to the General, related the Treatment which he had found, and died in his Sight. Drake was fo incenfed at this Outrage, that he ordered two Friars, then his Prisoners, to be conveyed with a Guard to the Place where the Crime was committed, and hanged up in the Sight of the Spaniards, declaring that two Spanish Prifoners fhould undergo the fame Death every Day, till the Offender fhould be delivered up by them: They were too well acquainted with the Character of Drake not to bring him on the Day following, when to imprefs the Shame of fuch Actions more effectually upon them, he compelled them to execute him with their own Hands. Of this Town, at their Departure, they demolifhed Part, and admitted the reft to be ranfomed for five-and-twenty thoufand Ducats.

From thence they failed to Carthagena, where the Enemy having received Intelligence of the Fate of St. Domingo, had ftrengthened their Fortifications, and prepared to defend themselves with great Obftinacy; but the English landing in the Night, came upon them by a Way which they did not fuspect, and being better armed, partly by Surprize, and partly by Superiority of Order and Valour, became Mafters of the Place, where they ftayed without Fear or Danger fix Weeks, and at their Departure received an hundred and ten thousand Ducats for the Ranfom of the Town.

They afterwards took St. Auguftin, and touching at Virginia, took on Board the Governor, Mr. Lane, with the English that had been left there the Year before by Sir Walter Raleigh, and arrived at Portf mouth on July 28, 1586, having loft in the Voyage feven hundred and fifty Men. The Gain of this Expedition amounted to fixty thousand Pounds, of which forty were the Share of the Adventurers, who fitted out the Ships, and the rest diftributed among

the

the feveral Crews, amounted to fix Pounds each Map. So cheaply is Life fometimes hazarded.

The Tranfactions against the Armada, 1588, are in themselves far more memorable, but lefs neceffary to be recited in this fuccinct Narrative; only let it be remembered, that the Poft of Vice-Admiral of England, to which Sir Francis Drake was then raised, is a fufficient Proof that no Obfcurity of Birth, or Meannefs of Fortue, is unfurmountable to Bravery and Diligence.

In 1595 Sir Francis Drake, and Sir John Hawkins, were fent with a Fleet to the Weft-Indies, which Expedition was only memorable for the Deftruction of Nombre de Dios, and the Death of the two Commanders, of whom Sir Francis Drake died January 9, 1597, and was thrown into the Sea in a Leaden Coffin, with all the Pomp of naval Obfequies. It is reported by fome, that the ill Succefs of this Voyage haftened his Death. Upon what this Conjecture is grounded does not appear, and we may be allowed to hope, for the Honour of fo great a Man, that it is without Foundation; and that he whom no Series of Succefs could ever betray to Vanity or Negligence, could have fupported a Change of Fortune without Impatience or Dejection.

THE

THE

LIFE OF ROGER ASCHAM,

ROGER ASCHAM was born in the Year 1515, at Kirby Wilke, (or Kirby Wicke) a Village near Northallerton in Yorkshire, of a Family above the Vulgar. His Father John Afcham was House-steward in the Family of Scroop; and in that Age, when the different Orders of Men were at a greater Distance from each other, and the Manners of Gentlemen were regularly formed by menial Services in great Houfes, lived with a very confpicuous Reputation. Margaret Afcham, his Wife, is faid to have been allied to many confiderable Families, but her maiden Name is not recorded. She had three Sons, of whom Roger was the youngest, and some Daughters; but who can hope, that of any Progeny more than one fhall deferve to be mentioned? They lived married fixty-feven Years, and at laft died together almoft on the fame Hour of the fame Day.

Roger having paffed his firft Years under the Care of his Parents, was adopted into the Family of Antony Wingfield, who maintained him, and committed his Education, with that of his own Sons, to the Care of one Bond, a domeftick Tutor. He very early difcovered an unusual Fondnefs for Literature by an eager Perufal of English Books, and having paffed happily through the fcholaftick Rudiments, was put, in 1530, by his Patron Wingfield, to St. John's College in Cambridge.

Afcham entered Cambridge at a Time when the last great Revolution of the intellectual World was filling every academical Mind with Ardour or Anxiety.

The

The Destruction of the Conftantinopolitan Empire had driven the Greeks with their Language into the interior Parts of Europe, the Art of Printing had made the Books eafily attainable, and Greek now began to be taught in England. The Doctrines of Luther had already filled all the Nations of the Romish Communion with Controverfy and Diffention. New Studies of Literature, and new Tenets of Religion, found Employment for all who were defirous of Truth, or ambitious of Fame. Learning was at that Time profecuted with that Eagernefs and Perfeverance which in this Age of Indifference and Disfipation it is not cafy to conceive. To teach or to

learn was at once the Bufinefs and the Pleasure of the academical Life; and an Emulation of Study was raised by Cheke and Smith, to which even the prefent Age perhaps owes many Advantages, without remembering or knowing its Benefactors.

Afcham foon refolved to unite himself to those who were enlarging the Bounds of Knowledge, and immediately upon his Admiffion into the College, applied himself to the Study of Greek. Thofe whe were zealous for the new Learning, were often no great Friends to the old Religion; and Afcham, as he became a Grecian, became a Proteftant. The Reformation was not yet begun, Difaffection to Popery was confidered as a Crime juftly punished by Exclufion from Favour and Preferment, and was not yet openly profeffed, though Superftition was gradually lofing its hold upon the Publick. The Study of Greek was reputable enough, and Afcham purfued it with Diligence and Succefs equally confpicuous. He thought a Language might be moft eafily learned by teaching it; and when he had obtained fome Proficiency in Greek, read Lectures, while he was yet a Boy, to other Boys who were 'defirous of Inftruction. His Induftry was much encouraged by Pember, a Man of great Eminence at

that

that Time, though I know not that he has left any Monuments behind him, but what the Gratitude of his Friends and Scholars has bestowed. He was one of the great Encouragers of Greek Learning, and particularly applauded Afcham's Lectures, affuring him in a Letter, of which Graunt has preservedan Extract, that he would gain more Knowledge by explaining one of Efop's Fables to a Boy, than by hearing one of Homer's Poems explained by another.

Afcham took his Bachelor's Degree in 1534, February 18, in the eighteenth Year of his Age; a Time of Life at which it is more common now to enter the Universities than to take Degrees, but which, according to the Modes of Education then in Ufe, had nothing of remarkable Prematurity. On the 23d of March following, he was chofen Fellow of the College; which Election he confidered as a fecond Birth. Dr. Metcalf the Master of the College, a Man, as Afcham tells us, meanly learned himself, but no mean Encourager of Learning in others, clandeftinely promoted his Election, though he openly feemed firft to oppofe it, and afterwards to cenfure it, because Afcham was known to favour the new Opinions; and the Mafter himself was accufed of giving an unjust Preference to the northern Men, one of the Factions into which this Nation was divided, before we could find any more important Reafon of Diffention, than that fome were born on the northern and fome on the fouthern Side of Trent. Any Caufe is fufficient for a Quarrel; and the Zealots of the North and South lived long in fuch Animofity, that it was thought neceffary at Oxford to keep them quiet by chufing one Proctor every

Year from each.

He feems to have been hitherto fupported by the Bounty of Wingfield, which his Attainment of a Fellowship now freed him from the Neceflity of re

ceiving