different branches of the art of draining, which require to be separately noticed. 1. To drain land which is flooded or rendere marshy by water coming over it from a higher level, and having no adequate outlet below.

2. To drain land where springs rise to the surface, and where there are no natural channels for the water to run

off.

3. To drain land which is wet from its impervious nature, and where the evaporation is not sufficient to carry off all the water supplied by snow and rain.

The first branch includes all those extensive operations where large tracts of land are reclaimed by means of embankments, canals, sluices, and mills to raise the water; or where deep cuts or tunnels are made through hills which formed a natural dam or barrier to the water. Such works are generally undertaken by associations under the sanction of the government, or by the government itself; few individuals being possessed of sufficient capital, or having the power to oblige all whose interests are affected by the draining of the land to give their consent and afford assistance. In the British dominions there is no difficulty in obtaining the sanction of the legislature to any undertaking which appears likely to be of public benefit. In every session of parliament acts are passed giving certain powers and privileges to companies or individuals, in order to enable them to put into execution extensive plans of draining. That extensive draining in the counties of Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge, Lincoln, Norfolk, and Suffolk, which is known by the name of the BEDFORD LEVEL, was confided to the management of a chartered corporation, with considerable powers, as early as the middle of the seventeenth century, and by this means an immense extent of land has been rendered highly productive, which before was nothing but one continued marsh or fen.

In the valleys of the Jura, in the canton of Neufchatel in Switzerland, which are noted for their industry and prosperity, and where the manufacture of watches is so extensive as to supply a great part of Europe with this useful article, extensive lakes and marshes have been completely laid dry, by making a tunnel through the solid rock, and forming an outlet for the waters. All these operations require the science and experience of civil engineers, and cannot be undertaken without great means. The greater part of the lowlands in the Netherlands, especially in the province of Holland, have been reclaimed from the sea, or the rivers which flowed over them, by embanking and draining, and are only kept from floods by a constant attention to the works originally erected.

Where the land is below the level of the sea at high water, and without the smallest eminence, it requires a constant removal of the water which percolates through the banks or accumulates by rains; and this can only be effected by sluices and mills, as is the case in the fens in England. The water is collected in numerous ditches and canals, and led to the points where it can most conveniently be discharged over the banks. The mills commonly erected for this purpose are small windmills, which turn a kind of perpetual screw made of wood several feet in diameter, on a solid axle. This screw fits a semicircular trough which lies inclined at an angle of about 30° with the horizon. The lower part dips into the water below, and by its revolution discharges the water into a reservoir above. All the friction of pumps and the consequent wearing out of the machinery is thus avoided. If the mills are properly constructed, they require little attendance, and work night and day whenever the wind blows.

In hilly countries it sometimes happens that the waters, which run down the slopes of the hills collect in the bottoms where there is no outlet, and where the soil is impervious. In that case it may sometimes be laid dry by cutting a sufficient channel all round, to intercept the waters as they flow down and to carry them over or through the lowest part of the surrounding barrier. If there are no very abundant springs in the bottom, a few ditches and ponds will suffice to dry the soil by evaporation from their surface. We shall see that this principle may be applied with great advantage in many cases where the water could not be drained out of considerable hollows if it were allowed to run into them. When there are different levels at which the water is pent up, the draining should always be begun at the highest; because it may happen that when this is laid dry, the lower may not have a great excess of water. At all events, if the

water is to be raised by mechanical power, there is a saving in raising it from the highest level, instead of letting it run down to a lower from which it has to be raised so much higher.

In draining a great extent of land it is often necessary to widen and deepen rivers and alter their course; and not unfrequently the water cannot be let off without being carried by means of tunnels under the bed of some river, the level of which is above that of the land. In more confined operations cast-iron pipes are often a cheap and easy means of effecting this. They may be bent in a curve so as not to impede the course of the river or the navigation of a canal.

