Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
could make a landfall (on the coast of Sierra Leone) to refill their
casks. Then, for the first time in over two years, they were back in fa-
miliar waters, navigating by familiar stars and plotting their course
on familiar, well-worn charts.
In mid-September they entered the Channel and the excited
travellers were soon pointing out well-known landmarks to each
other and longing to get ashore. But when, on the 26th, they came
to rest in Plymouth Sound and some of Drake's friends came aboard,
they advised him to wear away and anchor by St Nicholas Island
while secret messages were despatched to the court. The political
situation, they said, was very sensitive. Complaints about Drake's
activities had been pouring in. So, for another month the crew had
to wait while their captain was summoned to London to be privately
interrogated by the queen. Only then did they know whether they
were to be welcomed back as heroes or clapped in irons.
It was, of course, the money that clinched the matter. All the
backers of the enterprise received a 4,700 per cent return on their
investment. Elizabeth's own share amounted to £160,000 plus the
glittering presents that Drake strewed at her feet. The proceeds of
this one venture were almost enough to cover government expendit-
ure for a whole year, something the nation's hard-pressed treasury
could not ignore. The Spanish ambassador might rant and threaten
and demand that Drake be punished; it was out of the question for
the queen and council to disown him. Nor would the people have
stood for it. Drake was a public hero. His exploits were being turned
into ballads and talked about in every alehouse in the kingdom.
It needed only a romantic and patriotic gesture to set the seal
on this remarkable enterprise. That was provided on 4 April 1581.
The
Golden Hind
had been brought to Greenwich and completely
refurbished by an army of painters and carpenters. There, while
crowds cheered and musicians played, Elizabeth I went aboard the
