Identifier: draketudornavy02corb (find matches)
Title: Drake and the Tudor navy, with a history of the rise of England as a maritime power
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Corbett, Julian Stafford, 1854-1922
Subjects: Drake, Francis, 1540?-1596
Publisher: London : Longmans, Green
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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With the men refreshed andsound, and their spirits emboldened by the easy successesthey had won, the prospect was all Drake could desire;but in mid-Atlantic without any apparent cause the fleetwas beset with the invisible enemy, which was to provefor the Spaniards the most redoubtable defender of theirAmerican possessions. Seven days out from Santiago avirulent epidemic suddenly appeared. Till then the forcehad been in excellent health, yet in a few days betweentwo and three hundred men were dead, and numbers morewho survived the attack permanently incapacitated.1 The sickness, says Biggs, seized our people with ex-treme hot burning and continual agues, whereof fewescaped with life, and yet those for the most part notwithout great alteration and decay of their wits andstrength for a long time after. In some that died wereplainly shown the small spots, which are often found uponthose that be infected with the plague. Fortunately thevoyage was a quick one. Eighteen days brought them to
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36 DRAKE AND THE TUDOR NAVY the island of Dominica, where the Carib Indians, who atthis place had escaped extermination, supplied them inreturn for beads and trinkets captured at Santiago withan abundance of cassava bread and tobacco, the last com-modity being probably especially welcome since in thepharmacy of the early navigators it was a sovereignremedy against all kinds of infection. Staying only longenough to water, they passed on to Saint-Christophers,where the men were landed to spend Christmas, in orderthat the foul ships might be cleaned and disinfected andthe sick given a chance of recovery. Here too Drakecalled a council of war, to which he stated his intentionof proceeding at once to Hispaniola and attacking SanDomingo before his strength further decayed. Bold aswas the proposal it was endorsed heartily by his officers.San Domingo was one of the chief jewels in the Spanishcrown. But two or three cities in the old country couldrival it for strength, size, and beauty. As the

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