In
gratitude the Indian tossed three wedges of gold to the raft now
sheering out with the tide to sea. These Drake gave {146} to his men.
Six hours the raft was drifting to the sails on the offing, and such
seas were slopping across the water-logged driftwood, the men were to
their waists in water when the sail-boats came to the rescue.
On Sunday morning, August 9, 1573, the ships were once more in
Plymouth. Whispers ran through the assembled congregations of the
churches that Drake, the bold sea-rover, was entering port loaded with
foreign treasure; and out rushed every man, woman, and child, leaving
the scandalized preachers thundering to empty pews.
Drake was now one of the richest men in England. At his own cost he
equipped three frigates for service under Essex in Ireland, and through
the young Earl was introduced to the circle of Elizabeth's advisers.
To the Queen he told his plans for sailing an English ship on the South
Sea. To her, no doubt, he related the tales of Spanish gold freighting
that sea, closed to the rest of the world. Good reason for
England--Spain's enemy--to prove that the ocean, like air, was free to
all nations! The Pope's Bull dividing off the southern hemisphere
between Portugal and Spain mattered little to a nation belligerently
Protestant, and less to a seaman whose dauntless daring had raised him
from a wharf-rat to Queen's adviser.
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