and on the 28th January, 1596, the big soul of our greatest seaman passed away beyond the veil.  His body was put into a lead and oak coffin and taken a few miles out to sea, and amidst manifestations of great sorrow he was lowered down the side and the waters covered him over.  Two useless prize ships were sunk beside him, and there they may still lie together.  The fleet, having lost their guiding spirit, weighed anchor and shaped their course homewards.

Drake was not merely a seaman and the creator of generations of sailors, but he was also a sea warrior of superb naval genius.  It was he who invented the magnificent plan of searching for his country’s enemies in every creek into which he could get a craft.  He also imbued Her Gracious Majesty and Her Gracious Majesty’s seamen with the idea that in warfare on sea or land it is a first principle to strike first if you wish to gain the field and hold it.  Having smashed his antagonist, he regarded it as a plain duty in the name of God to live on his beaten foes and seize their treasures of gold, silver, diamonds, works of art, etc., wherever these could be laid hold of.  The First Lady of the Land was abashed at the gallant sailor’s bold piratical efforts.  She would not touch the dirty, ill-gotten stuff until the noble fellow had told her the fascinating story of his matchless adventures and slashing successes.  Doubtless the astute Admiral had learned that his blameless Queen was only averse to sharing with him the plunder of a risky voyage until he had assured her again and again that her cousin, Philip of Spain, had his voracious eye on her life, her throne, and all her British possessions, wherever they might be.

The valiant seaman appears to have played daintily and to good effect with the diabolical acts of the Spaniards, such as the burning of English seamen, until they roused in Elizabeth the spirit of covetousness and retaliation.  It was easy then for her incorruptible integrity (!) to surrender to temptation.  A division of what had been taken from Philip’s subjects was forthwith piously made.  Elizabeth, being the chief of the contracting parties, took with her accustomed grace the queenly share.  On one occasion she walked in the parks with Drake, held a royal banquet on board the notorious Pelican, and knighted him; while he, in return for these little attentions, lavished on his Queen presents of diamonds, emeralds, etc.  The accounts which have been handed down to us seem, in these days, amazing in their cold-blooded defiance of honourable dealing.  But we must face the hard facts of the necessity of retaliation against the revolting deeds of the Inquisition and the determined, intriguing policy of worming Popery into the hearts of a Protestant nation, and then we realize that Drake’s methods were the “invention” of an inevitable alternative either to fight this hideous despotism with more desperate weapons and greater vigour than the languid, luxury-loving Spaniards had taken the