E ut. Naval Expeditious, &c. of the Engiisti, Book ll

CHAP, V.

Captain Francis Drakes first grand Expedition, for his own Account, to theWest-Indies, against the Spaniards, with some other ‘Transactions, to the Tear,

* 574 -

1-572.

Camden.Purchas,Vol. IV.p- 1 179 -Hackluyt,P. III.y5.52c;.

Drake re-vived.ColumnaRostrata.Drake'* Pa-

Succe/s inhis youngerDays•

Loses all hisFortune, inHawkins’*third Expe-dition.

BOUT this Time, CaptainFrancis Drake began to beknown, and to acquire a greatReputation for his Exploits at

This Francis (fays Camden, to re-late no more than what I have heardfrom himself) was born of mean Pa-rentage in Devonshire. His Father,while he was a Child, embracing theProtestant Religion in Henry VIII’sTime, was obliged to fly his Country,and House, near South Tavijiock, andretire into Kent, and there to inhabitthe Hull of a Ship, in which manyof the younger of his twelve Sons wereborn. In Edward VPs Time, he gothis Livelihood by reading Prayers, tothe Seamen, was ordained a Deacon,and made Vicar of the Church of Up-nore, on the River Medway. His ex-tream Poverty obliged him to put outhis Son Francis, to a Master or a tra-ding Bark, who was his Neighbour.His Industry recommended him somuch to his Master’s Favour, thatwhen he died, he left him his Bark,for a .Legacy. Drake, being now aTrader himself, by the Continuationof his Industry, got a little Mony to-gether : When hearing of Sir JohnHawkins's, intended Expedition to Ame-rica, and having before, in'the Years1565 and 1566 received Damage, fromthe Spaniards, at Rio de Hacha, withCaptain John hovel, he fold his Bark,and left Kent, with other stout Sea-men, tc^be of the Number of the Ad-venturers.

In that Expedition he lost all hisFortune, which he had, with great In-dustry, been long acquiring. Findingthat no Recompence would be recove-red out of Spain, either by his ownSollicitations, or the Queens Letters,

he resolved upon obtaining that Satis- r£7 2 'faction by Force, which was denied He refoldhim by fair Means. t0 J e re!0t

T o be the better able to put this ge 'Resolution in Practice, he made two MLesVoyages to the Weft Indies, one, in Veyaps ofthe Year 1570, with two Ships, theDragon and the Swan, and the other,in the Year, 1571. with th e Swan a-lone, chiefly to gain Intelligence Atleast, we have no Account of any re-markable Exploits performed in thesetwo Voyages.

About five Years after (a) his .Losswith Hawkins (of the Particulars ofwhich I find no Account, no morethan how he returned to England, af-ter having left that Commander with theJudith, of which he was Captain,)having in the Service of the Mer-chants, and in Cruising against theSpaniards, in the narrow Seas, or,perhaps, in the two Voyages of whichwe have no Circumstances, muster’d upa little more Mony, he resolved to tryhis Fortune again. To this End, heprovided himself with a good Ship, ^

well equipped for War, -called the ship 11111Dragon, (or, as some Accounts fay,the Paschal) of Plymouth, of seventyTuns, which he commanded himself ^and the Swan, os the same Port, offive and twenty Tuns, commanded byhis Brother, John Drake. In bothVeflels he had seventy-three Men andBoys, with all Manner of Provisionsand Necesiaries for a Year; Togetherwith sufficient Artillery and Munition,and three Pinnaces, framed in suchManner as to be put together where-ever he might have Occasion for them.

With these Ships he hoped to makegood the Lofles he had sustained fromthe Spaniards, in the Wejl-Indies, as Ihave observed above. He was not,

indeed,

• (a) The Time of this Voyage is probably pia- hove, it must have been in 1573. which wouid

red wrong, by Burchett,Camden, and some others, agree pretty well vs'tih Hackluyt, and Purchas ?Hawkins returned from his last unfortunate Vo- who lay , about the Year 1572.yage in i$68. to which adding five Years, as a-