The draining of land which is rendered wet by springs arising from under the soil is a branch of more general application. The principles on which the operations are carried on apply as well to a small field as to the greatest extent of land. The object is to find the readiest channels by which the superfluous water may be carried off; and for this purpose an accurate knowledge of the strata through which the springs rise is indispensable. It would be useless labour merely to let the water run into drains after it has sprung through the soil and appears at the surface, as ignorant men frequently attempt to do, and thus carry it off after it has already soaked the soil. But the origin of the springs must, if possible, be detected; and one single drain or ditch judiciously disposed may lay a great extent of land dry if it cuts off the springs before they run into the soil. Abundant springs which flow continually generally proceed from the outbreaking of some porous stratum in which the waters were confined, or through natural crevices in rocks or impervious earth. A knowledge of the geology of the country will greatly assist in tracing this, and the springs may be cut off with greater certainty. But it is not these main springs which give the greatest trouble to an experienced drainer; it is the various land springs which are sometimes branches of the former, and often original and independent springs arising from sudden variations in the nature of the soil and subsoil. The annexed diagram representing a section of an uneven surface of land will explain the nature of the strata which produce springs.

Suppose AA a porous substance through which the water filtrates readily; BB a stratum of loam or clay im pervious to water. The water which comes through A A will run along the surface of BB towards S S, where it will spring to the surface and form a lake or bog between S and S. Suppose another gravelly or pervious stratum under the last, as CCC bending as here represented, and filled with water running into it from a higher level; it is evident that this stratum will be saturated with water up to the dotted line E F F, which is the level of the point in the lower rock, or impervious stratum DD, where the water can run over it. If the stratum BB has any crevices in it below the dotted line, the water will rise through these to the surface and form springs rising from the bottom of the lake or bog: and if BB were bored through and a pipe inserted rising up to the dotted line, as co, the water would rise, and stand at o. If there were no springs at S S the space below the dotted line might still be filled with water rising from the stratum CCC. But if the boring took place at G the water would not rise, but on the contrary, if there were any on the surface, it would be carried down to the porous stratum E CC, and run off. Thus in one situation boring will bring water, and in another it will take it off. This principle being well understood will greatly facilitate all draining of springs. Wherever water springs there must be a pervious and an impervious stratum to cause it and the water either runs over the impervious surface or rises through the crevices in it. When the line of the springs is found, as at S S, the obvious remedy is to cut a channe with a sufficient declivity to take off the water in a direction across this line, and sunk through the porous soil at the surface into the lower impervious earth. The place for this channel is where the porous soil is the shallowest above the breaking out, so as to require the least depth of drain;

When there is a great variation in the soil, and it is diffeult to find any main line of springs, it is best to proceed experimentally by making pits a few feet deep, or by boring various parts where water appears, observing the level at which the water stands in these pits or bores, as well as the nature of the soil taken out. Thus it will generally be easy to ascertain whence the water arises, and how it may be let off. When there is a mound of light soil over a more impervious stratum, the springs will break out all round the edge of the mound; a drain laid round the base will take off all the water which arises from this cause, and the lower part of the land will be effectually laid dry. So likewise where there is a hollow or depression of which the bottom is clay with sand in the upper part, a drain laid along the edge of the hollow and carried round it will prevent the water runang down into it, and forming a marsh at the bottom. When the drains cannot be carried to a sufficient depth to take the water out of the porous stratum saturated with it, # is often useful to bore numerous holes with an auger in the bottom of the drain through the stiffer soil, and, according to the principle explained in the diagram, the water will either rise through these bores into the drains and be carried off, and the natural springs will be dried up, or will sink down through them as at G, in the section, if it lies above. This method is often advantageous in the draining of peat mosses, which generally lie on clay er stiff loam, with a layer of gravel between the loam and the peat, the whole lying in a basin or hollow, and often on a declivity. The peat, though it retains water, is not pervious, and drains may be cut into it which will hold water. When the drains are four or five feet deep and the peat is much deeper, holes are bored down to the clay below, and the water is pressed up through these holes, by the weight of the whole body of peat, into the drains, by which it is carried off. The bottom of the drains is sometimes choked with loose sand, which flows up with the water, and they require to be cleared repeatedly; but this soon eases after the first rush is past, and the water rises slowly and regularly. The surface of the peat being dried, dressed with lime, and consolidated with earth and gravel, soon becomes productive. If the soil, whatever be its nature, can be drained to a certain depth, it is of no consequence What water may be lodged below it. It is only when it rises so as to stagnate about the roots of plants that it is hurtful. Land may be drained so much as to be deteriorated, as expereare has shown.

