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26 - Sir Francis Drake by Julian Corbett · Sir Francis Drake

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty six of Sir Francis Drake by Julian Corbett.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
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  Speaker 1: Pamela and Nagami, Chapter thirteen, The Last Treasure Hunt, Part three.
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  Speaker 1: But for old John Hawkins, the change brought no relief.
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  Speaker 1: Grieving over his misfortune, he was falling deeper and deeper
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  Speaker 1: into the clutch of his sickness. He was sinking fast
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  Speaker 1: when Drake, having discovered a secret channel to the southward
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  Speaker 1: sallied out from his hiding place, and, slipping in behind
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  Speaker 1: the Spanish scouts, appeared unannounced before Puerto Rico. Sounding as
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  Speaker 1: he went, he brought up the fleet to the astonishment
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  Speaker 1: of the Spaniards in a road where no ships had
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  Speaker 1: ever been seen to anchor, and where the dying admiral
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  Speaker 1: breathed his last. His death was perhaps no loss to
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  Speaker 1: the expedition. It had suffered already severely from the caution
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  Speaker 1: which which grew upon him with age and failing health.
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  Speaker 1: But if as a fighting admiral his reputation was lower
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  Speaker 1: than that of others, yet no one could forget that
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  Speaker 1: it was to him that England owed all that was
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  Speaker 1: good in her navy. And the gloom which the fine
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  Speaker 1: old seaman's death cast over the fleet was still to
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  Speaker 1: be deepened. As Drake sat at supper that evening on
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  Speaker 1: board his flagship, The Defiance, discussing the forthcoming attack with
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  Speaker 1: his officers, a round shot crashed through the cabin. Drake's
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  Speaker 1: chair was smashed under him. Sir Nicholas Clifford, who alone
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  Speaker 1: had supported Hawkins in his fatal counsel, was killed on
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  Speaker 1: the spot, and a young officer named Brute Brown, to
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  Speaker 1: whom Drake was particularly attached, was mortally wounded. It is
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  Speaker 1: no wonder that under the shadow of these losses, the
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  Speaker 1: fleet was removed out of range, and that nothing further
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  Speaker 1: was attempted that night. On the morrow, however, Drake again
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  Speaker 1: astonished the Spaniards by bringing up his fleet in another
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  Speaker 1: unknown anchorage, close to the town, and yet masked from
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  Speaker 1: its guns. He spent the day in his barge seeking
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  Speaker 1: a weak point to attack, but the result of his
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  Speaker 1: reconnaissance was only to show how hard a task he
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  Speaker 1: had before him, and he resolved that night to burn
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  Speaker 1: the frigates which had come for the treasure, that it
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  Speaker 1: might not escape him. While the town was being reduced
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  Speaker 1: in person. He led the boats to the mouth of
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  Speaker 1: the harbor, and having shown each its station, he retired.
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  Speaker 1: A desperate fight ensued again and again. The vessels were fired,
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  Speaker 1: and as often they were extinguished. At last one was
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  Speaker 1: fairly in flames, but by its light the garrison, reinforced
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  Speaker 1: by the newly arrived crews, poured in such a murderous
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  Speaker 1: fire from the shore that the English were compelled to
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  Speaker 1: retire with heavy loss. The failure was disasters, but so
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  Speaker 1: far from discouraging Drake, it stung him into perhaps the
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  Speaker 1: most daring resolution of his adventurous life. Where the boats
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  Speaker 1: had failed, he knew the ships could succeed, and determined
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  Speaker 1: to wipe out his defeat, he made up his mind
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  Speaker 1: to carry the whole of his warships right inside the
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  Speaker 1: port and crush the enemy with an overwhelming fire. To
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  Speaker 1: carry out this unprecedented stroke, during the following morning, he
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  Speaker 1: worked the fleet to windward, and in the afternoon ran
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  Speaker 1: down free for the mouth of the harbor. Already it
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  Speaker 1: had been partially blocked by sinking the Great Treasure galleon,
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  Speaker 1: and as the English approached, the Spaniards were seen to
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  Speaker 1: scuttle three more vessels at her side. To continue his
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  Speaker 1: course was to wreck the whole fleet, and Drake was
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  Speaker 1: compelled to abandon his splendid attack and bear up again
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  Speaker 1: for his anchorage. Unwilling, however, to abandon the enterprise altogether.
