Francis Drake by John Cummins

Francis Drake is the famous English sailor privateer, the first Briton to circumnavigate the world. This biography of him shows how his high skills of seamanship allowed him to sail to the West Indies and to terrorize the Spanish settlers there, stealing their treasure and burning their towns. His circumnavigation was not only a first, but also highly profitable: for each pound invested, the backers of the project received forty-two! All of this of course plays off on the background of the conflict between Philip's Catholic Spain and Elizbeth's Protestant England.

Two chapters towards the end of the book looks at what the Spanish and the English wrote about Drake.

I find Drake's story almost impossible to interpret in today's understanding of humanity and international affairs. We do seem to make some progress in justice and responsibility.

We have had endless poems on the military theme; poets have sprouted where no seed had been sown. I swear that there have been more poems than on the battle of Roncevaux, which was a good deal bloodier than this bloodless affair. (A quotation from an unknown author, on the literary results of the events when Las Palmas was spared a landing by Drake's men.)