Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ing back. Death there must be if he were to regain that position of
unquestioned authority which alone could force his men to go where
no Englishmen, and very few men of any race, had ever been.
The drama - one might more accurately say the 'theatricality'
- of Doughty's last hours strikes modern readers as bizarre, but it
was the kind of show the Tudor age expected. On the morning of
2 July, the condemned man made his confession to the expedition's
chaplain. Then he and his judge knelt side by side to receive Holy
Communion together on the deck of the
Pelican.
This was followed
by a civilised dinner in the great cabin during which Drake and
Doughty conversed cheerfully and the prisoner even toasted the suc-
cess of the voyage. This concluded, the entire company was rowed
across to a small island in the bay and formed up in a square around
the block. Drake and Doughty were landed and walked for a while
along the shore, deep in conversation. At last, they returned and em-
braced. Doughty knelt and prayed aloud for the queen, the admir-
al and the company. Then, turning to the executioner, he spoke his
last words: 'Strike clean and with care, for I have a short neck'. The
sword flashed once. 'Lo, this is the end of traitors!' Drake shouted. It
remained only for the body to receive a decent burial. Drake marked
the island on his chart and named it 'The Island of True Justice and
Judgement'. That was too much of a mouthful for his men. They
called it, 'The Island of Blood'.
The voyagers had to stay another six weeks in St Julian's Bay,
waiting for the worst of the winter weather to pass. Those were un-
comfortable, demoralising days and Drake had to stage other dra-
matic demonstrations of authority in order to stamp his will on the
enterprise and quench the last, smoking embers of mutiny. It was
during this period that Drake renamed his ship the
Golden Hind,
in
honour of Sir Christopher Hatton, whose coat of arms bore 'a hind
trippant or'. It was a prudent gesture, for the man he had recently
