Drake made no more voyages of discovery. His subsequent exploits on the sea were all for the harassment of Spain. In 1585 he was admiral, with Martin Frobisher vice-admiral, as we have seen, of a fleet sent to intercept the Spanish galleons from the West Indies, and to “revenge the wrongs” offered England by Spain. In 1587 he sailed a fleet to Lisbon and there burned many ships, which he termed “singeing the King of Spain’s beard.” In 1588 he was the resourceful vice-admiral of the great fleet against the Spanish Armada. In 1589 he commanded the fleet sent to restore Dom Antonio to the throne of Portugal. Lastly, he was with his old leader, Sir John Hawkins, again in the West Indies and on the Spanish Main.
And here, in 1595, he died, on board his own ship, near Nombre de Dios, the object of his first assault in his first voyage of reprisal, a quarter of a century before.
Less than a fortnight after the departure of Martin Frobisher on his third and last Northwestern voyage, in May, 1578, Humphrey Gilbert had obtained the letters-patent which he had long coveted from Queen Elizabeth for the “inhabiting and planting of our people in America”; and before the summer was far advanced he had organized an expedition of his own with these objects.
This pioneer charter providing definitely for English colonization in America bore date of eleventh of June 1578, and was limited to six years. The full text is given in the _Principal Navigations_. It conferred upon Sir Humphrey, his heirs and assigns, large powers, and provided the machinery necessary for the government of a colony. It gave him and them free liberty and license to “discover, finde, search out, and view such remote, heathen and barbarous countreys and territories not actually possessed by any Christian prince or people,” and to have, hold, occupy, and enjoy such regions with all their “commodities, jurisdictions, and royalties both by sea and land,” the single condition being that one-fifth part of the gold and silver ore that might be obtained be paid over to the queen. They were empowered to “encounter, expulse, repell, and resist as well by Sea as by land” all persons attempting to inhabit without their special license in or within two hundred leagues of the places occupied by them. They were to have a monopoly of the commerce of such places, no vessels being permitted to enter their harbours for traffic except by their license. The rights of Englishmen were promised to all people who might become members of the colony.