seized with illness.

Although but twenty-five tons in burden, the Swanne made a far
greater show than would be made by a craft of that size in the
present day. The ships of the time lay but lightly on the water,
while their hulls were carried up to a prodigious height; and it is
not too much to say that the portion of the Swanne, above water,
was fully as large as the hull which we see of a merchantman of
four times her tonnage. Still, even so, it was but a tiny craft to
cross the Atlantic, and former voyages had been generally made in
larger ships.

Mr. Francis Drake, however, knew what he was about. He considered
that large ships required large crews to be left behind to defend
them, that they drew more water, and were less handy; and he
resolved, in this expedition, he would do no small part of his work
with pinnaces and rowboats; and of these he had three fine craft,
now lying in pieces in his hold, ready to fit together on arriving
in the Indies.

As they neared the ships the two boats separated, and Ned soon
found himself alongside of the Swanne. A ladder hung at her side,
and up this Ned followed his captain; for in those days the strict
etiquette that the highest goes last had not been instituted.

"Master Holyoake," said Mr. John Drake, to a big and
powerful-looking man standing near, "this is the new lad, whose
skill in swimming, and whose courage, I told you of yesternight. He
will, I doubt not, be found as willing as he is brave; and I trust
that you will put him in the way of learning his business as a
sailor. It is his first voyage. He comes on board a green hand, but
I doubt not that, ere the voyage be finished, he will have become a
smart young sailor."

"I will put him through," John Holyoake, sailing master of the
ship, replied; for in those days the sailing master was the
navigator of the ship, and the captain was as often as not a
soldier, who knew nothing whatever about seamanship. The one sailed
the ship, the other fought it; and the admirals were, in those
days, more frequently known as generals, and held that position on
shore.

As Ned looked round the deck, he thought that he had never seen a
finer set of sailors. All were picked men, hardy and experienced,
and for the most part young. Some had made previous voyages to the
West Indies, but the greater portion were new to that country. They
looked the men on whom a captain could rely, to the last. Tall and
stalwart, bronzed with the su