The soldiers declared themselves ready to undertake the task; but in a
full council of war it was finally decided that no strategical advantage
would be gained at all proportional to the risk that would be run in
further weakening the fleet, and on the last day of March the signal to
make sail home was flying from the Elizabeth Bonaventura. So severely,
however, did they suffer from the weather and want of water that it was
nearly two months before they reached the coast of Florida. Still Drake
found time and energy to destroy and plunder the Spanish settlement at
St. Augustine, and relieve Raleigh's exhausted colony in Virginia. With
the remnants of the settlers on board, he weighed for England, and on
July 28, 1586, he was writing from Plymouth to Lord Burghley laconically
reporting his return; and, apologizing for having missed the Plate fleet
by only twelve hours' sail--"the reason best known to God"--he declared
that he and his fleet were ready at once to strike again in any
direction the Queen would be pleased to indicate.
"There is a very great gap opened," said Drake in his letter to
Burghley, "very little to the liking of the King of Spain." That, with
the calm request for orders, was his comment on a feat which changed the
destinies of Europe. At its fullest flood he had stemmed the tide of
Spanish empire.
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