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Drake of the voyage, died shortly after leaving Cartagena; his work was continued by Croftes, the lieutenant of Bigges's company, who speaks of their sufferings from sickness, bad weather, and want of water. It was Drake's personal influence, courage, and energy that kept them together. Towards the middle of May they arrived on the coast of Florida, which they harried, and pursued their way to the northward, burning and plundering as they went till, in compliance with their orders, they reached the Virginian colony. This Drake proposed to supply with stores, and to leave also a small vessel, if only as a means of communication. But the colonists were disheartened and begged him to take them back to England. He accordingly did so, and reached Portsmouth 28 July 1586, bringing back not only the colonists, but with them also, it is believed for the first time, tobacco and potatoes. That both these now daily necessaries of life were known in England very shortly after this appears certainly established; but whether Drake or his companions were the actual introducers must remain doubtful. The belief is, however, widely entertained, and is attested in permanent form in the inscription on a monument erected at Offenburg in 1853 to commemorate the event. The booty brought home was valued at 60,000l., small in comparison with Drake's former success, the number of men engaged and the number who had died. Still, in the destruction of .the Spanish settlements and in the heavy blow to the Spanish trade, the advantage, from the point of view of impending war, was very great, and might probably enough have been much greater and absolutely decisive could Elizabeth have made up her mind to a total breach with Spain. Writing several years afterwards, Monson's idea was that `had we kept and defended those places when in our possession, and provided for them to have been relieved and succoured out of England, we had diverted the war from this part of Europe' (, iii. 147).

Drake was not long left idle. Though without any declaration of war, the hostile preparations of Spain had become notorious (Cal. State Papers, Dom., 10 Dec. 1585), and it was already felt in England that the wrath of years must shortly fall. Almost immediately on his return Drake had the shipping at Plymouth placed under his orders (ib. 16 Sept. 1586, 26 March 1587). In November 1586 he was sent on a mission to the Netherlands, charged, it would seem, to concert some joint naval expedition (, United Netherlands, ii. 103 n.; State Papers, Holland, No. 36, Wylkes to Walsyngham, 17 Nov. 1586). Notwithstanding Wylkes's hope the negotiation proved fruitless ; and, after cruising in the Channel for some little time in the early spring of 1587, Drake was appointed to the command of a strong squadron, and sailed on 2 April with a commission ` to impeach the joining together of the king of Spain's fleet out of their several ports, to keep victuals from them, to follow them in case they should come forward towards England or Ireland, and to cut off as many of them as he could and impeach their landing, as also to set upon such as should either come out of the West or East Indies into Spain or go out of Spain thither ' (Walsyngham to Sir Ed. Stafford, 21 April 1587, in, p. 29). Scarcely, however, had Drake sailed before the queen repented of her determination, and on 9 April sent off counter-orders for him ` to confine his operations to the capture of ships on the open sea, and to forbear entering any of the ports or havens of Spain, or to do any act of hostility by land.' The preparations in Spain, he was told, were not so great as had been reported, and the king had made overtures for settling the differences between the two kingdoms (ib. 28; Cal. State Papers, Dom., 9 April). These orders did not, however, reach Drake, and, in happy ignorance of the entanglement, he pursued his way down the coast of Portugal, arrived off Cadiz on the 19th, and, finding the Spanish armament there much as had been reported, he went straightway in among the ships, not yet manned or fully equipped; sank or burnt thirty-three of them, many large, and estimated in the aggregate as of ten thousand tons, and brought away four laden with provisions (Drake to Walsyngham, 27 April,, p. 227). King Philip, he wrote, was making great preparations for the invasion of England; he hoped to intercept their supplies; but England must be prepared, ` most of all by sea.' ` Stop him now and stop him ever' (Cal. State Papers, Dom., 27 April). On 17 May he wrote again that they had had many combats with the Spaniards and had taken forts, ships, barks, carvels, and divers other vessels, more than a hundred, of great value. He had proposed an exchange of prisoners, which the several Spanish governors had refused; so such Spaniards as had fallen into his hands he had sold to the Moors, reserving the money for redeeming English captives. The Marquis of Santa Cruz, wrote Fenner, the captain of Drake's ship, the Elizabeth Bonaventure, was near them with seven galleys, but would not attack them. 'Twelve of her majesty's ships were a match for all the galleys of the king of Spain's dominions ' (ib.