had been done to the westward. ¹ Even when in Edward's
last days Cabot had succeeded in rousing the London
merchants, it was to a venture eastwards to find Cathay
that their energy was directed, and not to America. All
through Mary's reign and the first years of Elizabeth the
tide of enterprise continued to flow the same way. It
was from the Thames that the successive expeditions
sailed, and if young Drake had dreams they were more
likely to have been of Muscovy and Cathay. But born
and bred as he was, and by his calling brought into con-
tact with Alva's inhuman persecutions across the sea, and
himself of the party that was suffering in Mary's fires at
home, it is more natural to conceive of his youthful
ardour being spent in the formation of a fanatic and
lasting antipathy to the Church of Rome. Far from any
thoughts of the golden West, the most adventurous and
capable of our Protestant seamen--gentle and simple
alike--were fiercely preoccupied with reprisals upon
their Catholic enemies, and there is no reason to think
that Drake was different from the rest. The exploits of
the pirates were in everyone's mouth, the cruelties of
Catholic officers ashore were almost outdone by the savage
retribution of Protestant rovers at sea, and trading as he
did to Zeeland and France, Drake was in the midst of it,
till with the restoration of his father's fortune a change
came in his own.

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