When a single large and deep drain will produce the desed effect, it is much better than when there are several smaller, as large drains are more easily kept open, and last kager than smaller; but this is only the case in tapping ma springs, for if the water is diffused through the surreading soil, numerous small drains are more effective: bu as soon as there is a sufficient body of water collected, the smaller drains should run into larger, and these into man drains, which should all, as far as is practicable, unite che principal outlet, by which means there will be less rance of their being choked up. When the water springs Il a drain from below, it is best to fill up that part of the drain which lies above the stones or other materials with form the channel with solid earth well pressed in, and made impervious to within a few inches of the bottom of the furrows in ploughed land, or the sod in pastures; because the water running along the surface is apt to carry he earth with it, and choke the drains. When the water ces in by the side of the drains, loose stones or gravel, or any porous material, should be laid in them to the line where the water comes in, and a little above it, over which the earth may be rammed in tight so as to allow the horses to walk over the drain without sinking în.

It sometimes happens, that the water collected from songs which caused marshes and bogs below, by being carP. C., No. 546.

The third branch in the art of draining is the removal of water from impervious soils which lie flat, or in hollows, where the water from rain, snow, or dews, which cannot sink into the soil on account of its impervious nature, and which cannot be carried off by evaporation, runs along the surface and stagnates in every depression. This is by far the most expensive operation, in consequence of the number of drains required to lay the surface dry, and the necessity of filling them with porous substances, through which the surface water can penetrate. It requires much skill and practice to lay out the drains so as to produce the greatest effect at the least expense. There is often a layer of light earth immediately over a substratum of clay, and after continued rains this soil becomes filled with water, like a sponge, and no healthy vegetation can take place. In this case numerous drains must be made in the subsoil, and over the draining tiles or bushes, which may be laid at the bottom of the drains, loose gravel or broken stones must be laid in to within a foot of the surface, so that the plough shall not reach them. The water will gradually sink into these drains, and be carried off, and the loose wet soil will become firm and dry. In no case is the advantage of draining more immediately apparent.

It is very seldom that a field is absolutely level; the first thing therefore to be ascertained is the greatest inclination and its direction. For this purpose there is an instrument essential to a drainer, with which an accurately horizonta line can be ascertained, by means of a plummet or a spirit level. A sufficient fall may thus be found or artificially made in the drains to carry off the water. The next object is to arrange drains so that each shall collect as much of the water in the soil as possible. Large drains, except as main drains, are inadmissible, since it is by the surface that the water is to come in, and two small drains will collect more than a larger and deeper. The depth should be such only that the plough may not reach it, if the lana is arable, or the feet of cattle tread it in, if it be in pasture. All the drains which are to collect the water should lie as nearly at right angles to the inclination of the surface as is consistent with a sufficient fall in the drains to make them run. One foot is sufficient fall for a drain 300 feet in length, provided the drains be not more than 20 feet apart. The main drains, by being laid obliquely across the fall of the ground, will help to take off a part of the surface water. It is evident that the drains can seldom be in a straight line, unless the ground be perfectly even. They should, however, never have sudden turns, but be bent gradually where the direction is changed. The flatter the surface and the stiffer the soil, the greater number of drains will be required. It is a common practice with drainers to run a main drain directly down the slope, however rapid, and to carry smaller drains into this alternately on the right and left, which they call herring-bone fashion. But this can only be approved of where the ground is nearly level, and where there is very little fall for the main drain. A considerable fall is to be avoided as much as possible; and every drain should lie obliquely to the natural run of the water. It generally happens that, besides surface water, there are also some land springs arising from a variation in the soil; these should be carefully ascertained, and the drains should be so laid as to cut them off.

