village

sites, And drank in the cool refreshment of the wind-swept tropic

nights.

Till at last the word was forward ! and a noiseless camp '

awoke. And the line fell into order ere the blush of morning broke.

Faint our track wound through the clearings, with their

rank grass shoulder high, Eight and left the dense black forest walling in a tropic sky ;

Where the gum-vine binds the branches and the fiercely

fecund soil Bars the way to human ingress, tightens tangles into coil.

PUMWANI 131

Weirdly twisted rose the thorn-palm, elbowed through its

withered skirt, Up the blue the vultures rising gave the woodland Hfe

alert.

Close we followed each on other in the single serpent file, — While the gray baboons watched wondering, — linked the line of half a mile.

Bound our knees the black marsh water, where the fever

poison breeds. Where the slimy mud-fish wriggle through the tangled roots

and reeds.

Then we held our breath in silence with the awe that comes

to men, For the dropping shots gave warning we were near the

robber den.

Shrill our bugle broke the stillness of that forest edged with

eyes, Then a wild uproar of drumming and a thunder to the skies ;

Tongues of flame and battle rattle, pufifs of smoke along the

green, Silent pauses ia the volleys, and the foe we fought unseen :

Yet our little line drew closer, creeping on by slow degrees, While the rockets Mke winged dragons ploughed a fire track through the trees.

And the minutes passed like hours, and the burning sun beat

down. Till the noon drank up the shadows and we held in the rebel

town.

Once again the heart beat Hghtly and a sense of triumph

grew, For the fort was well defended and great gaps were in our

few.

0— a

132 PUMWANI

Swiftly fell the tropic evening, and, while camp fires flickered

red, Softly we drew off on one side and we gathered up our

dead ; —

By a lantern's feeble flicker read the words with which we

trust This our brother to God's keeping, this his body to the dust.

Dug a trench for you to lie in, you whose home was on

the wave, You, the white man with the dark men, your bedfellows in

the grave,

White and black both dead for England, with the grass mats

round your heads, — As we turned and left them lying in their soHtary beds.

So world over sleep the English, eyes of friends will never

look Through that gloom of Afric forest where we buried stoker

Cook.

Only gray baboons wiQ chatter in the branches where you

lie. And the quick hyena scamper through the tangle silently ;

Yet such meed of due remembrance I would yield you as

I may. Since you gave your life for England — have her greatest

more to say ?

Since last night we slept together, 'twixt the grasses and the

star. And to-night you sleep for ever by the bitter chance of war.

But the camp was quick with laughter, for the blood was

beating high, — Laugh out 1 — Hfe is for the living, for the dead at most a sigh.

PUMWANI 133

And the men whose hearts are boys' hearts set the lanterns

in a ring, And the battle dawn's reaction made the peace of evening

sing.

So the old sea- songs came rolling tUl the chorus shook the

trees, And the tropic stars looked wondering at the men from over

Then the hand-shake and the silence, and brief sleep for

those who may. Let to-morrow take its chances, we have lived our hves

to-day.

East Africa, 1893.

TO GEBALD POBTAL

A BLOOD-RED sky, a milky sea ;

And home almost in hail, And you that walked the deck with me

To watch that glory pale !

I think my eyes had never seen

So grand an even sky, As that which ushered Europe in.

You only reached to die.

Was it there first I learned to know

How much you were to me ? Though neither spoke, for that red glow

Had struck the silent key.

The torrid sims were far behind

The toil of dreary days. The breaths of poison striking blind,

The wild untrodden ways :

I had no doubts, I never thought

Those kind and fearless eyes, Those strong unfaltering hands, were wrought

Of stuff that lightly dies.

0 fierce dark land, unconquered still

Though doomed to our behest. How long ere thou hast drunk thy fill

Of the blood of England's best 1

TO GERALD PORTAL 135

The ship glides on, and overhead

The moonless night succeeds, — Henceforth whenever skies are red

I may think my own heart bleeds.

