THE PORTUGAL VOYAGE a.d. 



1589. 



woorthy of, may suffice to perswade you, that he was 

 not altogether unlikely to discharge that which he under- 

 tooke. 



What fame general Drake hath gotten by his journy 

 about the world, by his adventures to the west Indies, 

 & the scourges he hath laid upon the Spanish nation, I 

 leave to the Southerne parts to speake of, & refer you 

 to The Booke extant in our own language treating of 

 ye same, & beseech you considering the waighty matters 

 they have in all the course of their lives with wonderfull 

 reputation managed, that you wil esteeme them not wel 

 informed of their proceedings, that thinke them insuffi- 

 cient to passe through that which they undertooke, 

 especially having gone thus far in the view of the world, 

 through so many incombrances, & disappointed of those 

 agreements which led them ye rather to undertake the 

 service. But it may be you wil thinke me herein 

 either to much opinionated of the voiage, or conceited 

 of the Commanders, y l labouring thus earnestly to 

 advance the opinion of them both, have not so much 

 as touched any part of the misorders, weaknes & wants 

 that have bene amongst us, whereof they that returned 

 did plentifully report. True it is, I have conceived a 

 great opinion of the journey, & do thinke honorably 

 of the Commanders : for we find in greatest antiquities, 

 that many Commanders have bene received home with 

 triumph for lesse merite, & that our owne countrey hath 

 honored men heretofore with admiration for adventures 

 unequal to this : it might therfore in those daies have 

 seemed superfluous to extend any mans commendations 

 by particular remembrances, for that then all men were 

 ready to give every man his due. But I hold it most 

 necessary in these daies, sithence every vertue findeth 

 her direct opposite, & actions woorthy of all memory 

 are in danger to be enviously obscured, to denounce 

 the prayses of the action, and actors to the ful, but yet 

 no further then with sinceritie of trueth, & not without 

 grieving at the injury of this time, wherein is enforced 



477 



