Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/141

 15 77-] VOYAGE OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 125 that overhangs Elizabeth's Court is lifted, treacherous influences are seen invariably at work. Mary Stuart, Philip, and the Jesuits had each their instruments in the council or the privy chamber. The struggle between the two great parties in the State was nowhere hotter than in the immediate neighbourhood of the Queen, and every ambassador sent to a foreign Court, every general in command of an expedition, found some one attached to him whose business was to tie his hands and thwart his enterprises. It is likely, though there is no proof of it, that Doughty was one of this venomous breed. His brother was involved afterwards in Catholic conspiracies. He himself had a grudge against Leicester, whose fortune was largely embarked in Drake's venture. At any rate, from some cause the man had become discontented and mutinous, and on leaving the river slipped away from the rest of the fleet. The example was extremely dangerous. The four remaining vessels dispersed in search of him. He was overtaken, and transferred with his crew to the Pelican. His ship was fired and left behind. The mis- chief however was not over. The offender gave new cause of suspicion, and success in such an adventure as Drake's being desperate without unity and discipline, he found it necessary to use prompt measures. On the 2oth of June he put into Port St Julian, a harbour on the coast of Patagonia. The first object which met the eye on landing was a gibbet, left there by Magellan, and the skeletons of a party of mutineers who had met their fate there. In that wild scene, in the dead of winter, a court-martial was extemporized on the shore. ' The