Transcript of Summarie and True Discourse of Sir Francis Drake
Drake's Great Armada by Walter Biggies Introduction Nearly five years elapsed between Drake's return from his famous voyage and the dispatch of the formidable armament commemorated in the following pages. During the last of these years the march of events had been remarkably rapid. Gilbert, who had been empowered by Elizabeth in the year of Frobisher's last expedition to found colonies in America, had sailed for that purpose to Newfoundland 1583 and had perished at sea on his way homeward. Raleigh, who had succeeded to his half-brothers enterprises, had dispatched his exploring expedition to Virginia under Amadas and Barlow in 1584 and had followed it up in the next year, 1585, by an actual colony. In April Sir Richard Greenville sailed from Plymouth and at Raleigh's expense established above a hundred colonists on the island of Roanoke. Drake's Great Armada left Plymouth in September of the same year. It marked a turning point in the relations between the English and Spanish monarchs. Elizabeth, knowing that the suppression of the insurrection in the Netherlands would be followed by an attack upon England, was treating with the insurgents. Philip deemed it prudent to lay an embargo on all her subjects, together with their ships and goods, that might be found in his minions. Elizabeth at once authorized general reprisals on the ships and goods of Spaniards. A company of adventurers was quickly formed for taking advantage of this permission on a scale commensurate with the national resources. They equipped an armada of 25 vessels manned by 2,300 men and dispatched it under the command of Drake to plunder Spanish America. Frobisher was second in command. Two-thirds of the booty were to belong to the adventurers. The remaining third was to be divided among the men employed in the expedition. Drake's armament of 1585 was the greatest that had ever crossed the Atlantic. After plundering some vessels at the Vigo River, he sailed for the West Indies by way of the Canaries and Cape Verde Islands, hoisted the English flag over Santiago and burnt the town, crossed the Atlantic in 18 days, and arrived at Dominica. At daybreak, on New Year's Day, 1586, Drake's soldiers landed in Espanola, a few miles to the west of the capital, and before evening Carlisle and Powell had entered the city, which the colonists only saved from destruction by the payment of a heavy ransom. Drake's plan was to do exactly the same at Carthagena and Nomebred de Dios, and thence to strike across the isthmus and secure the treasure that lay waiting for transport at Panama. Drake held ST Domingo for a month and Carthagena for six weeks. He was compelled to forego the further prosecution of his enterprise. A deadly fever, which had attacked the men during the sojourn at Santiago, still continued its ravages. In existing circumstances, even had Nomebred de Dios been successfully attacked, the march to Panama was out of the question, and after consultation with the military commanders, Drake resolved on