78 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
In spite of all that had been asserted by a recent writer, 1 it now 
appeared from D'Ewes' House of Commons' Journal that the chief 
burden of getting the Water Act fell upon Drake, as well as the 
task of compounding with the proprietors, farmers, and others. All 
he had by composition with the Corporation was £300 — £200 as 
engineer, and £100 for compensation for injury done by digging 
the leat. Sir Francis Drake's great outlay, therefore, did not con- 
sist simply in the cost of the mills, or of the roadways and bridges 
along the leat, with compensation to the tinners, 2 but in the further 
sums, which, together with his influence, he had to put forth, in order 
to secure the Water Act for Plymouth. Hence they saw that 
neither the voice of so-called tradition, nor that of contemporary 
repute, could have spoken falsely in attributing the bringing-in of 
the water in its strictest sense to Drake. 
And now they must consider some of the reasons assigned for 
denying to Drake his so long accredited share in the Plymouth 
Water Scheme. First of all stood the fact of the Corporation 
having ordered a survey to be made in 1559 by Forsland of Bovey. 
That would be when Drake was either fourteen or twenty-one years 
of age, according to date of birth assigned, and it would also be 
about twenty-five years before the date of the Water Act. But he 
saw nothing strange in that. Many attempts to meet the growing 
wants of the town must have been made before the final plans 
were decided on. The next attempt seemed to have been made in 
1576-7. But here again a difficulty arose. There were very 
limited means at the disposal of the Corporation, and the payment 
of even ordinary expenses was no easy matter. It was somewhat 
remarkable that the very next year, 1577, Drake started on his 
famous voyage of circumnavigation; and, considering the little out- 
come of former attempts at water survey, it did not seem so in- 
credible, as had been alleged, that Drake in this voyage might have 
had his ideas quickened by what he saw of the Peruvian aqueducts. 
Nor were the previous surveys at all subversive of the idea that 
Drake, in his mayoralty of 1581-2, might have had his attention 
specially turned to the long-vexed question of the water supply. 
Nor could he see any proof that either Forsland in 1559, or the 
"certain men" in 1576, were the originators of the scheme. Cer- 
tainly the fact of the Meavy being the only available source of a 
1 Plym. Inst. Trans. 1881, pp. 453, 454. 
2 Especially the roadway opposite Burrator, near "the huge rocks." 
