them: they were too well
acquainted with the character of Drake not to bring him on the day
following, when, to impress the shame of such actions more effectually
upon them, he compelled them to execute him with their own hands. Of
this town, at their departure, they demolished part, and admitted the
rest to be ransomed for five and twenty thousand ducats.

From thence they sailed to Carthagena, where the enemy having received
intelligence of the fate of St. Domingo, had strengthened their
fortifications, and prepared to defend themselves with great
obstinacy; but the English, landing in the night, came upon them by a
way which they did not suspect, and being better armed, partly by
surprise, and partly by superiority of order and valour, became
masters of the place, where they stayed without fear or danger six
weeks, and, at their departure, received a hundred and ten thousand
ducats, for the ransome of the town.

They afterwards took St. Augustin, and, touching at Virginia, took on
board the governour, Mr. Lane, with the English that had been left
there, the year before, by sir Walter Raleigh, and arrived at
Portsmouth on July 28, 1586, having lost in the voyage seven hundred
and fifty men. The gain of this expedition amounted to sixty thousand
pounds, of which forty were the share of the adventurers who fitted
out the ships, and the rest, distributed among the several crews,
amounted to six pounds each man. So cheaply is life sometimes
hazarded.

The transactions against the armada, 1588, are, in themselves, far
more memorable, but less necessary to be recited in this succinct
narrative; only let it be remembered, that the post of viceadmiral of
England, to which sir Francis Drake was then raised, is a sufficient
proof, that no obscurity of birth, or meanness of fortune, is
unsurmountable to bravery and diligence.

In 1595, sir Francis Drake and sir John Hawkins were sent with a fleet
to the West Indies, which expedition was only memorable for the
destruction of Nombre de Dios, and the death of the two commanders, of
whom sir Francis Drake died January 9, 1597, and was thrown into the
sea in a leaden coffin, with all the pomp of naval obsequies. It is
reported by some, that the ill success of this voyage hastened his
death. Upon what this conjecture is grounded does not appear; and we
may be allowed to hope, for the honour of so great a man, that it is
without foundation; and that he, whom no series of success c