d the Start came in sight, and on the 25th of September, 1580--Sunday,
according to the reckoning on board--the _Golden Hind_, after a voyage
of two years and ten months, dropped her anchor in the harbour of
Plymouth.

Great was the astonishment of the mariners when they found that the true
day, with those who had remained on shore, was Monday the 26th, they not
being aware that they had lost a day by the course they had steered,
following the sun, and thereby gaining on him.

When the amount of wealth Drake had brought was known, his arrival was
hailed throughout the kingdom as an event of national importance; still
more so by those who could best appreciate the value of his great
undertaking in having circumnavigated the globe, passed through the
Straits of Magellan, and made many most important discoveries.

There were those, however, who endeavoured to detract from his merits,
and accused him merely of being a successful pirate. Others blamed him
for having put the unhappy Doughty to death, and many complained that
his attack on the Spaniards would lay their mercantile marine at the
mercy of their enemies.

He was, notwithstanding the remarks of his detractors, graciously
received at Court in private, although the Queen thought it necessary to
show him a certain amount of coldness in public.

So violent were the complaints made by the Spanish ambassador, that she
sequestrated the treasure brought home by the _Golden Hind_, and part of
it was paid over to the Spanish agent, by whom it was transmitted to
Philip, and employed in supporting the Irish rebellion. The Queen,
however, laughed at the complaints of the ambassador that the English
had intruded into the South Sea, observing that she knew not why her
subjects and others should be prohibited from sailing to the Indies,
which she could not acknowledge to belong to the Spaniards by virtue of
the Pope's bull, for that could never oblige princes who owed him no
obedience, nor by reason that the Spaniards had arrived here and there,
had erected cottages, and given names to capes and rivers.

A rupture with Spain becoming inevitable, Queen Elizabeth, throwing
aside her simulated coldness, received Drake openly, and expressed her
admiration of his boldness, discretion, and brilliant success. The
_Golden Hind_ having been brought up to Deptford on the 4th of April,
1581, she went on board in state, and Drake, who knew the tastes of his
royal mistress, spared no