countrymen. Drake afterwards
brought his ship up to Deptford, where queen Elizabeth visited him on
board his ship, and conferred the honour of knighthood upon him; an
honour, in that illustrious reign, not made cheap by prostitution, nor
even bestowed without uncommon merit.

It is not necessary to give an account, equally particular, of the
remaining part of his life, as he was no longer a private man, but
engaged in publick affairs, and associated in his expeditions with
other generals, whose attempts, and the success of them, are related
in the histories of those times.

In 1585, on the 12th of September, sir Francis Drake set sail from
Plymouth with a fleet of five-and-twenty ships and pinnaces, of which
himself was admiral, captain Martiu Forbisher, viceadmiral, and
captain Francis Knollis, rearadmiral; they were fitted out to cruise
upon the Spaniards; and having touched at the isle of Bayonne, and
plundered Vigo, put to sea again, and on the 16th of November arrived
before St. Jago, which they entered without resistance, and rested
there fourteen days, visiting, in the mean time, San Domingo, a town
within the land, which they found likewise deserted; and, carrying off
what they pleased of the produce of the island, they, at their
departure, destroyed the town and villages, in revenge of the murder
of one of their boys, whose body they found mangled in a most inhuman
manner.

From this island they pursued their voyage to the West Indies,
determining to attack St. Domingo in Hispaniola, as the richest place
in that part of the world; they, therefore, landed a thousand men, and
with small loss entered the town, of which they kept possession for a
month without interruption or alarm; during which time a remarkable
accident happened, which deserves to be related.

Drake, having some intention of treating with the Spaniards, sent to
them a negro boy with a flag of truce, which one of the Spaniards so
little regarded, that he stabbed him through the body with a lance.
The boy, notwithstanding his wound, came back to the general, related
the treatment which he had found, and died in his sight. Drake was so
incensed at this outrage, that he ordered two friars, then his
prisoners, to be conveyed with a guard to the place where the crime
was committed, and hanged up in the sight of the Spaniards, declaring
that two Spanish prisoners should undergo the same death every day,
till the offender should be delivered up by