"I took the message to the colonel, and soon after a sailor managed to
get up somehow or other, and we very quickly had messages going and
coming."
SEA SCOUTING
In the days of Queen Elizabeth, nearly four hundred years ago, the
sailors of Spain, of England, of Holland, and of Portugal were all
making themselves famous for their daring voyages in small sailing
ships across unknown oceans, by which they kept discovering new lands
for their country in distant corners of the world.
There was one small cabin-boy on a coasting brig in the English
Channel who used to long to become one of these discoverers but when
he looked at the practical side of the question it seemed hopeless for
a poor little chap like him ever to hope to rise in the world beyond
his present hard life in a wretched little coaster, living on bad food
and getting, as a rule, more kicks than halfpence--but it shows you
how the poorest boy can get on if he only puts his back to it.
* * * * *
SIR FRANCIS DRAKE,
Young Drake--for that was his name--did get on in spite of his
difficulties; he worked hard at his duty until he became a captain of
two small ships, one of seventy, the other of thirty tons, and with
these he sailed to fight the Spaniards, who were at that time our
enemies, away across the ocean in Central America.
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