A Sight of Two Seas, by The Revd Philip Nichols

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South and north of this Tree, they had felled certain trees, that the prospect might be the clearer; and near about the Tree there were divers strong houses, that had been built long before, as well by other Cimaroons as by these, which usually pass that way, as being inhabited in divers places in those waste countries.

After our Captain had ascended to this bower, with the chief Cimaroon, and having, as it pleased God, at that time, by reason of the brize [breeze], a very fair day, had seen that sea, of which he had heard such golden reports: he “besought Almighty God of His goodness, to give him life and leave to sail once in an English ship, in that sea!”* And then calling up all the rest of our men,* he acquainted John Oxnam especially with this his petition and purpose, if it would please God to grant him that happiness. Who understanding it, presently* protested, that “unless our Captain did beat him from his company, he would follow him, by God’s grace!”*

by The Revd Philip Nichols ?-1614

From ‘Sir Francis Drake Revived: Faithfully taken out of the report of Master Christopher Ceely, Ellis Hixom and others, who were in the same Voyage with him by Philip Nichols, Preacher. Reviewed also by Sir Francis Drake himself, before his death; and much holpen and enlarged by divers notes, with his own hand, here and there inserted. Set forth by Sir Francis Drake, Baronet, (his nephew) now living.’ (1626), collected in the Harvard Classics series (Volume 33) published in 1910. Additional information from ‘Sir Francis Drake and the Famous Voyage, 1577-1580’ (1984) edited by Norman J. W. Thrower.

* They were seventeen in number. Disease and skirmishes with the Spanish had reduced the number cruelly from the seventy-three that set out with Drake from Plymouth in two ships, the Pascha and the smaller Swan, on May 24th, 1572.

* Drake lived to satisfy his ambition during his historic circumnavigation of the globe in 1577-1580, during which he made landfall in California and claimed it for Elizabeth I and the Kingdom of England. See The Voyage of the ‘Golden Hinde’.

* John Oxenham (d. 1580) arguably fulfilled his vow three years later. In 1576, with Drake still in England, Oxenham returned to Panama, built a ship there (the first European ship built in the New World), and sailed it upon the Pacific Ocean. Sadly he never returned to Drake’s service: the Spanish captured him in 1578 and hanged him at Lima on September 30th 1580, four days after Drake’s triumphant return to Plymouth following his circumnavigation of the globe.

* Immediately, at once.

Précis

Drake climbed the tree to the specially-made viewing platform, and gazed on what he had sacrificed so much to see. At that moment he conceived a new ambition: to sail an English ship on the Pacific Ocean. While the others enjoyed the view, he told John Oxenham of his new dream, and Oxenham vowed they would pursue it together.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

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