DRAKE, SIR FRANCIS. 



DRAKENBORCH, ARXOLD. 



there to be preserved a* a monument of the most memorable voyage 

 that the Kngluh had ever yet performed : ihe partook of a banqiut 

 oa board the venel, and there knighted the captain. 



During part of the year 1585, and the whole of 15S6, Drake was 

 actively employed with a fleet of 21 ships, agniti.t Philip 1L on the 

 coasts of Spain and Portugal, in tbe Canaries, the Cape de Verdes, 

 the West India Islands, and on the coast of South America and St 

 Domingo. Carthagtna and other towns were taken and plundered. In 

 the course of this expedition Drake visited the English colony in 

 Virginia, which had been recently planted by Raleigh, and finding 

 the colonist* in great distress, he took thrm on board and brought 

 thrm home with him. It is said that tobacco was first brought into 

 England by the men who returned from Virginia with Drake. 



In 1587, when formidable preparations were making in the Spanish 

 ports for the invasion of England, Elizabeth appointed Drake to the 

 com maud of a fleet equipped for the purpose of destroying tbe 

 enemy's ships in their own harbours. This force did not amount to 

 thirty sail, and only four were of the Navy Royal, the rest, with the 

 exception of two yachts belonging to tbe queen, being furnished by 

 merchant adventurer*. In the port of Cadiz, the first place he 

 attacked, he found sixty ships and many vessels of inferior size, all 

 protected by land batteries. Drake entered the roads on the morning 

 of the 19th of April, and before night he bad burnt, sunk, or taken 

 a hundred ships, somo of which were of the largest size; and it 

 appear* he might have done much more mischief but for the necessity 

 he was undrr of securing as much booty, in goods, as he could for tbe 

 benefit of the merchant adventurers. He then turned back along the 

 coast, t.king or burning nearly a hundred vessels between. Cadiz and 

 Cape St. Vincent, besides destroying four castles on shore. This was 

 what Drake called " singeing the king of Spain's beard." From Cape 

 St Vincent be sailed to the Tagus, and entering that river, came to 

 anchor near Cascaes, whence he sent to tell the Marquis Santa-Cruz, 

 who was lying up the river with a large force of galleys, that he was 

 ready to exchange bullets with him. The marquis, who had been 

 appointed general of the Armada preparing for the invasion of 

 England, and who was esteemed the best sailor of Spain, declined the 

 challenge, and he died (the English writers say of vexation at the 

 mischief done by Drake) before that ill-fated expedition could sail. 



The operations we have briefly related delayed the sailing of that 

 armament more than a year, and gave Elizabeth time to prepare for 

 her defence. Having thus performed the public service, Drake bore 

 away to the Azores, on the look-out for the treasure ships from 

 India, and he was so fortunate as to fall in with an immense carrack 

 most richly laden. He took it, of course, and " the taking of this ship," 

 say* a contemporary, " was of a greater advantage to the English mer- 

 chants than the value of her cargo to the captors ; for, by the papers 

 found on board, they so fully understood the rich value of the Indian 

 merchandises, and the manner of trading into the eastern world, that 

 they afterwards set up a gainful traffic, and established a company of 

 East India merchant*." Drake generously spent a considerable part 

 of hi* prize-money in supplying the town of Plymouth with good, 

 fresh water, for hitherto there was none, except what the inhabitants 

 fetched from a mile distance. 



Hi* next *ervice at tea was as Yice-admtral in the fleet under Charles 

 Lord Howard of Effingharo, lord high admiral of England, which, 

 with the assistance of the elements, scattered and destroyed the 

 Invincible Armada ' of Spain. The seamanship of Drake, Hawkins, 

 and Krobiaber contributed largely to the happy result In the following 

 year, 1589, Drake was employed ns admiral in an expedition sent to 

 Portugal, in the hope of expelling the Spaniards, who had taken 

 possession of that kingdom, by establishing tbe claims of Antonio, a 

 pretender, around whom the English expected the Portuguese would 

 rally. The whole expedition wa* badly planned, most miserably 

 supplied with money and the other means of war, and but lamely 

 executed after the landing of the troop*. 



After his return, Drake was elected member of parliament for 

 Plymouth, and in the session of 1692-93 he appears to have taken an 

 active part, his name appearing upon all tbe committees upon public 

 DtuinM, and he having the charge of several bills. In 1595 Drake 

 and Sir John Hawkins, who had good experience in those part*, 

 represented to Elizabeth that the best place for striking a blow at 

 the gigantic power of Spain wa* in the West Indies ; and an expedition 

 thinr WM prepared, Drake and Hawkins sailing together with twenty- 

 six abipa, of which however only aix belonged to tbe royal navy, on 

 board of which was embarked a land-force under the order* of Sir 

 Thomas Baaksrville and Sir Nicholas Clifford. There were too many 

 in command, and Hawkins, who divided tbe naval command with 

 Drake, wa* Marly eighty yean of age. The usual bad consequence* 

 PMMd. After losing time in debate which Drake if alone would have 

 sjprnt in action, they were obliged to give up an attempt on tbe 

 Canarir. with some loaa. When they got among the West India 

 hands Drake and Hawkins not only quarrelled but separated for 

 OHM tiro., and b. fore reaching tbe Mat end of Puerto Rico Hawkin. 

 died, Us death being generally attributed to the agitation of his mind. 



