ards of 10,000 tons of shipping--a feat which he
afterwards jocosely called "singeing the king of Spain's beard." In
1588, when the Spanish Armada was approaching England, Sir Francis Drake
was appointed vice-admiral under Lord Howard, and made prize of a very
large galleon, commanded by Don Pedro de Valdez, who was reputed the
projector of the invasion, and who struck at once on learning his
adversary's name.

It deserves to be noticed that Drake's name is mentioned in the singular
diplomatic communication from the king of Spain which preceded the
Armada:--

"Te veto ne pergas bello defendere Belgas;
Quae Dracus eripuit nunc restituantur oportet;
Quas pater evertit jubeo te condere cellas:
Religio Papae fac restituatur ad unguem."

To these lines the queen made this extempore response:--

"Ad Graecas, bone rex, fiant mandata kalendas."

In 1589 Drake commanded the fleet sent to restore Dom Antonio, king of
Portugal, the land forces being under the orders of Sir John Norreys;
but they had hardly put to sea when the commanders differed, and thus
the attempt proved abortive. But as the war with Spain continued, a more
formidable expedition was fitted out, under Sir John Hawkins and Sir
Francis Drake, against their settlements in the West Indies, than had
hitherto been undertaken during the whole course of it. Here, however,
the commanders again disagreed about the plan; and the result in like
manner disappointed public expectation. These disasters were keenly felt
by Drake, and were the principal cause of his death, which took place on
board his own ship, near the town of Nombre de Dios, in the West Indies,
on the 28th of January 1595.

The older Lives by Samuel Clarke (1671) and John Barrow, junr. (1843),
have been superseded by Julian Corbett's two admirable volumes on
_Drake and the Tudor Navy_ (1898), the best source of information on
the subject, which were preceded by the same author's _Sir Francis
Drake_ in the "English Men of Action" series (1890). See also E. J.
Payne's edition of _Voyages of the Elizabethan Seamen to America:
Thirteen original narratives from the collection of Hakluyt_ (new ed.,
1893).

DRAKE, NATHAN (1766-1836), English essayist and physician, son of Nathan
Drake, an artist, was born at York in 1766. He was apprenticed to a
doctor in York in 1779, and in 1786 proceeded to Edinburgh University,
where he took his degree as M.D. in 1789. In 1790 he set u