Amongst 'Commendations by Principal Persons friendly to the Author or the Work' which preface a book written by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, are some lines by Sir Francis which are very expressive of the views that seem to have guided his life. The book, whose aim must have been to encourage the idea of settling in the new colony, is called 'A true Report of the late Discoveries and Possession taken in the Right of the Crowne of Englande, of the _New found_ Landes.' I do not quote the whole poem: 'Who seekes by gaine and wealth to advance his house and blood, Whose care is great, whose toile no less, whose hope is all for good, If anie one there bee that covettes such a trade, Lo heere the plot for commonwealth, and private gaine is made. 'He that for vertue's sake will venture farre and neere, Whose zeale is strong, whose practize trueth, whose faith is void of feare, If any such there bee, inflamed with holie care, 'Heere may hee finde a readie meane his purpose to declare, So that for each degree this Treatise dooth unfolde The path to fame, the proofe of zeale, and way to purchase golde.' Drake's audacity was never more amazing than in the expedition of 1587, when he sailed along the Spanish and Portuguese coast, plundering and burning the ships in their own harbours. His fearlessness filled the Spaniards with a very generous admiration. 'So praised was Drake for his valour of them, that were it not that he was a Lutheran, they said, there was not the like man in the world.' Once, when the King invited a lady of the Court to go in his barge on a lake near Madrid, 'the lady said she dared not trust herself in the water even with his Majesty, lest Sir Francis Drake should have her.' His name passed even into nursery songs, and one of them has been translated as follows: 'My brother Don John To England is gone, To kill the Drake, And the Queen to take, And the heretics all to destroy; And he will give me, When he comes back, A Lutheran boy, With a chain on his neck, And our Lady Grandmama shall have To wait upon her a Lutheran slave.' It was about sixteen months later that Drake, amongst the band of famous captains gathered at Plymouth, watched the long-awaited Armada sailing in a great crescent up the Channel. The English popular view of the invasion is, perhaps, reflected in a ballad which was written soon after the event. It is called 'Sir Francis Drake; or, Eighty-eight.' 'In eyghtye-eyght, ere I was borne, As I can well remember, In August was a fleet prepared, The moneth before September. 'Spayne, with Biscayne, Portugall, Toledo, and Granado, All these did meet, and made a fleet, And called it the Armado. 'When they had gott provision, As mustard, pease, and bacon; Some say two shipps were full of whipps, But I thinke they were mistaken.