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  Speaker 1: On the morrow he made new reconnaissance. But so greatly
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  Speaker 1: had the Spaniards been able to strengthen the fortification since
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  Speaker 1: the arrival of the frigates, that he was convinced the
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  Speaker 1: capture of the place by land operations was beyond the
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  Speaker 1: power of his weakened force. In vain, some of the
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  Speaker 1: soldiers urged a new attempt, bold as Drake was, none
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  Speaker 1: knew so well as he. When Daring merged into folly
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  Speaker 1: in his gasconading way, he told them he could bring
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  Speaker 1: them to a score of places richer and more easy
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  Speaker 1: to take, And years ago before I resolution had ruined
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  Speaker 1: England's chance, he could have made good as boast. The
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  Speaker 1: soldiers still believed he could perform his promises, and so
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  Speaker 1: as the evening closed in Hawkins and Clifford were solemnly
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  Speaker 1: committed to the sea, and under cover of the night
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  Speaker 1: for the first time in his life, Drake bore away beaten.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps it had been better if he had stayed and
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  Speaker 1: fought it out, But as his end drew near, the
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  Speaker 1: scenes of his youth seemed to call him with irresistible voice.
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  Speaker 1: As he made his boast to the soldiers, there was
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  Speaker 1: in his mind a day long ago, when he had
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  Speaker 1: had his first sight of the fabled Indies, and under
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  Speaker 1: Captain Lovell had lost his all. His life was waning.
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  Speaker 1: That day was still unavenged, and across the Caribbean Sea,
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  Speaker 1: Drake led his squadron to Lahasha. This time he did
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  Speaker 1: not even permit the fleet to appear in sight of
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  Speaker 1: the threatened port. The only effect of his failure seemed
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  Speaker 1: to be to produce a distrust of all but the
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  Speaker 1: daring shifts on which his reputation had been founded. And
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  Speaker 1: as in his first great exploit he had crept with
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  Speaker 1: his three boats into Nombre de Dios, so now from
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  Speaker 1: Cape de la Vela, he sent his flotilla to steal
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  Speaker 1: along the coast and surprise La Hacha, But it was
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  Speaker 1: no case for surprise. In his arrival the following day
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  Speaker 1: with the fleet, he found his troops in unopposed possession
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  Speaker 1: of a town deserted and stripped bear He seized the
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  Speaker 1: neighboring pearl fishery, but that was bear too, and for
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  Speaker 1: a week no offer of ransom came. At last he
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  Speaker 1: agreed to accept thirty thousand ducats, but when at the
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  Speaker 1: end of another week the pearls in which payment was
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  Speaker 1: to be made arrived, they were found to be unconscionably overvalued.
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  Speaker 1: With a magnanimity almost coaxotic, Drake refused to touch a pebble,
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  Speaker 1: and instead of keeping what he had got and demanding more,
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  Speaker 1: he chivalrously gave the envoys four hours to clear themselves
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  Speaker 1: and their treasure. Not another ducat did he get. He
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  Speaker 1: had yet to learn a new lesson and find how
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  Speaker 1: little a roving force like his can do against a
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  Speaker 1: great empire. Resolute not to ransom open towns, the governor
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  Speaker 1: harved and refused so much as to discuss the question
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  Speaker 1: on the morrow Baskerville burnt, an inland village. It had
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  Speaker 1: no effect, and next day Drake fired the town, as
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  Speaker 1: well as the rancheria of the pearl fishers and all
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  Speaker 1: their boats. Thus he took his long deferred revenge upon Lahatcha.
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  Speaker 1: But true to his simple creed, he would not suffer
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  Speaker 1: a hand to be laid upon the church, and with
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  Speaker 1: a touch of that gentleness that gilds with knightly grace
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  Speaker 1: his most savage devastations, he spared from the flames the
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  Speaker 1: house of a lady who begged his mercy. At Santa Marta,
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  Speaker 1: farther to the westward, the same scene was played, and
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  Speaker 1: on Christmas Day, with the smoke of the burning settlement
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  Speaker 1: rising behind him, he bore away for Nombre de Dios.
