out.

and change of occupation, must have put great obstacles in the way of any man obtaining employment when once he was thrown Recruits could also be obtained from less desirable elements of the population, as there was a constant desire on the part of the judges and the government to mitigate the severity of our penal code, and to inflict sentences of transportation in many cases where the penalty of death had been incurred. The colonists did their best to protect themselves against the intrusion of criminal elements, as the Virginia Company had done in its day. They insisted that each emigrant should be provided with a guarantee of character and respectability; but these regulations could not be maintained in the face of the great demand for labor.

§ 6. Transportation of Irish and Servants

The openings afforded by the colonies must have done much to relieve the country from the after-effects of the disturbances caused by the Civil War. It is in the case of Ireland that we get the fullest evidence; Cromwell's campaign was ruthless enough; and those of the garrison at Drogheda, who escaped with their lives, were transported to the Barbadoes. The scheme in which Parliament then engaged, for the wholesale planting of Ireland by Cromwell's soldiers, was an ingenious endeavor to get rid at once of a political danger and of the arrears of pay. It could not be carried out, however, until a wholesale deportation of the existing population had been effected, and numbers of them seem to have been compulsory immigrants to the plantations. Similar measures were taken with regard to the Royalist prisoners after the battle of Worcester, and the possibility of getting rid of restive or dangerous elements in the population must have contributed immensely to the establishment of civil order once more.

When the supply of prisoners and conquered persons fell off, however, there were no legitimate means of keeping up the stream of immigration or meeting the requirements of the planters, and a systematic practice of kidnapping sprang up, by which large numbers of persons were spirited away to work as servants in the colonies. The extent to which this shameful traffic was carried on is very remarkable, and interesting evidence about it is afforded by the mention of occasional and unsuccessful attempts to put it down. In 1660 John Clarke petitioned for letters patent empowering him to keep a register office, to which all servants and children might be brought before being transported to Virginia

and the Barbadoes, so as to prevent the abuses of forcible transportation of persons without their own or their parents' consent. A similar proposal was made in 1664, and the complaints of merchants, planters, and masters of ships, as well as of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, show how greatly some such institution was required.

CHAPTER II

DRAKE AND THE CIRCUMNAVIGATION

AMONG the many Elizabethan sailors whose daring exploits initiated the British struggle for world trade and dominion there is none more famous than Sir Francis Drake. As a Protestant seaman, he added religious zeal to his enthusiasm for the plunder of Spanish commerce. In a time when the contest for oceanic traffic took the form of ill-disguised warfare, Drake showed himself master of the art of sailing, fighting, and freebooting. He made many bold and successful expeditions, but one of them stands out above all others on account of its uniqueness and daring. That is his voyage around the world, on which he set out in 1577. The story of this journey is told in Mr. Corbett's little volume on Drake from which is taken the following extract relating a part of the tale after the rounding of South America.

§ 1. Raiding Spanish Shipping1

Lord Burleigh's scheme had failed, and Drake was knocking at the golden gates. In the teeth of the astutest ministers of the time, he was about to blow the blast before which the giant's doors would fly open, and deliberately to goad the giant into open fight. Full of the momentous meaning of his resolve, he paused upon the threshold to do honor to the mistress whose favor he wore. Before the frowning entry he caused his fleet, in homage of their sovereign lady, to strike their topsails upon the bunt as a token of his willingness and glad mind, and to show his dutiful obedience to her Highness. It was a piece of true Elizabethan chivalry, and like a true Elizabethan knight he accompanied it with a shrewd stroke of policy. Sir Christopher Hatton had now no visible 1Corbett, Drake, chap. vi. By permission of Julian Corbett, Esq., and The Macmillan Company, Publishers.

