As soon as Drake had avenged the sailor-boy’s murder he sailed for the West Indies.  When he got into the hot latitudes the plague of yellow fever appeared, and nearly three hundred of his men died in a few days.  Arriving at Dominica, they found the Caribs had a deadly hatred of the Spanish, and when they learned that the British were at war with Spain they offered to prescribe a certain cure for yellow jack which was eminently effectual.  After disinfecting the ships, and getting supplied with their requirements, the fleet left for San Domingo, via St. Kitts, which was uninhabited at that time.  Domingo was one of the most beautiful and most wealthy islands in the world.  Columbus and his brother, Diego, are buried in the cathedral there.  The population believed themselves to be immune from harm or invasion on this distant island home, but Drake soon disillusioned them.  His devoted lieutenant, Christopher Carlile, was selected as usual to find a suitable channel and landing, a hazardous and almost unattainable quest, but in his and Drake’s skilful hands their object was accomplished.  The ships were brought into port, and in his usual direct way Drake demanded that the garrison of the castle should surrender without parley, and it was done.  Drake was not finished with them yet; he wished to know from the governor what terms he was prepared to offer in order that the city should be saved from pillage.  A negro boy was sent with this dispatch, and raging with the disgrace of surrendering to the British Admiral, an officer ran a lance through the boy’s body.  The poor boy was just able to get back, and died immediately, close to where Drake was.  The Spaniards had allowed their vicious pride to incite them to commit murder and to insult the British Admiral, who promptly avenged both deeds by having two friars taken to the place where the boy had been stabbed, and there hanged.  “El Draque” sent a further note to the governor informing him that unless the officer who murdered his messenger was executed at once by the Spanish authorities he would hang two friars for every day that it was put off.  Needless to say, no more friars were hung, as the officer paid the penalty of his crime without further delay.  The lacerated dignity of the Spaniards was still further tried by the demand for the ransom of the city, and their procrastination cost them dear.

Drake’s theology was at variance with that of the Founder of our faith.  His method was rigid self-assertion, and the power of the strong.  The affront he conceived to have been laid upon him and upon the country he represented could only be wiped out by martial law.  Theoretic babbling about equality had no place in his ethics of the universe.  He proceeded to raid and burn both private dwellings, palaces, and magazines; and the Government House, which was reputed to be the finest building in the world, was operated upon for a month, until it was reduced to dust.  These are some of the penalties that