THE DUKE HAS FBIENDS

My answer is — fill up your glass I — With you, Sir John, the

Port I They may call him traitor if they dare, and hound him from

the Court I

There's many a courtier I could name has had his fingers

black With dipping after dirtier coin in some one else's sack.

But you and I may only know we've drawn for England's

right Behind the greatest captain that ever rode to fight I

Have you forgotten Eckerslau, when the balls were thick as

rain. And we thought the word would never come to take the field

again:

When the battle hung m balance, and we waited for his

sign: Do you remember what you felt as he cantered down the

line?

His breast was all one blaze of stars, his wrists were ruffed

with lace, The wind blew back his scented curls and showed his gallant

face ;

The bullets snarled like angry wasps, the cannon thundered

loud. As he drew his rein before our ranks, and raised his hat and

bowed :

THE DUKE HAS FRIENDS 137

' "With your permission, gentlemen of the English cavalry, Myself will lead where honour calls — sound trumpet, charge I' said he.

And calm as in the hunting-field he wheeled his chestnut

round, And all the line behind him leapt forward with a bound.

Then, when the fight was over, and Blenheim lost and won, And England's greatest day went down in triumph with the sun,

I see him as he bowed once more in answer to our cheers, That splendid English gentleman, that prince of cavaliers !

The town may talk its head off — I care not who they tell, The Duke 1 his health in bumpers, and the Court may go to Helll

AT STRATHFIELDSAY

The Autumn sun went down on Strathfieldsay, —

An old man rode by shadowy lawn and dell,

The old horse turned and took the homeward way,

And sweetly evening's benediction fell.

Then — wreathing smoke and grove and gable-crest

Melting together in the sunset skies,

Piled a fantastic fabric in the west,

And touched the chord of sleeping memories.

He saw it all ; — there frowned the battled height,

Here flowed Agueda livid in the glare,

Ciudad Eodrigo blazed into the night,

And cannon thundered through the misty air ; —

Sounds of far voices, silent long ago,

Rose like faint echoes, and close by his side

Familiar forms seemed flitting to and fro,

While darkness gathered and the red glow died.

The old horse whinnied, and he bowed his head.

The twilight mellowed to its own again, —

" All that I lived through I and they all are dead 1

Grant us Thy peace, God merciful. Amen 1"

THOBAL

There was bloody work in the border hills, as it drew to

Easter-tide, And the flag that waved for England was humbled there

in its pride.

They were grim familiar tidings, those few dark words of

doom, For the wide outposts of Empire are marked by the lonely

tomb ; —

There was no new phase in the story, but another page writ

red, The ambush laid, and the few too few, and the roll of Enghsh

dead I

And we doubted not of the duty done, we were sure they

had died like men. And we knew that the flag of England would float on its

mast again.

But it chanced there were thirty Ghoorkas who were march- ing on their way,

With fifty more of the Burman folk that have learned the word "obey,"

When the scouts brought in the tidings, and the blood lust

made them mad, These eighty men of the loyal folk led on by an English lad.

140 THOBAL

And he did not wait nor waver, he took no count of the

odds, For he knew that he stood for England in the face of the

painted gods ;

Though the hills poured down their thousands, if the sturdy

pluck held true, He would stand his ground and show them what an English

lad could do.

So a week went by in silence, and at last the message came. And the eighty men of Thobal had saved the English name.

Then speak, oh mother island, for was it not well done ? Be proud of thy step-children, and proudest of thy son 1

Once more the world has seen it, far under alien skies, The beating heart of England is where the old flag flies.

What though they deem thou sleepest, and smile to see thee

range. And follow wandering voices on many a wind of change ;

What though men say thy gospel is the counter and the till. The boys we send to the far world's end have the heart of the lion still —

The heart of Eichard Grenville when he fought with the

fifty-three. As he bled to death in the battered hull that was lost in

the Spanish sea ;

The heart of Walter Ealeigh, and the heart of Francis

Drake, The heart of all the heroes who have lived for England's

sake ;

The heart of those who ventured on many a hopeless quest, Till their dear divine unreason had joined the east and west.

