ntain the improvements.

See C. G. Elliott, _Engineering for Land Drainage_ (New York, 1903);
F. H. King, _Irrigation and Drainage_ (New York, 1899); G. S.
Mitchell, _Handbook of Land Drainage_ (London, 1898), with a good
bibliography.

DRAKE, SIR FRANCIS (c. 1545-1595), English admiral, was born near
Tavistock, Devonshire, about 1545 according to most early authorities,
but possibly as early as 1539 (see Corbett, vol. i., Appendix A). His
father, a yeoman and a zealous Protestant, was obliged to take refuge in
Kent during the persecutions in the reign of Queen Mary. He obtained a
naval chaplaincy from Queen Elizabeth, and is said to have been
afterwards vicar of Upnor Church (evidently a misprint or slip of the
pen for Upchurch) on the Medway. Young Drake was educated at the expense
and under the care of Sir John Hawkins, who was his kinsman; and, after
passing an apprenticeship on a coasting vessel, at the age of eighteen
he had risen to be purser of a ship trading to Biscay. At twenty he made
a voyage to Guinea; and at twenty-two he was made captain of the
"Judith." In that capacity he was in the harbour of San Juan de Ulloa,
in the Gulf of Mexico, where he behaved most gallantly in the actions
under Sir John Hawkins, and returned with him to England, having
acquired great reputation, though with the loss of all the money which
he had embarked in the expedition. In 1570 he obtained a regular
privateering commission from Queen Elizabeth, the powers of which he
immediately exercised in a cruise in the Spanish Main. Having next
projected an attack against the Spaniards in the West Indies to
indemnify himself for his former losses, he set sail in 1572, with two
small ships named the "Pasha" and the "Swan." He was afterwards joined
by another vessel; and with this small squadron he took and plundered
the Spanish town of Nombre de Dios. With his men he penetrated across
the isthmus of Panama, and committed great havoc among the Spanish
shipping. From the top of a tree which he climbed while on the isthmus
he obtained his first view of the Pacific, and resolved "to sail an
English ship in these seas." In these expeditions he was much assisted
by the Maroons, descendants of escaped negro slaves, who were then
engaged in a desultory warfare with the Spaniards. Having embarked his
men and filled his ships with plunder, he bore away for England, and
arrived at Plymouth on the 9th of August 1573.

His success an