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  Speaker 1: Here too, the town was found deserted by its inhabitants,
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  Speaker 1: and was occupied almost without resistance. At the first sign
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  Speaker 1: of their approach, the governor had fallen back to Panama,
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  Speaker 1: and without losing an hour, Baskerville started in pursuit with
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  Speaker 1: seven hundred and fifty men. It was all that sickness
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  Speaker 1: and casualties had left available for the service, For it
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  Speaker 1: would seem to have been Drake's intention to ascend the
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  Speaker 1: Chagres River with another column. For three days, however, he
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  Speaker 1: remained where he was to search for buried treasure and
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  Speaker 1: to fire the town. This done, he prepared to weigh,
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  Speaker 1: but ere the anchors were up, there came, flying through
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  Speaker 1: the blackened ruins of the Panama Gate, a message of disaster.
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  Speaker 1: Baskerville was in full retreat on the ships hurled back
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  Speaker 1: from impassable entrenchments. Then it was that the undaunted heart
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  Speaker 1: began to wax cold, the jovial face grew somber. The
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  Speaker 1: cheery smile to which his men had ever been accustomed
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  Speaker 1: to look for light in the darkest hours had faded,
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  Speaker 1: and failure began to haunt him as he recognized how
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  Speaker 1: the terror of his name had changed the Indies. The
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  Speaker 1: seas were deserted, the ports bristled with guns, and feverish
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  Speaker 1: wakefulness had supplanted the old, dreamy security. Yet not a
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  Speaker 1: word of doubt was suffered to pass his lips. It
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  Speaker 1: matters not man, he would cry to any croaker that repined.
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  Speaker 1: God hath many things in store for us, and I
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  Speaker 1: know many means to do her majesty good service and
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  Speaker 1: to make us rich, For we must have gold before
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  Speaker 1: we see England. He called his Council of War together
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  Speaker 1: and showed them on the map Chuxio, the famous port
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  Speaker 1: of Honduras, and the El Dorado, where the golden towns
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  Speaker 1: lay clustered around the Lake of Nicaragua. He asked which
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  Speaker 1: they would have, and stout hearted Sir Thomas Baskerville cried both,
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  Speaker 1: so it was resolved without much ado. All the Spanish
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  Speaker 1: shipping in the port was given to the And, thus
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  Speaker 1: still marking with fire the road to his grave, and
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  Speaker 1: abandoning himself to the old adventurous dreams of his boyhood,
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  Speaker 1: he led his desperate treasure seekers across the Mosquito Gulf.
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  Speaker 1: It was a quest as wild as any his buoyant
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  Speaker 1: youth had dared. He knew no more of what lay
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  Speaker 1: before him than what the ill drawn maps revealed, Nor
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  Speaker 1: had he now the high spirits that were wont to
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  Speaker 1: make a sport of danger. Damped with failure and in
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  Speaker 1: cold blood, he was bent on saving his reputation or
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  Speaker 1: dying with it. The very hand of God seemed to
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  Speaker 1: wave him back as he struggled westward against contrary winds,
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  Speaker 1: until so foul and boisterous grew the weather that driven
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  Speaker 1: at last into the depth of the gulf. He had
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  Speaker 1: to take shelter behind a desert island called Escudo de Veragua.
