months. The queen hesitated for some time whether to recognize his achievements or not, on the ground that such recognition might lead to complications with Spain, but she finally decided in his favour. Accordingly, soon after his arrival she paid a visit to Deptford, went on board his ship, and there, after partaking of a banquet, conferred upon him the honour of knighthood, at the same time declaring her entire approbation of all that he had done. She likewise gave directions for the preservation of his ship, the “Golden Hind,” that it might remain a monument of his own and his country’s glory. After the lapse of a century it decayed and had to be broken up. Of the sound timber a chair was made, which was presented by Charles II. to the university of Oxford. In 1581 Drake became mayor of Plymouth; and in 1585 he married a second time, his first wife having died in 1583. In 1585, hostilities having commenced with Spain, he again went to sea, sailing with a fleet to the West Indies, and taking the cities of Santiago (in the Cape Verde Islands), San Domingo, Cartagena and St Augustine. In 1587 he went to Lisbon with a fleet of thirty sail; and having received intelligence of a great fleet being assembled in the bay of Cadiz, and destined to form part of the Armada, he with great courage entered the port on the 19th of April, and there burnt upwards of 10,000 tons of shipping—a feat which he afterwards jocosely called “singeing the king of Spain’s beard.” In 1588, when the Spanish Armada was approaching England, Sir Francis Drake was appointed vice-admiral under Lord Howard, and made prize of a very large galleon, commanded by Don Pedro de Valdez, who was reputed the projector of the invasion, and who struck at once on learning his adversary’s name.
It deserves to be noticed that Drake’s name is mentioned in the singular diplomatic communication from the king of Spain which preceded the Armada:—
“Te veto ne pergas bello defendere Belgas; |
To these lines the queen made this extempore response:—
“Ad Graecas, bone rex, fiant mandata kalendas.”
In 1589 Drake commanded the fleet sent to restore Dom Antonio, king of Portugal, the land forces being under the orders of Sir John Norreys; but they had hardly put to sea when the commanders differed, and thus the attempt proved abortive. But as the war with Spain continued, a more formidable expedition was fitted out, under Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake, against their settlements in the West Indies, than had hitherto been undertaken during the whole course of it. Here, however, the commanders again disagreed about the plan; and the result in like manner disappointed public expectation. These disasters were keenly felt by Drake, and were the principal cause of his death, which took place on board his own ship, near the town of Nombre de Dios, in the West Indies, on the 28th of January 1595.
The older Lives by Samuel Clarke (1671) and John Barrow, junr. (1843), have been superseded by Julian Corbett’s two admirable volumes on Drake and the Tudor Navy (1898), the best source of information on the subject, which were preceded by the same author’s Sir Francis Drake in the “English Men of Action” series (1890). See also E. J. Payne’s edition of Voyages of the Elizabethan Seamen to America: Thirteen original narratives from the collection of Hakluyt (new ed., 1893).
DRAKE, NATHAN (1766–1836), English essayist and physician, son of Nathan Drake, an artist, was born at York in 1766. He was apprenticed to a doctor in York in 1779, and in 1786 proceeded to Edinburgh University, where he took his degree as M.D. in 1789. In 1790 he set up as a general practitioner at Sudbury, Suffolk, where he found an intimate friend in Dr Mason Good (d. 1827). In 1792 he removed to Hadleigh, Suffolk, where he died in 1836. His works include several volumes of literary essays, and some papers contributed to medical periodicals; but his most important production was Shakespeare and his Times, including the Biography of the Poet, Criticisms on his Genius and Writings; a new Chronology of his Plays; a Disquisition on the Object of his Sonnets; and a History of the Manners, Customs and Amusements, Superstitions, Poetry and Elegant Literature of his Age (2 vols., 1817). The title sufficiently indicates the scope of this ample work, which has the merit, says G. G. Gervinus (Shakespeare Commentaries, Eng. trans., 1877) “of having brought together for the first time into a whole the tedious and scattered material of the editions and of the many other valuable labours of Tyrwhitt, Heath, Ritson, &c.”
DRAKENBORCH, ARNOLD (1684–1748), Dutch classical scholar, was born at Utrecht on the 1st of January 1684. Having studied philology under Graevius and Burmann the elder, and law under Cornelius Van Eck, in 1716 he succeeded Burmann in his professorship (conjointly with C. A. Duker), which he continued to hold till his death on the 16th of January 1748. Although he obtained the degree of doctor of laws, and was intended for the legal profession, he determined to devote himself to philological studies. His edition of Livy (1738–1746, and subsequent editions) is the work on which his fame chiefly rests. The preface gives a particular account of all the literary men who have at different periods commented on the works of Livy. The edition itself is based on that of Gronovius; but Drakenborch made many important alterations on the authority of manuscripts which it is probable Gronovius had never seen. He also published Dissertatio de praefectis urbi (1704; reprinted at Frankfort in 1752 with a life of Drakenborch); Dissertatio de officio praefectorum praetorio (1707); and an edition of Silius Italicus (1717).
DRAKENSBERG (Quathlamba or Kahlamba, i.e. “heaped up and jagged,” of the natives), a mountain chain of S.E. Africa, running parallel to the coast from Basutoland to the Limpopo river—a distance of some 600 m. The Drakensberg are the eastern part of the rampart which forms the edge of the inner tableland of South Africa. The sides of the mountains facing the sea are in general precipitous; on their inner face they slope more or less gently to the plateau. The culminating points of the range, and the highest lands in South Africa, are found in a sharp bend from S.E. to N.W. in about 29° S. 29° E., where “the Berg” (as the range is called locally) forms the frontier between Natal and Basutoland. Within 60 m. of one another are three mountains, Giant’s Castle, Champagne Castle or Cathkin Peak, and Mont aux Sources, 10,000 to 11,000 or more ft. above the sea. From Mont aux Sources the normal N.E. direction of the range is resumed. Conspicuous among the heights along the Orange Free State, Transvaal and Natal frontiers are Tintwa, Malani, Inkwelo and Amajuba or Majuba (q.v.), all between 7000 and 8000 ft. The Draken’s Berg—the particular hill from which the range is named—is 5682 ft. high and lies between Malani and Inkwelo heights. It was so named by the voortrekkers about 1840. North of Majuba the range enters the Transvaal. Here the elevation is generally lower than in the south, but the Mauch Berg is about 8500 ft. high. At its northernmost point the range joins the Zoutpansberg. In their southern part the Drakensberg form the parting between the rivers draining west to the Atlantic and those flowing south and east to the Indian Ocean. At Mont aux Sources rise the chief headwaters of the Orange, Tugela and other rivers. In the north, however, several streams rising in the interior plateau, e.g. the Komati, the Crocodile and the Olifants, pierce the Drakensberg and reach the Indian Ocean. The range has numerous passes, many available for wheeled traffic. Van Reenen’s Pass, between Tintwa and Malani, is crossed by a railway which connects the Orange Free State and Natal: Laing’s Nek, the main pass leading from Natal to the Transvaal, which lies under the shadow of Majuba, is pierced by a railway tunnel. The railway from Delagoa Bay to Pretoria crosses the Drakensberg by a very steep gradient. Several subsidiary ranges branch off from the main chain of the Berg. This is especially the case in Natal, where one range is known as the Little Drakensberg. (See further Basutoland; Natal And Transvaal.)