THOBAL 141

You boys that man the warships that are the ocean queen's, Come back and tell your fathers what that name of England means.

Round all the world's wide girdle, in Asia's dark defiles, In the yellow sands of torrid lands, in tempest-sundered isles.

O'er many a lonely station the trebled crosses wave, For justice to the weaker, and for freedom to the slave 1

God send her rulers wisdom, — the task to tame the lands, The peril path of Empire is safe in these young hands.

Though the air be filled with strange new soun^ and per-

plexed with doubtful creeds, The boys we send to the far world's end still know what

England needs.

TENNYSON

Into the silent Abbey, to the heroes' burying-place,

Bear him and leave him lying, peer with the peers of his

race I

With the men of debate and battle, the mighty of heart or of

brain, Warders of Empire's outposts, home with their own again : —

Fitting is their death- welcome — the masks of his great com- peers Wrapt in the trance of silence — fitter for him than tears.

Never a sigh escort him, he has lived the tale of his days, His burial-wreath is the laurel, his dirge is a nation's praise.

Why do we call him hero ? Why do we bury him here ? Why are all England's greatest gathered about his bier ?

Wandering sons she hath many, erring and loved no less But this was the son of her heart, and his strength -was his faithfulness.

Singer of England's saga, back to the misty prime, Eolling a morning glamour over the night of time ;

Singer of English gardens, poet of EngUsh springs Lover of earth's dear beauty, and all elemental things.

Never a girl in England, or in England over the sea, But wakes to her life's first love-dream sweether-souled for thee.

TENNYSON 143

Never a boy's young life-blood thirsts for the dawn of deeds, But it throbs to a nobler impulse as he turns thy roll and reads.

That was his lofty level, all that is hard and high, All that is purely purposed, theme of his minstrelsy :

Never for easy guerdon — the goodliest gift disgraced — Flinging a tainted poison down to a morbid taste :

Never a doubt or shadow cast on a virgin soul,

But love in a pure white garment, and faith in an aureole ;

Lending the mute thought language, flame to the waning fire, A voice for the dream of the simple, a song for the world's desire.

For his heart was the heart of a child, and of such since time

began Are those the Eternal uses to speak to the heart of man.

ABOU HAMED

Two white stone crosses side by side

Mark where the true blood flowed, Where Sidney and Fitzclarence died

To win the desert road. And ringed about them close at hand

In trenches not too deep, Unnamed, unnumbered in the sand.

Their dead black troopers sleep.

No cypress here, no English yew,

No trailing willow waves ; On wastes where never green thing grew

Lone blanch their outpost graves. Through scanty fringe of thorn and palm

The Nile rolls on hard by, Around them broods the desert calm.

Above the desert sky.

The sunrise scares the waning moon

And smites the dawn with fire. The still mirage of torrid noon

Fades like a vain desire ; Time's wrinkled hand marks no impress

Across that desert wide. And changeless there in changelessness

Shall those white graves abide.

For they that seek the river's flow From the parched eastern waste.

And mark the evening's orange glow. Push on in panic haste ;

ABOU HAMED

And caravans from north to south

That through the desert fare, Choose other spots to quench their drouth

When swift night falls — for there,

The dark folk tell, as evening dies,

A sentry's cry alarms The graves from which dead soldiers rise

That hear the call to arms ; And till the new sun's level rays

Chase night across the sand, On guard around their English beys

The dead battalions stand.

World-over thus, good comrades sleep,

By alien wilds and waves. Where kindly hands are none to keep

And tend the frontier graves ; But here, though not in hallowed ground,

Beneath the Afric sky, Inviolately fenced around

With love and awe they lie.

