the generations which followed are indebted for the initiative in
human comforts and progress. The superficial self-righteous critic may
find it an agreeable pursuit to search out their blemishes; but these
men cannot be airily dismissed in that manner. They towered above
their fellows, the supreme product of the spirit of their day in
adventure and daring; they fulfilled their great destiny, and left
their indelible mark upon the life of their nation and of the world.
Their great emancipating heroism and reckless self-abnegation more
than counterbalanced the faults with which the modern mind, judging
their day by ours, is too prone to credit them, and whatever their
deeds of perfidy may have been, they were imbued more with the idea of
patriotism than with that of avarice. They were remarkable men, nor
did they come into the life of the nation by chance, but for a
purpose, and their memories are enshrined in human history.

Drake sailed for home as soon as he had embarked what was left of
Raleigh's colonists at Roanoke River, Virginia, and after a protracted
and monotonous passage, arrived at Plymouth on the 28th July, 1586.
The population received the news with acclamation. Drake wrote to Lord
Burleigh, bemoaning his fate in having missed the gold fleet by a few
hours, and again placing his services at the disposal of his Queen and
country.

The most momentous of all his commissions, especially to his own
country, was in 1587, when he destroyed a hundred ships in Cadiz
Harbour. It was a fine piece of work, this "singeing of the King of
Spain's beard" as he called it, and by far excelled anything he had
previously done. He captured the _San Philip_, the King of Spain's
ship, which was the largest afloat. Her cargo was valued at over one
million sterling, in addition to which papers were found on board