o years and some ten months,
and in that time had taken their ships round the world. And because they
were the first Englishmen that had ever done this, there was such
ringing of bells, and lighting of bonfires, and setting up of feasts and
jollities as had never been known in England. From the queen to the
meanest hind there was nobody that did not join in the general
rejoicing. Wherefore, at Plymouth, where we landed, there were great
stirrings, and men clung around us to hear our marvelous tales and
adventures. And as for Drake himself, the queen soon afterwards made him
a knight on the deck of the Golden Hinde; and so he became Sir Francis,
and thereafter did many wonderful deeds which are set forth in the
chronicles of that time.

Now, I no sooner set foot upon English soil than I was immediately
consumed with impatience to go home to Beechcot, and therefore I sought
out Drake and begged him to let me begone.

"Why," quoth he, "knowing your story as I do, Master Salkeld, I make no
wonder that you should be in some haste to return to your own friends. I
pray God that you may find all well with them."

Then he generously pressed upon me a sum of money in gold, wherewith to
fit myself out for the journey and defray my expenses on the way; and
for this kindness I was deeply grateful, seeing that I was utterly
penniless, and owed the very garments I then wore to the charity of one
of his officers. So I said farewell to him and his company, and begged
them to remember me if we should meet no more, and then I went to find
Pharaoh Nanjulian.

"Pharaoh," said I, when I came upon him on the deck of the Golden Hinde,
"I am going home."

He pushed back his cap and scratched his head and looked at me.

"Aye," he said, "I supposed it would be so, master. As for me, I have no
home to go to. My mother is dead and buried in Marazion churchyard, and
I have neither kith nor kin in the wide world."

"Come with me to Beechcot," said I, "you shall abide there for the rest
of your days in peace and plenty."

But he shook his head.

"Nay, master," he answered, "that would never do. I am naught but a
rough sea-dog, and I should be too big and savage for a quiet life.
Besides, yon constable of yours would be forever at my heels, fearing
lest I should break the peace again."

"There shall no man harm you if you will come with me," said I. "Come
and be my man."

"Nay, master, not so. Born and bred to the sea I was, and to the se