se to allow him to avail
himself of an opportunity which appeared to be an excellent one.
The danger of these expeditions was, no doubt, very great; but the
spoils were in proportion, and there was not a boy or man of the
seafaring population of Devon who would not gladly have gone with
the adventurous captains.

Chapter 2: Friends and Foes.

Three days after the receipt of the letter, Ned Hearne stood with
his bundle on the quay at Plymouth. Near him lay a large rowboat
from the ships, waiting to take off the last comers. A little way
behind, Captain Francis Drake and his brother, Captain John Drake,
talked with the notable people of Plymouth, who had come down to
bid them farewell; the more since this was a holiday, being Whitsun
Eve, the 24th May, and all in the town who could spare time had
made their way down to the Hove to watch the departure of the
expedition; for none could say how famous this might become, or how
great deeds would be accomplished by the two little craft lying
there. Each looker on thought to himself that it might be that, to
the end of his life, he should tell his children and his children's
children, with pride, "I saw Mr. Drake start for his great voyage."

Small, indeed, did the fleet appear, in comparison to the work
which it had to do. It was composed of but two vessels. The first,
the Pacha, of seventy tons, carrying forty-seven men and boys, was
commanded by Captain Francis Drake himself. By her side was the
Swanne, of twenty-five tons, carrying twenty-six men and boys, and
commanded by Captain John Drake. This was truly but a small affair
to undertake so great a voyage.

In those days the Spaniards were masters of the whole of South
America, and of the Isles of the West Indies. They had many very
large towns full of troops, and great fleets armed to carry the
treasure which was collected there to Spain. It did seem almost
like an act of madness that two vessels, which by the side of those
of the Spaniards were mere cockleshells, manned in all by less than
eighty men, should attempt to enter a region where they would be
regarded, and rightly, as enemies, and where the hand of every man
would be against them.

Captain Drake and his men thought little of these things. The
success which had attended their predecessors had inspired the
English sailors with a belief in their own invincibility, when
opposed to the Spaniards. They looked, to a certain extent, upon
their missio