connection with the venture. The vessel named after him had been broken up, and his representative had been beheaded. Drake knew well how flat fell prowess at the Faery Queene's court if a man had not a friend at her ear. He knew, too, that no reputation was so fashionable just then as that of a patron of discoveries, nor could he be ignorant that all the new favorite's good-will would be required to save him from Burleigh's power. So on the poop of the little flagship was placed the crest of the Captain of the Guard, and in his honor the Pelican became the Golden Hind. So protected, Drake boldly entered the straits. Then from the towering snow-cones and threatening glaciers that guarded the entry the tempests swept down upon the daring intruders. Out of the tortuous gulfs that through the bowels of the fabulous Austral continent seemed to lead beyond the confines of the world, rude squalls buffeted them this way and that, and currents, the like of which no man had seen, made as though they would dash them to pieces in the fathomless depths where no cable would reach. Fires lit by natives on the desolate shores as the strangers struggled by, added the terrors of unknown magic. But Drake's fortitude and consummate seamanship triumphed over all, and in a fortnight he brought his ill-sailing ships in triumph out upon the Pacific. Then, as though maddened to see how the adventurers had braved every effort to destroy them, the whole fury of the fiends that guarded the South Sea's slumber rushed howling upon them. Hardly had the squadron turned northward than a terrific gale struck it and hurled it back. The sky was darkened, and the bowels of the earth seemed to have burst, and for nearly two months they were driven under bare poles to and fro without rest, in latitudes where no ship had ever sailed. On the maps the great Austral continent was marked, but they found in its place an enchanted void, where wind and water, and ice and darkness, seemed to make incessant war. After three weeks' strife, the Marygold went down with all hands; and in another week Wynter lost heart, and finding himself at the mouth of the Straits, went home in despair; while the Golden Hind, ignorant of the desertion, was swept once more to the south of Cape Horn. Here, on the fifty-third day of its fury, the storm ceased, exhausted, and Drake found himself alone. But it was no moment to repine, for he knew he had made a discovery so brilliant as to deprive even Magellan's of its radiance. He was anchored among the islands southward of anything known to geographers, and before him the Atlantic and Pacific rolled together in one great flood.

In his exultation he landed on the farthest island, and walking alone with his instruments to its end, he laid himself down, and with his arms embraced the southernmost point of the known world. . . .

...

About a month later, little dreaming what had taken place, the crew of the Grand Captain of the South were lazily waiting in Valparaiso harbor for a wind to carry them to Panama with their cargo of gold and Chili wine. As they lounged over the bulwarks a sail appeared to the northward, and they made ready a pipe of wine to have a merry night with the newcomers. As the stranger anchored they beat her a welcome of their drum, and then watched her boat come alongside. In a moment all was in confusion. A rough old salt was laying about him with his fists, shouting in broken Spanish, "Down, dog, down!" and the astounded Spaniards were soon tight under hatches. It was Tom Moone at his old work. Hither the Golden Hind had been piloted by a friendly Indian in its search for provisions and loot. The little settlement was quickly plundered of all it had worth taking, and Drake's mariners, who for months had been living on salted penguin, and many of whom were suffering from wounds received in an encounter with the islanders of Mocha, were revelling in all the dainties of the Chilian paradise. For three days the mysterious ship, which seemed to have dropped from the skies, lay in the harbor collecting provisions, and then, laden with victuals, it sailed away northward with its prize.

Drake's great anxiety now was to rendezvous his scattered fleet for the sack of Lima and Panama, and assured that Wynter must be ahead he fully expected to find him in 30° north latitude, the point agreed on. After an ineffectual attempt to water at Coquimbo, where he found the Spaniards in arms, he discovered a natural harbor a little north of it which suited his purpose. In a month his preparations were complete. The men were thoroughly refreshed; a pinnace had been set up; the Golden Hind refitted from stem to stern, and under the guidance of the pilot of the Grand Captain he set out to realize the dream of his life. Every one except perhaps poor John Doughty was in the highest spirits. The return of health and the glorious climate made them reckless of the dangers of their single-handed attempt. Still they trusted to find the Elizabeth, and as they searched the coast for water with the pinnace they never lost hope of hearing of her. Fresh plunder constantly compensated for their continued disappointment. At one point on the coast of Tarapaca they found a Span