ABSTRACT
The earliest imperial rivalries in the region focused on the Spanish as England’s nemesis, and the initial English publications often chronicled the dashing tales of Elizabethan-era English intruders into the West Indies. Pre-eminent among those heroes, Sir Walter Ralegh and Sir Francis Drake earned deep and lasting fame. Drake, long feared and hated by the Spanish, died in the West Indies in 1596, at the low point of a difficult voyage. By that time the English and Spanish were at war. Elizabeth’s support for the Dutch rebels prompted Philip II to send out his grand armada against England in 1588. A disastrous failure, this invasion attempt brought outright war. In 1595, Drake organized a campaign to the Caribbean and South America. Henry Saville authored this account to defend the memory of Drake, whom he had accompanied on this voyage.