One of Drake's smallest vrawls was captured by the Spaniards, 

 who, by putting the crew of it to the torture, extracted information 

 respecting the plans of the expedition. When Drake attacked Puerto 

 Rico be found that place fully warned and prepared, and hi* desperate 



attack was defeated. Sailing away, ho took and burned Km .!. 1 1 

 Hacha, Rancheria, Santa Martha, and Nombre de Dion, getting no 

 greater spoil than twenty tons of silver and two bars of gold. Drake 

 remained in the harbour of Nombre de Dios, a most unhealthy place, 

 while Baskerville with a part of the laud-forces made a vain and ruinous 

 attempt to cross the Isthmus of Darieu, in order to plunder and destroy 

 the city ef Panama. A fatal disease broke out among soldiers and 

 sailors, and soon deprived them of the important services of the chief 

 surgeon of the fleet. When many of his men and three of his captains 

 had died, the hardy Drake himself fell sick, and after struggling some 

 twenty days with his malady and the grief occasioned by his failures, 

 lie expired on the 27th of December 1595. On the same day the fleet 

 anchored at Puerto Bel!o, and in si'.-ut of that place, which ha had 

 formerly taken and plundered, his body received a sailor's funeral, in 

 the words of one of his admiring contemporaries : 



"The wares became hi* winding-sheet, tbe waters were hi> tomb ; 

 Wit for his fame the ocean *c* was not sufficient room." 



Though the reputation of Drake as one of the most skilful of English 

 seamen, a commander of almost unparalleled courage, and one of the 

 founders of English naval eminence, is deservedly great and generally 

 admitted, still, unless we judge him by the circumstances an 

 standard of the times, he must appear in many of his exploits in no 

 other light than that of a daring and skilful buccaneer. 



(Southey, If aval Hittory ; Harris, Collection of Yoyaget ; Barrow, 

 Life, Voyaga, and Exploit* of Admiral Sir Prancit Drake.) 



DRAKENBERG, CHRISTIAN JACOB3E.V, one of the most 

 extraordinary instances of longevity on record, was born on tbe IHh 

 of November 1626, at Blomsholm in Norway. The son of a sea-captain, 

 he went in his thirteenth year to sea, and continued a seafaring life till 

 1691, when in his sixty-eighth year he was captured on a voyage from 

 Hamburg to Spain by Algerine pirates. He continued in slavery at 

 Algiers, Tripoli, and elsewhere till 1710, when, by the assistance of an 

 Englishman named John Smith, he and five other slaves made their 

 escape from Aleppo, and arrived in safety in Smith's vessel at Bor- 

 deaux, where Drakenberg heard there was war between Denmark and 

 Sweden, and went home to take part in it In 1712, Drakenberg, when 

 at Christiania, in a quarrel with Lieutenant Weasel for not taking oft" his 

 hat to him, was struck by that officer with his sword, ou which ho 

 wrenched the sword from the lieutenant's hand, and threw it over a 

 house. He was put in irons, but released aft.-r an hour's confinement, 

 the officer probably not feeling very well satisfied with himself at, 

 having assaulted a man of eighty-six. It wa? this Lieutenant Weasel 

 who afterwards became, under the naino of Admiral Tordenskigld, 

 the most distinguished seaman Denmark has produced. 



Drakenberg took his leave of the sea in 1717, on account of weak- 

 ness of sight, but was still able to do work ou land, and iu 17- 

 taken into the service of Count Danneskjold Samsoe, with whom he 

 afterwards went to Copenhagen. In August 1732, as he was waiting 

 behind the count's chair at table, his master told some of tbe fon-ign 

 ministers who were his guests of his servant's being more than a 

 hundred years old ; but they refused to believe him. As the con- 

 versation was carried on in French they thought Drakenberg did not 

 understand them ; but he was acquainted with that language, an 

 seized with such indignation that he went out of the room, and, with- 

 out saying a word to any one, set off on foot through Sisollund on his 

 way to Norway. On the 2nd of December, iu the same year, In: 

 procured his baptismal certificate, and in the next February made his 

 reappearance at Copenhagen, after a long journey on foot through 

 Sweden, with the proof that he was then 10G years old. In 1?3.~> he 

 was presented to tbe King of Denmark; nnd in 1737, being t: 

 his lllth year, he was married to a widow of sixty, who died a few 

 years after. About 1 759 he went to live at Aarhuus, and still continued 

 to take long exercises on foot j but his eyelids were then grown so heavy 

 that ho could not lift them, and was therefore obliged to have somo 

 one to lead him. Ho died very quietly, after thirteen days' illness, on 

 the 9th of October 1772, at the age of a hundred and forty-five years 

 and more than ten months. His strength was so remarkable that, it 

 is said, on an officer once observing to him, "You are a hundred and 

 twenty years old, I believe," Drakenberg took him by the hand, and 

 pressed it so hard that the officer sunk on his knee. " Now, you see," 

 said Drakenberg, " that I am twenty years old ; the hundred I have 

 thrown away." He was of middle size, and very red in the face, but 

 otherwise good-looking. In hi* food he wa* dainty, but he wan never 

 known to be drunk. He was iu disposition lustful, prone to anger, 

 and vindictive. 



He was buried ia the cathedral of Aarhuus, whore Schytte, the 

 author of a description of the building, remarks, in 1335, that hU 

 body remained after sixty-three year* in excellent preservation, a kind 

 of natural mummy, and was made a show of to visitors. 



DRAKKN'mmcH, ARNOLD, was bom at Utrecht in 1684, studied 

 in that university under Qrtovius and Peter Burmaun, and at the ago 

 of twenty wrote an elaborate dissertation, ' De I'ncfcctis Urbis,' which 

 established his reputation a* a scholar. This work treated in eleven 

 chapters of the origin, nature, importance, and various duties and 

 powers, belonging to the office of Prefect of Home. This valuable 

 little work of Drakenborch bos gone through several editions ; that 

 of Bareuth, 1787, contains an extract from the author's funeral oration 



