Selections from whose writings appear in this book. AUTHOR Russell, Sir William H. Shakspeare, William. Smiles, Dr. Samuel. Wordsworth, William. WORKS Eight Years in Ceylon, The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon. Novels-Micah Clarke, The Refugees, The White Company, History of England, English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Poems-Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Odes. The Deserted Village. Plays-The Goodnatured Man, Tales of the Alhambra, Lives and Voyages of Columbus Poems-Evangeline, The Golden Legend, Hiawatha, The Poems-The Biglow Papers. Prose-My Study Windows. Novels The King's Own, Newton Forster, Jacob Faithful, Snap, Gold! Gold ! in Cariboo. Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, The Conquest of Peru, Novels-Peg Woffington, The Cloister and the Hearth, It is The Invasion of the Crimea. Poems-Marmion, Lord of the Isles, Lady of the Lake, Dramas and Plays-Julius Cæsar, Hamlet, Merchant Self-Help, A Scotch Naturalist. The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne. Poems-The Excursion, The Prelude, Lyrical Ballads. Messrs. LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. beg to acknowledge their indebtedness to the following for the use of selections from their works: Dr. A. Conan Doyle, for permission to extract the story of the Yellow Cog from his "White Company: Miss Jean Ingelow, for her poem, "The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire F. Lushington, Esq., for permission to reprint "The Road to the Trenches Mr. John Murray, for an extract from Dr. Smiles' "Scotch Naturalist"; Messrs. George Routledge & Co., for a passage from Sir W. H. Russell's "The Invasion of the Crimea"; Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, for permission to reprint R. H. Stoddard's "The King's Sentinel" from his "The Book of the East ; Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co., for permission to reprint Robert Browning's poem, "Hervé Riel". THE SIXTH "SHIP" LITERARY READER. LESSON 1. DRAKE'S CAPTURE OF THE SPANISH THE ships which the Spaniards used on the Pacific were usually built on the spot. But Magellan was known to have gone by the Horn, and where a Portuguese could go an Englishman could go. Drake proposed to try. The vessels in which he was preparing to tempt fortune seem preposterously small. The Pelican, or Golden Hind, which belonged to Drake himself, was but 120 tons, at best no larger than a modern racing yawl, though perhaps no racing yawl ever left White's yard better found for the work which she had to do. The next, the Elizabeth of London, was said to be eighty tons; a small pinnace of twelve tons, in which we should hardly risk a summer cruise round the Land's End, with two sloops or frigates of fifty and thirty tons, made the rest. The Elizabeth was commanded by Captain Winter, a queen's officer and perhaps a son of the old admiral. We may credit Drake with knowing what he was about. He and his comrades were carrying their lives. in their hands. If they were taken they would be inevitably hanged. Their safety depended on speed of sailing, and specially on the power of working fast to windward, which the heavy square-rigged ships could not do. The crews all told were 160 men and boys. Drake had his brother John with him. On November 15th, 1577, the Pelican and her consorts sailed out of Plymouth Sound. The elements frowned on their start. On the second day they were caught in a winter gale. The Pelican sprung her mainmast, and they put back to refit and repair. Before the middle of December all was again in order. The weather mended, and with a fair wind and smooth water they made a fast run across the Bay of Biscay and down the coast to the Cape de Verde Islands. There taking up the north-east Trades, they struck across the Atlantic, crossed the line, and made the South American continent in latitude 33° south. They passed the mouth of the Plate River, finding to their astonishment fresh water at the ship's side in fifty-four fathoms. On June 20th they reached Port St. Julian on the coast of Patagonia. In It was now midwinter, the stormiest season of the year, and they remained for six weeks in Port St. Julian. They burnt the twelve-ton pinnace, as too small for the work they had now before them, and there remained only the Pelican, the Elizabeth, and the Marigold. cold wild weather they weighed at last, and on August 20th made the opening of Magellan's Straits. The passage is seventy miles long, tortuous and dangerous. They had no charts. The ship's boats led, taking soundings as they advanced. Icy mountains overhung them on either side; heavy snow fell below. They brought up occasionally at an island to rest the men, and let them kill a few seals and penguins to give them fresh food. Everything they saw was new, wild, and wonderful. Having to feel their way, they were three weeks in getting through. They had counted on reaching the Pacific that the worst of their work was over, and that they could run north at once into warmer and calmer latitudes. The peaceful ocean, when they entered it, proved the stormiest they had ever sailed on. A fierce westerly gale drove them six hundred miles to the south-east outside the Horn. The Marigold went down in the tremendous encounter. Captain Winter in the Elizabeth made his way back into Magellan's Straits. There he lay for three weeks, lighting fires nightly to show Drake where he was; but no Drake appeared. They had agreed, if separated, to meet on the coast in the latitude of Valparaiso; but Winter was chicken-hearted, and sore, we are told, “against the mariners' will," when the three weeks were out, he sailed away for England, where he reported that all the ships were lost but the Pelican, and that the Pelican was probably lost too. Drake had believed better of Winter, and had not expected to be so deserted. He had himself taken refuge among the islands which form the Cape, waiting for the spring and milder weather. He used the time in making surveys, and observing the habits of the native Patagonians, whom he found a tough race, going naked amidst ice and snow. The days lengthened, and the sea smoothed at last. He then sailed for Valparaiso, hoping to meet Winter there, as he had arranged. At Valparaiso there was no Winter, but there was in the port instead a great galleon just come in from Peru. The galleon's crew took him for a Spaniard, hoisted their colours, and beat their drums. The Pelican shot alongside. The English sailors in high spirits leapt on board. A Plymouth lad who could speak Spanish knocked down the first man he met with "Down, you dog, down!” No life was taken; Drake never hurt man if he could help it. The crew jumped overboard, and swam ashore. The prize was examined. Four hundred pounds' weight of gold was found in her, besides other plunder. Still hoping to find Winter in advance of him, Drake went on next to Tarapaca, where silver from the Andes mines was shipped for Panama. At Tarapaca there was the same unconsciousness of danger. The silver bars lay piled on the quay, the muleteers who had brought them were sleeping peacefully in the sunshine at their side. The muleteers were left to their slumbers. The bars were lifted into the English boats. A train of mules or llamas came in at the moment with a second load as rich as the first. This, too, went into the Pelican's hold. The bullion taken at Tarapaca was worth nearly half a million ducats. Still there was no news of Winter. Drake began to realise that he was now entirely alone, and had only himself and his own crew to depend on. There was nothing to do but to go through with it, danger adding to the interest. Arica was the next point visited. Half a hundred blocks of silver were picked up at Arica. After Arica came Lima, the chief depôt of all, where the grandest haul was looked for. At Lima, alas! they were just too late. Twelve great hulks lay anchored there. The sails were unbent, the men were ashore. They contained nothing but some |