h those icy seas!

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[Illustration: NO. 14. PLACENTIA, THE OLD PALACE AT GREENWICH.]

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Those were stirring times. Often sailors came home with wonderful
tales to tell; and thus, in September, 1580, a ship, called the
_Pelican_, sailed into Plymouth Sound, and all England rang with the
news of her coming, for she was Admiral Drake's ship. Nearly three
years before he and his sailors had left England in her; they had
fought the Spanish, they had taken great treasure, money and jewels,
and they had sailed round the world. Now they were safe home again.
Do you wonder that the Queen wanted to see the ship which had made such
a voyage? She told Drake to bring the _Pelican_ round to Deptford,
which is very near Greenwich; and she went on board and took part in a
great feast which was given in her honour; and she knighted Drake on
the deck of his own ship. How proud Englishmen were of him! One of
them said the _Pelican_ ought to be hoisted up to the top of the tower
of St. Paul's Cathedral, to take the place of the spire which had been
destroyed by lightning some time before. Was not this a mad plan? Of
course, it was never carried out. For many a year the old ship lay in
Deptford {50} Dockyard just as the Victory lies now in Portsmouth
Harbour; and people used to visit her, and even have supper on board
her. When she was very old she was broken up; out of some of her
timbers a chair was made and presented to Oxford University.

Do you remember what happened in 1588? This was the year of the
Invincible Armada, when England had to prepare ships and sailors and
soldiers to protect herself from the Spanish. What help did London
give? She was asked for fifteen ships and five thousand men. "Give us
two days," said her citizens, "to consider what we can do"; and in two
days they answered, "We will send thirty ships and ten thousand men to
serve our country."

London, then, had certainly plenty of ships; and many a sea-captain
besides Frobisher sailed down the river past Placentia on his way to
some far-off port; for London merchants were eager to trade with all
parts of the world; and after the defeat of the Spanish Armada they
knew that the wide ocean, east and west, lay open before them. No
Spaniard now could forbid English ships to sail on any sea.

Drake had seen for h