17 May). Such was the spirit engendering in the officers and ships' companies under the command of a bold and successful leader. It was not, however, universal, and the vice-admiral, William Borough [q. v.], a good sailor and admirable pilot, but without the habitude of war, amid which Drake had grown from youth to middle age, was aghast at his commander's reckless and ill-advised proceedings. He accordingly wrote to Drake complaining of the autocratic way in which the fleet had been conducted; that though there had been often assemblies of the captains, no matter of counsel or advice had ever been propounded or debated; but that Drake had either shown briefly his purpose what he would do, or else had entertained them with good cheer; and so, after staying most part of the day, they had departed as wise as they came. 'I have found you always,' he said, 'so wedded to your own opinion and will, that you rather disliked and showed as that it were offensive unto you that any should give you advice in anything.' He proceeded specifically to object to the attack on Sagres then contemplated, and afterwards successfully carried out (in. 30 April; Barrow, p. 242). Drake replied by superseding Borough from his command and placing him under arrest, in which he remained, notwithstanding his earnest protest that he had written the letter 'only in discharge of his duty,' and that he was ready to undertake the service 'with much goodwill ond forwardness'(Barrow,p.247). On 27 May the ship's company of the Lion ran away with the ship and brought her back to England (Cal. State Papers, Dom., 6 June), probably enough at Borough's instigation, as Drake seems to have thought when he charged him with this and other breaches of discipline. Borough's defence was that he had no rule or authority over the men, having been displaced on 2 May, and having so remained. ' All which time,' he wrote, 'I stood ever in doubt of my life, and did expect daily when the admiral would have executed upon me his bloodthirsty desire, as he did upon Doughty' (ib. 29 July, 1 Aug. 1587,21 Feb.1588; Barrow, p. 251). It does not appear that Drake really pressed the charge with any bitterness; there is no room for doubt that Borough had been guilty of a very gross breach of discipline in presence of the enemy, yet he was acquitted and served in a more congenial capacity during the summer of 1588(Cal. State Papers, Dom., 28 July, 4 Aug. 1588).
Relieved of Borough's presence, Drake had stretched to seaward nearly as far as the Azores and captured a homeward-bound Portuguese East Indiaman, with which he returned to England in the last days of June. The vast wealth of this carack, officially estimated at upwards of 100,000l. (ib. 8 Oct. 1587), is said to have given English merchants the first clear idea of the East India trade, and to have virtually led to the foundation of the East India Company some twelve years later. The ship herself, after being unloaded, was sent off Saltash, where she accidentally caught fire and was entirely destroyed. But Drake was by no means willing to rest satisfied with the blow he had inflicted. He was anxious that it should be repeated and in the strongest language urged on the queen and her ministers the advisability of so damaging the king in his own harbours as to put it out of his power to prosecute his designs on England. While still on the coast of Portugal he had written (17 May); 'For the revenge of these things (as at Cadis and Sagres), what forces the country is able to make we shall be sure to have brought upon us, as far as they may;' but that if he had with him six more of her majesty's ships he could do much to bring them to terms (Barrow, p. 233). From this opinion he never wavered, and month after month, from Plymouth or from Portsmouth, repeated it with the utmost insistency, trusting 'that the Lord of all strengths will put into her majesty and her people courage and boldness not to fear any invasion in her own country, but to seek God's enemies and her majesty's where they may be found . . . for with fifty sail of shipping we shall do more good upon their own coast than a great many more will do here at home, and the sooner we are gone the better we shall be able to impeach them' (30 March 1588, ib. p. 275); and, among many other letters, writing to the queen that 'if a good peace be not forthwith concluded, then these great preparations of the Spaniard may be speedily prevented as much as in your majesty lieth, by sending your forces to encounter them somewhat far off, and more near their own coast, which will be the better cheap for your majesty and people and much the dearer for the enemy' (28 April 1588, ib. p. 279). To similar effect the lord high admiral had written (9 March): 'The delay of Sir Francis Drake going out may breed much peril. It will be of no use to refer to the armistice if the king of Spain should succeed in landing troops in England, Scotland, or Ireland.'
Judging as we can judge now, there is little reason to doubt that if Drake had been permitted to sail in force for the coast of Portugal during the spring, the critical campaign and the terrible alarm of the summer would have been prevented. But this was
