SIR FRANCIS DRAKE'S ANCHORAGE 
BY 
EDWARD L. BERTHOUD 
The Elizabethan era was the dawn of the birth of the supremacy 
of the English navy, which was destined in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries to sweep the seas of Spanish, Dutch and 
French navies and destroy the commercial monopoly of Spain 
in the new world.’ 
Foremost among the English to attack the attempted monopoly 
of Spain in the Americas and the East Indies were Drake and 
Cavendish, who, with what today seem ridiculously insufficient 
armaments, shook Spanish pride and conceit, and captured the 
fabulous wealth they yearly sent in galleons to the mother 
country. 
In 1577, under the auspices of England’s queen, a silent partner 
and sharer in the expected booty, Sir Francis Drake sailed from 
England to raid the Spanish colonies of North and South 
America. 
Sir Francis Drake was one of the boldest buccaneers and navi- 
gators that ever sailed from England ; he was every inch a sailor. 
Of infinite bravery, skill and self-reliance, he sallied out to shear 
the golden fleece so long the sole monopoly of Spain. 
Judged today by the standard of present accepted morality, 
Drake’s naval campaign was but a shade above piracy. It was 
conquest and plunder, with no pretension to discovery or com- 
merce. What it achieved was merely incidental in his plans of 
occupation—a mingling of chivalric bravery with a modicum 
of religious fervor. One Fletcher, a clergyman, was his chaplain 
and exhorter, but was not a very zealous workman in the yine- 
yard of the Lord. Fletcher and one Pretty have both left an 
elaborate account of Drake’s “res geste,” which in main facts 
correspond tolerably well. 
Sir Francis Drake (whom Fletcher calls our Admiral), having 
raided and plundered the west coast of South America and of 
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