invested proceeds of her late husband's earnings, but George was
quite determined not to draw upon that if he could possibly help it,
although he was well aware that Mrs Saint Leger would be more than
willing to spend her last penny in order to provide the means of
rescuing her elder son from a fate that might well prove to be worse
than death itself. Therefore the younger Saint Leger began operations
by calling upon Mr Marshall, the merchant and owner of the
_Bonaventure_, and, having first ascertained that that gentleman had
definitely, though reluctantly, decided not to risk his ship in another
Mediterranean voyage so long as the relations of England and Spain
continued in their then strained condition, unfolded a project for an
adventure to the Indies, which, if successful, must certainly result in
a golden return that would amply reimburse all concerned for the risks
involved. But Mr Marshall had not grown from an errand boy into a
prosperous merchant without acquiring a certain amount of wisdom with
his wealth, and he at once put his finger on the weak spot in George's
proposal by inquiring what guarantee the latter could offer that his
scheme would be successful when a very similar one conducted by such
experienced adventurers as Hawkins and Drake had just disastrously
failed. He frankly admitted that the young man's scheme was promising
enough, on the face of it, and he also intimated that, as a merchant, he
was always ready to take a certain amount of risk where the prospects of
success seemed promising enough to justify it, but he no less frankly
declared that, while he had the utmost confidence in George's ability as
a seaman, he regarded him as altogether too young and inexperienced to
be the head and leader of such an adventure as the one proposed; and he
terminated the interview by flatly refusing to have anything to do with
it.

Bitterly disappointed at his failure to enlist Marshall's active
sympathy, George called upon some half a dozen other Plymouth merchants.
But everywhere the result was the same. The adventure itself met with
a certain qualified approval, but the opinion was unanimous that George
was altogether too young and inexperienced to be entrusted with its
leadership. In despair, George at last called upon Mr William Hawkins,
the father of Captain John Hawkins, to obtain his opinion upon the
project. Captain John had arrived home a day or two previously, and
young Saint Leger was so fa