'45

10

8PBING THOUGHTS

My England, island England, such leagues and leagues

away, It's years since I was with thee, when April wanes to

May :—

Years since I saw the primrose, and watched the brown

hillside Put on white crowns of blossom and blush like April's bride ;

Years since I heard thy skylark, and caught the throbbing note

Which all the soul of springtide sends through the black- bird's throat.

Oh England, island England, if it has been my lot To live long years in ahen lands, with men who love thee not,

I do but love thee better, who know each wind that blows — The wind that slays the blossom, the wind that buds the rose, ♦

The wind that shakes the taper mast and keeps the topsail

furled. The wind that braces nerve and arm to battle with the

world 1

I love thy moss-deep grasses, thy great untortured trees. The cliffs that wall thy havens, the weed-scents of thy seas.

SPRING THOUGHTS 147

The dreamy river reaches, the qiiiet English homes,

The milky path of sorel down which the springtide comes.

Oh land so loved through length of years, so tended and

caressed. The land that never stranger wronged nor foeman dared to

waste,

Remember those thou speedest forth round all the world

to be Thy witness to the nations, thy warders on the sea !

And keep for those who leave thee and find no better place The olden smile of welcome, the unchanged mother-face

10—2

NOTES

SAN JUAN DE LUA Though many had held it was God's work, too, etc. Page 24.

The experiment of introducing African negroes into the West India Islands was first suggested by the excellent Bishop, Las Casas, who recommended the purchase of prisoners for this object on the West African Coast, where barbarous customs devoted the weaker races to human sacrifice or the orgies of cannibalism, on the plea that their servitude would save them from a horrible fate and enable them to be made Christians. It is stated that while the slave-trade gave these prisoners a material value, the customs of the dominant races were suspended.

In a former edition, misled by Fronde's account of this episode, I did an injustice to Alvaro de Bazan. It was undoubtedly the Viceroy of Mexico, Martine Enriquez, who was responsible for the breach of faith here described.

THE REPRISAL

The fierce black tribes of the Cimaroons. Page 50.

Cimaroons or Maroons : Sp. Cimarrones.

'* Eighty years ago a number of African slaves had been driven by the cruelty of their masters to take to the woods, and having found favour in the eyes of the Indian women, they had now grown into two great tribes, whose terrible mission it was to rob, and kill, and torture every Spaniard on whom they could lay their hands." — Corbett's Drake, p. 23.

ISO NOTES

ST. JULIAN'S BAY

And bared the sword his arm alone 7night wield in honour hound. Page 72.

The fact that Drake himself was the executioner of Thomas Doughty, taking thus the full responsibility on his own shoulders, is recorded in the correspondence of the Spanish envoy. Mendoza, who cross-examined Wynter on the whole episode, showed a sus- picious interest in his fate.

THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED

They had sought for the failed outlet of the Straits of Anian. Page 87.

The name given to the supposed northern passage between the two oceans, the existence of which was an article of faith with the old mariners.

He-echoing in an alien speech the great sea-captain^s name.

It is believed that the city of San Francisco occupies the site where Drake set up the pillar and inscription, recording that he had taken possession of "New Albion" in the name of Queen Elizabeth.

THE HOME-COMING

For HaMovUs was the proud device they had carried round the world. Page 97.

A Golden Hind was the crest of Christopher Hatton, the Captain of the Guard, who was one of the chief promoters and shareholders in the venture. In changing the name of the Pelican to the Golden Hind, Drake diplomatically identified with his enterprise one of the reigning favourites at Court.

THE SINGEING OF THE BEARD

For Vigo is the eye of Spain, etc. Page 104.

The kingdoms of Spain and Portugal were at this period united under Philip's rule.

NOTES 151

THE FIRST OF JUNE

The flag of the double crosses was matched with the tricolor. Page 124.

The French fleet which took part in this memorable battle was the first which used the tricolour flag.

The third cross was only added to the Union Jack in 1801. The original flag was the red cross of St. George, to which St. Andrew's cross was added by James I.

THE END

BILLING AMD SONS, LTD., PBINTBKS, GUILDFORD