[Illustration] ELIZABETHAN SEA-DOGS A Chronicle of Drake and His Companions By William Wood 1918 PREFATORY NOTE Citizen, colonist, pioneer! These three words carry the history of the United States back to its earliest form in 'the Newe Worlde called America.' But who prepared the way for the pioneers from the Old World and what ensured their safety in the New? The title of the present volume, _Elizabethan Sea-Dogs_, gives the only answer. It was during the reign of Elizabeth, the last of the Tudor sovereigns of England, that Englishmen won the command of the sea under the consummate leadership of Sir Francis Drake, the first of modern admirals. Drake and his companions are known to fame as Sea-Dogs. They won the English right of way into Spain's New World. And Anglo-American history begins with that century of maritime adventure and naval war in which English sailors blazed and secured the long sea-trail for the men of every other kind who found or sought their fortunes in America. CONTENTS PREFATORY NOTE ELIZABETHAN SEA-DOGS CHAPTER I — ENGLAND'S FIRST LOOK CHAPTER II — HENRY VIII, KING OF THE ENGLISH SEA CHAPTER III — LIFE AFLOAT IN TUDOR TIMES CHAPTER IV — ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND CHAPTER V — HAWKINS AND THE FIGHTING TRADERS CHAPTER VI — DRAKE'S BEGINNING CHAPTER VII — DRAKE'S 'ENCOMPASSMENT OF ALL THE WORLDE' CHAPTER VIII — DRAKE CLIPS THE WINGS OF SPAIN CHAPTER IX — DRAKE AND THE SPANISH ARMADA CHAPTER X — 'THE ONE AND THE FIFTY-THREE' CHAPTER XI — RALEIGH AND THE VISION OF THE WEST CHAPTER XII — DRAKE'S END APPENDIX — NOTE ON TUDOR SHIPPING BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ELIZABETHAN SEA-DOGS CHAPTER I — ENGLAND'S FIRST LOOK In the early spring of 1476 the Italian Giovanni Caboto, who, like Christopher Columbus, was a seafaring citizen of Genoa, transferred his allegiance to Venice. The Roman Empire had fallen a thousand years before. Rome now held temporal sway only over the States of the Church, which were weak in armed force, even when compared with the small republics, dukedoms, and principalities which lay north and south. But Papal Rome, as the head and heart of a spiritual empire, was still a world-power; and the disunited Italian states were first in the commercial enterprise of the age as well as in the glories of the Renaissance. North of the Papal domain, which cut the peninsula in two parts, stood three renowned Italian cities: Florence, the capital of Tuscany, leading the world in arts; Genoa, the home of Caboto and Columbus, teaching the world the science of navigation; and Venice, mistress of the great trade route between Europe and Asia, controlling the world's commerce.