298 



DISCOVERY 



the licence, he would pass tluough the Strait of Magellan 

 and found settlements over here in some good country. ' ' 



Thomas Butler, the pilot, gave evidence which need 

 not be quoted in full. It confirms in the most striking 

 way all Oxenham's chief points. Witness reasserted 

 the Queen's unwillingness to plant colonies where the 

 Spaniards had already founded settlements ; but saw 

 in this no reason for the abandonment of Grenville's 

 scheme, only a cause for modifying the projected 

 itinerary. He restated his emphatic belief that no 

 Englishman would dare to pass the Straits of Magellan 

 without the Queen's express permission; and added 

 that Grenville had been obliged to abandon his enter- 

 prise because Elizabeth demanded a deposit of £40,000 

 as guarantee that he would not interfere with 

 Philip's oversea dominions. In conclusion, he found 

 no reason to believe that Drake would attempt that 

 in which Grenville had failed ; for the undertaking 

 required a leader of the highest rank, and the Ply- 

 mouth seaman was mean and obscure. 



The master, whose name the Spaniards wrote down 

 as Xervel or Xerores, had little to add to what the other 

 two had said. He confirmed their testimony, especi- 

 ally in regard to the Queen's grip upon all seafarers 

 and their plans ; and, though himself had served with 

 Drake in the Isthmian Raid of 1572, he dismissed 

 contemptuously the idea that a Plymouth seaman 

 would gain the succession to Richard Grenville. 



This body of evidence, given by men who had been 

 absent from England since 1575, and who spoke 

 under the shadow of death and without any knowledge 

 that Drake, their own captain, was near them, make 

 three things, I think, abundantly clear, viz. : 



(i) That within a short time of Drake's return from 

 his Pisgah-sight on the Daricn peak (August 9, 1573), 

 Richard Grenville, the greatest magnate in the West 

 Country, applied to the Crow'n for permission to pene- 

 trate by Magellan's Strait to the Pacific. 



(2) That a licence of the most far-reaching kind was 

 granted to him for this purpose : and, after prepara- 

 tions had been made, was revoked. 



(3) That Oxenham (the only one of the witnesses 

 who would be of a status to be consulted by principals) 

 had refused to visit the Pacific with Grenville by way 

 of Magellan's Strait ; but knew that Drake was anxious 

 to do so if the licence, once revoked, could bj- any 

 means be reissued. 



All this fits in with established facts. We know 

 that Grenville enjoyed great influence at Court, and 

 was foremost in the support of all sea-causes. We 

 know of no trait more characteristic in Elizabeth 

 than the grant of a permit for some audacious scheme, 

 and the cancelling of the same at the very last moment. 

 We know that Oxenham had chosen his own route 



to the Pacific, which was the path of plunder rather 

 than of enterprise. And we know how fervently 

 Drake cherished in his heart his desire to furrow the 

 Pacific with an English keel. 



The most striking fact, however, that emerges is 

 this ; that Grenville's lordly seizure of Drake's idea, 

 and prematurely impetuous exploitation of the same, 

 made Elizabeth herself the guardian of Magellan's 

 Strait. Drake might reach the Pacific as Oxenham 

 had reached it, or take it in reverse by the Cape of 

 Good Hope ; but if he ventured from the " North " 

 Sea into the "South," he would need a renewal of 

 Grenville's letters patent. 



Mrs. Nuttall's researches were published in the 

 summer of 1914, and the process of Drake's rehabihta- 

 tion, which seemed almost completed by her palaeo- 

 graphic skill, halted till the recent war was nearing 

 its end. 



On July 25, 1917, Mr. R. Pearse Chope, of the Patent 

 Office, read to the Devonshire Association, then 

 meeting at Barnstaple, a valuable paper which has 

 been printed in their Transactions under the title 

 "New Light on Sir Richard Grenville." 



Basing his researches upon the evidence of Oxenham 

 and his companions already given, Mr. Chope has 

 unearthed the complete Grenville dossier, including 

 the memorial to the Crown craving the necessary 

 permission ; a concurrent petition (as we should have 

 expected) to the Lord High Admiral ; a dissertation 

 on the objects and advantages of the expedition ; and, 

 last but not least, the original draft of the letters 

 patent that Oxenham described.' Mr. Chope has 

 conducted his work with commendable patience and 

 skill, bridging the pitfalls with which previous in- 

 vestigators had trenched the road to truth. The 

 documents which he prints (when taken in the mass) 

 add a new vista to our knowledge of the indomitable 

 Sir Richard. But in the present inquiry the letters 

 patent alone concern us. They are, as the Inquisitors 

 learnt from John Oxenham, mtiy grande, which I 

 take to mean " of the most far-reaching description." 

 They are certainly too voluminous to quote in cwtenso. 

 It must suffice to quote that portion which deals with 

 the Crown's delegation of authority, curtailing some- 

 what (for clearness' sake) the copious legal verbiage: 



" Forasmuch as no good enterprise can be prosper- 

 ously performed without unity and good agreement 

 of such as take the same in hand, which unity and 

 agreement cannot be performed without authority 

 in the Governors and due obedience in the multitude, 

 know ye that of our special grace, certain knowledge, 

 and mere motion we have given and granted ... to 

 the said Richard Grenville . . . full power and autho- 

 ' The date of these documents is 1574. 



