any stipulation for wages. They knew they were out for a piratical
cruise, and welcomed any danger, great or small, that would give them
a chance of making it not only a monetary success, but one that would
give Spanish autocracy another shattering blow. These ancient mariners
never trifled with life, and no sombre views or fatal shadows
disturbed their spirited ambition or caused them to shrink from their
strenuous and stupendous work. They went forth in their cockleshell
fleet as full of hope and confidence as those who are accustomed to
sail and man a transatlantic liner of the present day. Some of their
vessels were but little larger than a present-day battleship's tender.
Neither roaring forties nor Cape Horn hurricanes intimidated them. It
is only when we stop to think, that we realize how great these
adventurers were, and how much we owe to their sacred memories.

In addition to being ridiculously small and shabby in point of
efficiency in rigging, sails, and general outfit, it will always be a
mystery how it was that so few were lost by stress of weather or even
ordinary navigable risks. They were veritable boxes in design, and
their rig alone made it impossible for them to make rapid passages,
even if they had wished to do so. As I write these lines, and think of
my own Western Ocean experiences in well-designed, perfectly equipped,
large and small sailing vessels during the winter hurricane months,
when the passages were made literally under water and every liquid
mountain seemed to forebode immediate destruction, it taxes my
nautical knowledge to understand how these inferior and smaller craft
which Drake commanded did not succumb to the same elements that have
carried superior vessels in later years to their doom. One reason that
occurs to me is that they were never deeply laden, and they were
accustomed to ride hurricanes out when they had plenty of sea room at
their sea anchors.