difpofition, he displeased the English as well as the Irish; for the queen having fent over a proclamation to reprefs the rapacioufnefs of the former, with respect to abufes in the purchases and poffeffion of the forfeited eftates, he executed it with fuch rigour, that the country reaped the benefit, many of the natives, being re-inftated. But it made the English outrageous against him and as to the Irish nobility, their nearest relations having been either executed by him, or deprived of their eftates, they fecretly fought his ruin. In a word, he met with the fate of all conquerors, he was detested; but he had this confolation, that he did not conquer for himfelf, but for his fovereign, who certainly fhould have overlooked his paffionate temper, in confideration of his delivering her from very imminent danger, the rebels in Ireland being all along fupported by her foreign and domestic enemies. At the fame time, Sir John Perrot was highly culpable for flighting the rebukes he received from England upon fome occafions, and for refenting them at others, inftead of condefcending to juftify himself in his difpatches. At length, the difcontent against him ran fo high in Ireland, and the queen herfelf was fo difpleafed with his ill behaviour to her, that the recalled him in 1588. And this led him into another error, the confe quence of his proud fpirit; inftead of embarking for London, and making ufe of his remaining intereft at court, he fet fail from Dublin for his caftle of Carew in Pembrokeshire, and arrived there with a numerous and splendid retinue,

Such a step could not fail of alarming the queen, especially as it was now reported, and afterwards made an article of his impeachment, that he held a fecret correfpondence with the duke of Parma and the queen's foreign enemies.

The

The articles fent over from Ireland were therefore laid before the privy-council; the attorneygeneral was ordered to prepare an indictment of high-treafon upon them, and he was taken into cuftody. At first, he was brought to the lord treafurer's house, and confined there; but how long is uncertain; nor are we able to account for a fpace of near four years, between his arrival at All that we can

the caftle of Carew and his trial. find on record is, that he was committed to the Tower, and from thence brought to his trial, on the 27th of April, 1592, in Weftminfler-hall, a fpecial commiffion being granted for that purpofe to the lord chancellor and the two chief justices.

The only charge proved against him was, his having treated the perfon and character of the queen contumelioufly; but by the artful management of Popham, the attorney-general, who adinitted men of the most abandoned principles and characters to be evidences against him, he was convicted upon the other articles of the accufation, which were, that he had relieved Popish priefts that he held a fecret correfpondence with the queen's foreign enemies-and that he had foftered the commotions in freland. Nothing could be more abfurd than the last article, fince it was evident, on the contrary, that Ireland had never been in fuch a ftate of tranquillity and of allegiance to the queen, as when he prefided over it. But the true motive of his condemnation was, his own imprudent boaftings, that he was the queen's brother, that fhe knew his value in Ireland too well to let him fall a facrifice to his frifking adverfaries; and that whenever the Spaniards landed a force in Ireland to join the difaffected there, he fhould then be cherished again, and be, once nrore, one of her White Boys.

In a word, finding he had deceived himself by an ill-grounded confidence in the fecret of his birth, and his great military fervices, his violent paffions, after fentence of death was paffed on him, which happened in June, preyed on his conftitution, and in September following he died in the Tower, and left it doubtful whether Elizabeth intended to have pardoned him.

Thus fell Sir John Perrot, the introducer of military discipline amongst the natives of Ireland. And thus have we given a fhort sketch of the state of affairs in that kingdom, the better to complete our annals of the reign of Elizabeth.

Authorities. Cox's Hift. of Ireland. Life of Sir John Perrot, 8vo. 1728. Biog. Britan. Salmon's Chron. Hift.

The LIFE of

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

T

(A. D. 1545, to 1596.)

HIS celebrated English navigator, and brave naval officer, was the fon of Edmund Drake, a mariner, and was born at a village near Taviftock in Devonshire, in the year 1545. He was the eldest of twelve brethren, and the father being diftreffed by fo large a family, captain Hawkins, his mother's relation (afterwards the famous ad

miral Sir John Hawkins), kindly took him under his patronage, and gave him an education fuitable to the fea-fervice. Through the intereft of his patron, at the age of eighteen, he was made purser of a fhip trading to the Bay of Bifcay. At twenty, he made a voyage to Guinea; at the age of twentytwo, he was appointed captain of the Judith; and, in that capacity, he was in the harbour of St. John de Ulloa, in the gulph of Mexico; where he behaved very gallantly in the glorious action under Sir John Hawkins; and returned with him to England with a rifing reputation, but totally deftitute, having loft the little property he had acquired in his former station, by this unfortunate expedition, in confequence of the treachery of the Spaniards.

Soon after this, he conceived a defign of making reprisals on the king of Spain; which, according to fome, was put into his head by the chaplain of the fhip and, indeed, the cafe was clear in feadivinity, fays Dr. Campbell," that the fubjects of the king of Spain had undone Mr. Drake, and therefore he was at liberty to take the best fatis faction he could on them in return." This doctrine, however roughly preached, was very taking in England; and, therefore, no fooner did he publish his design, than he had numbers of volunteers ready to accompany him, though not actuated by the fame motives, and without any fuch pretence to colour their proceedings as he had.

In 1570, he made his firft voyage with two fhips, the Dragon and the Swan; and the next year, in the Swan alone: from which laft expedition he returned fafe, if not rich. Though we have no particular account of these two voyages, or what Drake performed in them, yet nothing is clearer than that captain Drake had two great points in view. The one was, to inform himfeif perfectly of the fituation and strength of certain

places

places in the Spanish Weft-Indies; the other, to convince his countrymen, that, notwithstanding what had happened to captain Hawkins, in his laft voyage, it was a thing very practicable to fail into thefe parts, and return in fafety. For it is to be obferved, that Hawkins and Drake separated in the Weft-Indies; and that the former, finding it impoffible to bring all his crew home to England, had fet part of them, with their own confent, afhore in the bay of Mexico; and, indeed, few of thefe finding their way home, the terror of fuch a captivity as they were known to endure had dif heartened our feamen. But captain Drake, in thefe two voyages, having very wifely avoided coming to blows with the Spaniards, and bringing home fufficient returns to fatisfy his owners, diffipated these apprehenfions, and established his own character: fo that, at his return from his fecond voyage, he found it no difficult matter to raise fuch a force as might enable him to perform what he had long meditated in his own mind, which otherwife he would never have been able to effect.

Without lofs of time, therefore, he laid the plan of a more important defign; which he put in exe cution on the 25th of March, 1572: for, on that day, he failed from Plymouth, in a ship called the Pafeta, burden feventy tons; and his brother, John Drake, in the Swan, of twenty-five tons; their whole ftrength confifting of only feventythree men and boys. But they were all provided with ammunition and provifions, and in cafe of an accident happening to either of the fhips, or an occafion prefenting of approaching nearer to any place, than the fhips could lie, they had three pinnaces on board, framed and fitted in fuch a dextrous manner, that they could easily be put toge ther, by the fhip-carpenters, when wanted. With this small armament, on the 22d of July, in the

year