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Drake
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Drake

or his capture of the Cacafuego as blameworthy is very evident, and the slight hesitation as to officially acknowledging him on his return in 1580 rose out of a question not of moral scruples, but of political expediency. That once settled, he was accepted in England as the champion of liberty and religion, though in Spain and the Spanish settlements his name was rather considered as the synonym of the Old Dragon, the author of all evil.

Drake was twice married: first, on 4 July 1569, at St. Budeaux in Devonshire, near Saltash, to Mary Newman, whose burial on 25 Jan. 1582-3, while Drake was mayor of Plymouth, is entered in the registers both of St. Budeaux and of St. Andrew's in Plymouth, but no trace of her grave can be found at either place (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iv. 189, 330, 502); and secondly to Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir George Sydenham, who survived him, and afterwards married Sir William Courtenay of Powderham in Devonshire. By neither wife had he any issue, and with suitable provision for his widow, the bulk of his very considerable property, including the manor of Buckland Monachorum, ultimately went to his youngest and only surviving brother Thomas, the companion of most of his voyages and adventures, in whose lineage the estate still is. Another brother, John, who was killed in the Nombre de Dios voyage, married Alice Cotton, to whom, in dying, he bequeathed all his property (Add. MS. 28016, ff. 68, 357); but apparently neither he nor any of the brothers, except Thomas, had any children. Several other Drakes, brothers or sons of Sir Bernard Drake of Ash, are mentioned in close connection with Drake's career. Richard, Bernard's brother, had the charge of his important prisoner, Don Pedro de Valdes, by whom he is markedly described as Drake's kinsman (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iii. 25; State Papers, Dom., Elizabeth, ccxv. 36); John Drake, who sailed in the Golden Hind, and won the chain of gold for first sighting the Cacafuego, and afterwards was with Fenton in the Plate in 1582 (Hakluyt, iii. 727), was probably Bernard's eldest son; Hugh Drake, also named in a list of sea-captains (Cal. S. P. Dom. 5 Jan. 1586), was certainly a younger son of Sir Bernard.

From among all moderns Drake's name stands out as the one that has been associated with almost as many legends as that of Arthur or Charlemagne. As none of these have, in even the slightest degree, any historical or biographical foundation, it is unnecessary here to do more than call attention to their existence as illustrating the very remarkable hold which Drake's fame took on the minds of the lower ranks of his countrymen (Southey, British Admirals, iii. 239; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iii. 506, iv. 189, viii. 223). The recent celebrations in his memory, the erection of a colossal statue by Boehm at Tavistock 27 Sept. 1883, and of its replica at Plymouth 14 Feb. 1884, testify to a still living and more intelligent hero-worship. On the occasion of the unveiling of the Plymouth statue a number of 'relics' were exhibited (Western Antiquary, iii. 214). Many others no doubt exist; one of peculiar interest is in the museum of the Royal Naval College at Greenwich—an astrolabe said to be the one used in the voyage round the world.

Of the portraits of Drake, those which seem to have the best claim to be considered genuine are: 1. A miniature by Hilliard, in the possession of the Earl of Derby, bearing the legend 'Ætatis suæ 42— An° Dom. 1581;' an engraving of it is on the title-page of Barrow's 'Life of Drake.' 2. A full-length painting at Buckland Abbey, bearing the legend 'Ætatis suæ 53—An° Dom. 1594.' 3. A painting formerly in the possession of the Sydenham family, and engraved for Harris's 'Collection of Voyages' (1705, i. 19; 1744, i. 14); its genuineness is considered doubtful. 4. An anonymous engraving without date, but bearing the legend 'An° Æt. sue 43;' a rare copy of this in its original state is in the British Museum. It was afterwards retouched by Vertue, in which state it has been copied for Drake's edition of Hasted's 'History of Kent' (1886). 5. A fine engraving by Thomas de Leu, from a picture by Jo. Rabel, is in the British Museum; it is doubtful whether Rabel ever saw Drake, in which case the portrait can only be second-hand (see Granger, Biog. Hist. of England, i. 242; Bromley, Cat. of Engraved Brit. Portraits, p. 38; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iii. 26, iv. 118, 4th ser. xii. 224; Western Antiquary, i. 99, iii. 161, iv. 235).

[The standard Life of Drake is that by Barrow (1843), which embodies many original papers in the Public Record Office or the British Museum. It is, however, by no means free from faults of carelessness and inaccuracy, and since the date of its issue many new documents have been discovered or brought into more prominent notice by the Calendars of State Papers and by the publications of the Hakluyt and Camden Societies. Of other Lives, those by Campbell in the Biographia Britannica and Lives of the Admirals, and by Southey in Lives of the British Admirals (vol. iii.), are sound and just, so far as they go; those by Samuel Clark (1671) and by 'the ingenious author of the Rambler' (1767) have no original value. The original narratives of Drake's several expeditions are: 1. Sir Francis Drake Revived . . . by this memorable Relation