nd he besought the assembly to take justice into
their hands, in order to save him from committing suicide.

The forty officers and gentlemen who formed the court, after
examining the proofs, judged that "he had deserved death, and that
it stood by no means with their safety to let him live, and
therefore they remitted the matter thereof, with the rest of the
circumstances, to the general."

Then Captain Drake offered to the prisoner either that he should be
executed there and then, or that he should be left alone when the
fleet sailed away, or that he should be sent back to England, there
to answer his deeds before the lords of her majesty's council.
Captain Doughty asked for twenty-four hours to consider his
decision, and then announced his preference for instant execution,
saying that death were better than being left alone in this savage
land, and that the dishonor of being sent back to England would be
greater than he could survive.

The next day Mr. Francis Fletcher, the pastor and preacher of the
fleet, held a solemn service. The general and the condemned man
received the sacrament together, after which they dined "also at
the same table together, as cheerful in sobriety as ever in their
lives they had done afore time, each cheering the other up, and
taking their leave by drinking each to other, as if some journey
only had been in hand." After dinner, Captain Doughty came forth,
kneeled down at the block, and was at once beheaded by the provost
marshal.

Such is the story of this curious affair, as told by the
chroniclers. But it must be remembered that these were favorable to
Captain Drake, and it certainly seems extraordinary that, upon such
a voyage as this, Captain Doughty could not have been deprived of
his command and reduced to the rank of a simple adventurer; in
which he could, one would think, have done no harm whatever to the
expedition.

At the island where this execution took place the fleet abode two
months, resting the crews, wooding, watering, and trimming the
ships, and bringing the fleet into a more compact compass;
destroying the Mary, a Portuguese prize, and arranging the whole of
the crews in three ships, so that they might the more easily keep
together. On August the 17th they set sail, and on the 20th reached
the entrance to the Straits, Cape Virgins. Here the admiral caused
his fleet, in homage to the Queen, to strike their foresails,
acknowledging her to have the full interest and