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HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



Drake was denounced in many quarters as a pirate, while in 

 others collections of songs and epigrams were made, celebrating 

 him and his ship in the highest terms. The Spanish ambassador, 

 Bernardino de Mendoza, who called him the Master-Thief of the 

 Unknown World, demanded that he should be punished accord- 

 ing to the laws of nations. Elizabeth firmly asserted her right 

 of navigating the ocean in all parts, and denied that the Pope's 

 grant of a monopoly in the Indies to the Spaniards and Portu- 

 guese was of any binding effect upon her. She yielded, how- 

 ever, so far as to restore, to the agent of several of the merchants 

 whom Drake had despoiled, large sums of money. Enough re- 

 mained, however, to make the expedition a remunerating one 

 for the captors. The queen then, in a pompous and solemn 

 ceremony, gave to the entire affair an official and govern- 

 mental ratification. She ordered Drake's ship to be drawn 

 up in a little creek near Deptford, to be there preserved as a 

 monument of the most memorable voyage the English had ever 

 yet performed. She went on board of her, and partook of 

 a banquet there with the commander, who, kneeling at her 

 feet, rose up Sir Francis Drake. The Westminster students 

 ' inscribed a Latin quatrain upon the mainmast, of which the 

 following lines are a translation : 



" Sir Drake, whom well the world's end knows, which thou didst compass round, 

 And whom both poles of heaven saw, — which north and south do bound, — 

 The stars above will make thee known, if men here silent were : 

 The sun himself cannot forget his fellow-traveller." 



The ship remained at Deptford till she decayed and fell to pieces : 

 a chair was made from one of her planks and presented to the 

 University of Oxford, where it is still to be seen. 



Such was the first voyage around the world accomplished by 

 an Englishman. Drake's success awakened the spirit and genius 

 of navigation in the English people, and may be said to have 

 contributed in no slight degree to the naval supremacy they 

 afterwards acquired. If, in accordance with the manner of the 



