There were 25 privateers, and a company of 2,500 men on this expedition.  All were volunteers, and represented every grade of society, high and low.  There was never any difficulty in getting a supply of men.  On this occasion the applications largely outnumbered the posts available.  Drake could always depend upon volunteers, and, like all men of superb action, he had no liking for conscription.  He knew that in the performance and carrying out of great deeds (and nearly all of his were terrific) it is men aflame with courage and enthusiasm that carry the day, and take them as a whole, conscripts are never wholehearted.  The two great characteristics of the British race—­initiative and endurance—­are due to this burning flame of voluntarism.

The West India expedition was organized and all expenses guaranteed by private individuals.  The capital was L60,000, and its allocation was L40,000 for expenses and L20,000 to be distributed amongst those who had volunteered to serve.  Both men and officers had signed on without any stipulation for wages.  They knew they were out for a piratical cruise, and welcomed any danger, great or small, that would give them a chance of making it not only a monetary success, but one that would give Spanish autocracy another shattering blow.  These ancient mariners never trifled with life, and no sombre views or fatal shadows disturbed their spirited ambition or caused them to shrink from their strenuous and stupendous work.  They went forth in their cockleshell fleet as full of hope and confidence as those who are accustomed to sail and man a transatlantic liner of the present day.  Some of their vessels were but little larger than a present-day battleship’s tender.  Neither roaring forties nor Cape Horn hurricanes intimidated them.  It is only when we stop to think, that we realize how great these adventurers were, and how much we owe to their sacred memories.

In addition to being ridiculously small and shabby in point of efficiency in rigging, sails, and general outfit, it will always be a mystery how it was that so few were lost by stress of weather or even ordinary navigable risks.  They were veritable boxes in design, and their rig alone made it impossible for them to make rapid passages, even if they had wished to do so.  As I write these lines, and think of my own Western Ocean experiences in well-designed, perfectly equipped, large and small sailing vessels during the winter hurricane months, when the passages were made literally under water and every liquid mountain seemed to forebode immediate destruction, it taxes my nautical knowledge to understand how these inferior and smaller craft which Drake commanded did not succumb to the same elements that have carried superior vessels in later years to their doom.  One reason that occurs to me is that they were never deeply laden, and they were accustomed to ride hurricanes out when they had plenty of sea room at their sea anchors.