198
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. x. SEPT. 5, wu
WALL-PAPERS (11 S. x. 29,75, 110, 137).
The walls of two rooms at Beau Desert,
the Staffordshire home of the Marquess of
Anglesey, are covered with a Japanese wall-
paper which was affixed on the occasion of
the visit of the Prince Regent, that on the
bedroom used by him being so arranged
as to fit the room exactly without any
repetition of subject. I have recently seen
this paper, which is bold in design and ex-
cellent in colour, and " as good as new."
S. A. GRUNDY-XEWMAN.
Walsall.
ACROSTICS (11 S. x. 129). I would suggest that the ' Keys ' required should be advertised for in the ' Books Wanted ' de- partment of The Bookseller and The Pub- lishers' Circular. This can be done either direct or through a bookseller. The cost is very trifling. War. H. PEET.
AUTHOR WANTED (11 S. x. 148). In Paradise I learned to ease my soul in song. Is this an imperfect recollection of Keats's ' Faery Song ' ?
Dry your eyes O dry your eyes, For I was taught in Paradise To ease my breast of melodies.
C. C. B.
'ALMANACK DE GOTHA ' (11 S. x. 147). I possess copies from 1801 (inclusive) to 1815 (inclusive).
F. E. R. POLLARD -URQTJH ART.
Castle Pollard, Westmeath.
0n
New Light on Drake : a Collection of Documents relating to his Voyage of Circumnavigation, 1577-1580. Translated and edited by Zelia Nuttall. (Hakluyt Society.)
THIS is one of the most interesting, as it is one of the most important, of the publications of the Hakluyt Society. It is the extraordinarily rich result of researches, at once acute and lucky, among hitherto unpublished matters in the archives of Mexico and Spain relating to Drake's exploits in the South Sea. The occasion of these researches was Miss Nuttall's discovery, in the National Archives of Mexico, of the MS. of a declaration concerning his rapture by English pirates made by a Portuguese pilot, Nuiioda Silva, to the Inquisitors on his trial for heresy. This incited her to further investigations, in the course of which she found at Seville the log-book of Nuno da Silva, as well as the depositions of a number of Drake's prisoners, and the sworn declarations of John Oxenham, John Butler, and Thomas " Xerores," then lying in the prison of the Inquisition at Lima, who were examined by order of the Viceroy, upon the news of Drake's arrival in the South Sea, as to what Drake knew or intended with regard to the Strait of Magellan
and other matters. These are the most sti-ikir
of her finds, though she gives a list of twent
three other documents bearing on her subje
which should furnish good matter for later
investigation.
It is unnecessary here to retrace t lie well-known events of Drake's famous voyage. Miss Nuttall in her Introduction concentrates attention on the two reproaches which have in many minds sullied its glory. It has been said that Drake was a mere pirate ; it has been said that the execution of Doughty at San Julian was unjustifiable. The defence against both is virtually one and the same, and it is clinched by one of the relations of a prisoner of Drake's included here. The ques- tion at issue is, Had Drake, or had he not, a licence from the Queen to harry the King of Spain's lands and vessels while he sougl for good lands to colonize in her service On 4 April, 1579, he captured the vessel person of a Spanish nobleman, Don Fraicisco Zarate, whom he conveyed on board the Gold Hind and kept with him for some days, treatir_ him with every courtesy, and even with confidence. To him he showed " the commissions that he had received from her and carried," and to him also he gave an account of Doughty's attempt at mutiny, " speaking much good about the dead man, but adding that he had not been able to act otherwise because this was what the Queen's service demanded." This is related, together with a number of highly interesting details con- cerning Drake's surroundings, behaviour, rind employments, in a letter written by Zarate to the Viceroy of New Spain the most delightful piece, perhaps, in this collection.
Not the least instructive part of this volume are the Spanish official documents. One may observe in them, with amusement, bow painfully, but with what over-subtlety, the Viceroy and some of his advisers tried to forecast the route by which Drake, after haying sailed northward, taking ship after ship, intended to return to England. He might strike the unexplored Strait of Anian a myth then generally believed in ; he might return by way of China, and that was what he himself had said he would do ; he might pass down the South Sea again, and return, as he had come, through the Strait of Magellan. The Viceroy, largely because he thought Drake's statement about China was intended to misleac" was inclined to think the coasts of New Spall must prepare to meet him as he bore southward : but Don Luis de Velasco in a letter to Philip II very reasonably criticizing the curiously futil attempts at the pursuit of " this Corsair " orga- nized by the Viceroy reckoned better, being persuaded that Drake, with his one ship, would not rashly brave a whole coast prepared against him, and that some endeavour ought In I'e made to catch him at the Moluccas " on the Portuguese route."
As " new light " on Drake the new document and those previously published included wit them here are entirely favourable to the mariner. They reinforce the prevalent cc ception of his ability, humanity, daring, and personal charm; they tend to clear off dm lit s and criticisms, and show that he fulfilled liis commission " to anoy [the King of Spain] l>y his Indyes," and to look for good la mis beyond his occupation, without slaying a single Spaniard. By the fragments they contain of
