The Lisbon Expedition
The next year, 1589, is famous for the unsuccessful Lisbon
Expedition. Drake had the usual troubles with Elizabeth, who wanted
him to go about picking leaves and breaking branches before laying
the axe to the root of the tree. Though there were in the Narrow
Seas defensive squadrons strong enough to ward off any possible
blow, yet the nervous landsmen wanted Corunna and other ports
attacked and their shipping destroyed, for fear England should be
invaded before Drake could strike his blow at Lisbon. Then there
were troubles about stores and ammunition. The English fleet had
been reduced to the last pound of powder twice during the ten-days'
battle with the Armada. Yet Elizabeth was again alarmed at the
expense of munitions. She never quite rose to the idea of one
supreme and finishing blow, no matter what the cost might be.
This was a joint expedition, the first in which a really modern
English fleet and army had ever taken part, with Sir John Norreys in
command of the army. There was no trouble about recruits, for all
men of spirit flocked in to follow Drake and Norreys. The fleet was
perfectly organized into appropriate squadrons and flotillas, such
as then corresponded with the battleships, cruisers, and mosquito
craft of modern navies. The army was organized into battalions and
brigades, with a regular staff and all the proper branches of the
service.
The fleet made for Corunna, where Norreys won a brilliant victory. A
curious little incident of exact punctilio is worth recording. After
the battle, and when the fleet was waiting for a fair wind to get
out of the harbor, the ships were much annoyed by a battery on the
heights. Norreys undertook to storm the works and sent in the usual
summons by a "parlementaire" accompanied by a drummer. An angry
Spaniard fired from the walls and the drummer fell dead. The English
had hostages on whom to take reprisals. But the Spaniards were too
quick for them. Within ten minutes the guilty man was tried inside
the fort by drum-head court-martial, condemned to death, and swung
out neatly from the walls, while a polite Spanish officer came over
to assure the English troops that such a breach of discipline should
not occur again.
Lisbon was a failure. The troops landed and marched over the ground
north of Lisbon where Wellington in a later day made works whose
fame has caused their memory to become an allusion in English
literature for any impregnable base--the Lines of Torres Vedras. The
fleet and the army now lost touch with each other; and that was the
ruin of them all. Norreys was persuaded by Don Antonio, pretender to
the throne of Portugal which Philip had seized, to march farther
inland, where Portuguese patriots were said to be ready to rise "en
masse". This Antonio was a great talker and a first-rate fighter
with his tongue. But his Portuguese followers, also great talkers,
wanted to see a victory won by arms before they rose.
Before leaving Lisbon Drake had one stroke of good luck. A Spanish
convoy brought in a Hanseatic Dutch and German fleet of merchantmen
loaded down with contraband of war destined for Philip's new Armada.
Drake swooped on it immediately and took sixty well-found ships.
Then he went west to the Azores, looking for what he called 'some
comfortable little dew of Heaven,' that is, of course, more prizes
of a richer kind. But sickness broke out. The men died off like
flies. Storms completed the discomfiture. And the expedition got
home with a great deal less than half its strength in men and not
enough in value to pay for its expenses. It was held to have failed;
and Drake lost favor.
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