The West Indies would have been
left undisturbed, and Spanish, English, French, and Flemings would have
lived peacefully side by side as they do now. But spiritual tyranny had
not yet learned its lesson, and the 'Beggars of the Sea' were to be
Philip's schoolmasters in irregular but effective fashion.
Elizabeth listened politely to what De Silva said, promised to examine
into his complaints, and allowed Hawkins to sail.
What befell him you will hear in the next lecture.
LECTURE III
SIR JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP THE SECOND
My last lecture left Hawkins preparing to start on his third and, as it
proved, most eventful voyage. I mentioned that he was joined by a young
relation, of whom I must say a few preliminary words. Francis Drake was
a Devonshire man, like Hawkins himself and Raleigh and Davis and
Gilbert, and many other famous men of those days. He was born at
Tavistock somewhere about 1540. He told Camden that he was of mean
extraction. He meant merely that he was proud of his parents and made no
idle pretensions to noble birth. His father was a tenant of the Earl of
Bedford, and must have stood well with him, for Francis Russell, the
heir of the earldom, was the boy's godfather.
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