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  Speaker 1: In all the Indies, no spot displayed in fowler guise,
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  Speaker 1: the black side of the Western paradise. The radiant tropic
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  Speaker 1: growth of flower and palm invited the sick to seek
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  Speaker 1: recovery upon the putrid soil beneath, and as the ships
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  Speaker 1: bore them into the fairy creeks loathsome reptiles started from
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  Speaker 1: a slime that reeked of death. But Drake would not
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  Speaker 1: give way. Day after day he clung under the lee
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  Speaker 1: of the deadly shore, hoping each hour for a wind
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  Speaker 1: to carry him on. With his eyes still bent forward,
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  Speaker 1: he kept the men busy setting up the pinnases which
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  Speaker 1: would be required to ascend the San Juan River, that
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  Speaker 1: the delay might not be lost time. But day after
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  Speaker 1: day the wind continued foul, and with each returning dawn,
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  Speaker 1: new victim sank and the poisonous air. Drake himself was
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  Speaker 1: stricken with dysentery, but still he strove against his fate
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  Speaker 1: till he had no strength to leave his cabin. Nor
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  Speaker 1: was it till his sickness had imprisoned him a week
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  Speaker 1: that he consented to weigh and let God take him
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  Speaker 1: where he would. But it was now too late. He
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  Speaker 1: had drunk too deep of the island's breath. He had
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  Speaker 1: defied his fate too long. As the fleet sped back eastward,
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  Speaker 1: the pestilence ran riot through the ships, and the Admiral
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  Speaker 1: lay still and conquered in his bed. Broken in spirit,
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  Speaker 1: he could not shake off the disease. And when, after
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  Speaker 1: a week's tempestuous voyage, the fleet anchored off Puerto Bello,
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  Speaker 1: he was lying speechless at death's door. But it was
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  Speaker 1: not thus a soul so stubborn could pass away. It
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  Speaker 1: was the twenty eighth of January fifteen ninety six, and
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  Speaker 1: as the dawn of his last day broke, a delirium
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  Speaker 1: seized him. He rose from his bed and clothed himself,
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  Speaker 1: called like a dying viking for his arms, and raving
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  Speaker 1: in words none cared to record. Yet we can hear
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  Speaker 1: him railing at traitors who had stolen his life with poison,
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  Speaker 1: and see in his last frenzied the origin of those
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  Speaker 1: envenomed rumors that whispered a fire. His fury passed, they
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  Speaker 1: led him back to bed, and there, at last, as
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  Speaker 1: quiet as a sleeping child, the Sea King died in
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  Speaker 1: the fine roadstead of the newly founded port. The fleet
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  Speaker 1: cast anchor, and as the news spread from ship to ship,
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  Speaker 1: the first desire of all was to hurry home as
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  Speaker 1: best they could, like sheep that have lost their shepherd,
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  Speaker 1: of continuing the venture. There was not a thought save
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  Speaker 1: to seize the half built settlement for a burnt sacrifice
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  Speaker 1: to grace the burial of the dead commander. On the morrow,
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  Speaker 1: the last rites were performed. Enclosed in a leaden coffin,
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  Speaker 1: the body was carried a league to sea, and there,
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  Speaker 1: in sight of the spot where his first victory had
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  Speaker 1: been celebrated, amidst a lament of trumpets and the thunder
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  Speaker 1: of cannon, the sea received her own again. At his
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  Speaker 1: side was sunk two of his ships, for which there
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  Speaker 1: was no longer need, and all his last taken rises.
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  Speaker 1: And for a pall he had the smoke of the
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  Speaker 1: latest fort which his lifelong enemy had raised against him.
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  Speaker 1: So the fleet went its way and left him lying
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  Speaker 1: like a viking, dead and alone, amidst his trophies, on
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  Speaker 1: the scene of his earliest triumph and his last defeat.
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  Speaker 1: At home. While the weed waved over that silent resting place,
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  Speaker 1: every dockyard was noisy with the hum and clatter of shipwrights.
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  Speaker 1: As the great fleet grew and gathered, And while the
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  Speaker 1: Spanish Indies made high holiday over the dragon's fall, England,
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  Speaker 1: in busy anticipation, watched vainly westward the arm for which
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  Speaker 1: she was forging. The mighty weapon was never to wield
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  Speaker 1: it to such a supreme effort. Drake had toiled to
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  Speaker 1: spur her through long years of labor, with his life
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  Speaker 1: in his hand, too often with a rope round his neck,
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  Speaker 1: And now on the eve of accomplishing his life's work,
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  Speaker 1: he was dead, like a sick girl of an ag
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  Speaker 1: glorious death. Others were to reap where he had sowed,
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  Speaker 1: and hands unfit were to prove the hero's sword in
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  Speaker 1: their eager grip. It bit deep and hard. The giant
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  Speaker 1: reeled with a gaping wound in his side. But then
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  Speaker 1: the sinews of his assailants failed, and he arose again,
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  Speaker 1: dogged and huge and terrible still the end end of
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  Speaker 1: section twenty six recording by Pamelinagami in Encino, California, December
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  Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen. End of Sir Francis Drake by Julian
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  Speaker 1: Corbett