41 
SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 
(Illustrated by the Lantern). 
By NORMAN R. LANCASTER. December 1th, 1915. 
The lecturer took as his subject Drake’s life as far as the 
close of his voyage of circumnavigation and in his introdu- 
tory remarks paid a high tribute to the spirit of the British 
navy which he spoke of as being essentially “ the Drake 
spirit.” Its chief characteristics are an intrepid courage, 
unfailing resourcefulness in the presence of great difficulty, 
pious devotion to the country’s dag and a consummate skill 
in all that pertains to seamanship. Drake perhaps is not 
the greatest of British seamen but he certainly must be placed 
among the first half-dozen. 
After commenting upon the scantiness of our information 
concerning Drake’s early years, the lecturer proceeded to 
survey the known facts of his life. Drake was born at 
Tavistock about 1540 and after a brief visit to Spain in his 
boyhood, he became apprenticed to a North Sea skipper and 
so laid the foundation of the magnificent seamanship he was 
destined later to display. Frequently travelling, as he did, 
to the Low Countries, he was early brought into contact 
with the inhuman persecution which the Protestants suffered 
there, at the hands of the Spaniards — a fact which, in no 
small degree, explains his unceasing and life-long antipathy 
towards Spain. After his apprenticeship was over, Drake 
joined his kinsman, William Hawkins, on the latter’s third 
voyage to America. This expedition was presumably for 
the purpose of trading with the Spaniards but the commercial 
results were insignificant for by a piece of dire treachery 
the Spaniards attacked the English ships as they were lying 
peacefully in harbour. It was only after desperate fighting 
that Drake and Hawkins managed to escape. 
Diplomatic means having failed to secure redress for losses 
sustained, Drake took the law into his own hands and made 
two voyages to Mexico the details of which are but little known. 
It is probable however that they were undertaken in order 
to reconnoitre the coasts of Central America as a basis for 
