And for his mariners and followers I have seen here as eye-witness, and
have heard with my ears, such certain signs of goodwill as I cannot yet
see that any of them will leave his company. The whole course of his
voyage hath showed him to be of great valour; but my hap has been to see
some particulars, and namely in this discharge of his company, as doth
assure me that he is a man of great government, and that by the rules of
God and his book, so as proceeding on such foundation his doings cannot
but prosper.'
The result of it all was that deductions were made from the capture
equivalent to the property which Drake and Hawkins held themselves to
have been treacherously plundered of at San Juan de Ulloa, with perhaps
other liberal allowances for the cost of recovery. An account on part of
what remained was then given to Mendoza. It was not returned to him or
to Philip, but was laid up in the Tower till the final settlement of
Philip's and the Queen's claims on each other--the cost, for one thing,
of the rebellion in Ireland. Commissioners met and argued and sat on
ineffectually till the Armada came and the discussion ended, and the
talk of restitution was over. Meanwhile, opinion varied about Drake's
own doings as it has varied since.
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