The Project Gutenberg EBook of Drake's Great Armada, by Walter Biggs

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Title: Drake's Great Armada

Author: Walter Biggs

Release Date: April 5, 2006 [EBook #3334]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DRAKE'S GREAT ARMADA ***

Produced by Dagny; John Bickers

DRAKE'S GREAT ARMADA

by Captain Walter Biggs

PREPARER'S NOTE

This text was prepared from a 1910 edition, published by P. F. Collier &
Son Company, New York.

INTRODUCTION

Nearly five years elapsed between Drake's return from his Famous
Voyage and the despatch 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-brother's enterprises, had despatched 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 Roanoak. 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 dominions. 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 twenty-five
vessels, manned by 2,300 men, and despatched it under the command of
Drake to plunder Spanish America. Frobisher was second in command.
Two-thirds of the booty we