In draining clay land, where there is only a layer of a few inches of looser soil over a solid clay which the plough never stirs, the drains need not be deeper than two feet in the solid clay, nor wider than they can be made without the sides falling in. The common draining tile, which is a flat tile bent in the form of half a cylinder, and which can be made at a very cheap rate with the patent machine, is the best for extensive surface draining. In solid clay it requires no flat tile under it, it is merely an arch to carry the loose stones or earth with which the drain is filled up. Loose round stones or pebbles are the best where they can be procured; and in default of them, bushes, heath, or straw, may be laid immediately over the tiles, and the most porous earth that can be got must be used to fill the drains up: the stiff clay which was dug out must be taken away or spread VOL. IX.-R

over the surface; for if it were put in the drain, it would defeat the object in view by preventing the water from running into it from above. In grass land, the sod may be laid over the drain, after it has been filled up so as to form a slight ridge over it. This will soon sink to a level with the surface, and in the mean time serves to catch the water as it runs down. To save the expense of stone or tiles, drains are frequently made six inches wide at the bottom, a narrow channel is cut in the solid clay, two or three inches wide and six deep, leaving a shoulder on each side to support a sod which is cut so as to fit the drain, and rests on the shoulders: this sod keeps the earth from filling the channel; and the water readily finds its way through it, or between it and the sides of the drain. It is filled up as described before: such drains are made at a small expense, and will last for many years.

Where the clay is not sufficiently tenacious, the bottom of the drain is sometimes cut with a sharp angle, and a twisted rope of straw is thrust into it. This keeps the earth from falling in, and the running of the water keeps the channel open; the straw not being exposed to the air, remains a long time without decaying. This is a common mode of draining in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex.

The best materials for large main drains, where they can be procured, are flat stones which readily split, and of which square or triangular channel is formed in the bottom of he drain. If the drain is made merely as a trunk to carry off the water, it is best to fill it up with earth, well pressed in, over the channel made by the stones; but if it serves for receiving the water through the sides or from the top, fragments of stone should be thrown over it to a certain height, and the earth put over these. A very useful draining tile is used in Berkshire and other places, which requires no flat tile under it, even in loose soils, because it has a flat foot to rest on, formed of the two thick edges of the tile, which, nearly meeting when the tile is bent round, form the foot. The section of the tile is like a horse-shoe. It is well adapted for drains where the water springs upwards, and it is less apt to slip out of its place than the common tile. They are usually made twelve or thirteen inches in length, but they are more expensive than the common tiles.

In draining fields it is usual to make the outlets of the drains in the ditch which bounds them. The fewer outlets there are, the less chance there is of their being choked they should fall into the ditch at 2 ft. from the bottom, and a wooden trunk or one of stone should be laid so that the water may be discharged without carrying the soil from the side of the ditch. If there is water in the ditch, it should be kept below the mouth of the drain. The outlets of all drains should be repeatedly examined, to keep them clear; for wherever water remains in a diain, it will soon derange or choke it. The drains should be so arranged or turned, that the outlet shall meet the ditch at an obtuse angle towards the lower part where the water runs to. A drain brought at right angles into a ditch must necessarily soon be choked by the deposition of sand and earth at its mouth.

As the draining of wet clay soils is the only means by which they can be rendered profitable as arable land, and the expense is great, various instruments and ploughs have been contrived to diminish manual labour and expedite the work. Of these one of the simplest is the common moleplough, which in very stiff clay makes a small hollow drain, from 1 ft. to 18 in. below the surface, by forcing a pointed iron cylinder horizontally through the ground. It makes a cut through the clay, and leaves a cylindrical channel, through which the water which enters by the slit is carried off. It requires great power to draw it, and can only be used when the clay is moist. In meadows it is extremely useful, and there it need not go more than a foot under the sod. Five to ten acres of grass land may easily be drained by it in a day. It is very apt, however, to be filled in dry weather by the soil falling in; and the animals from which it derives its name often do much damage to it by using it in their subterraneous workings.

But a draining plough has been invented, which, assisted by numerous labourers, greatly accelerates the operation of forming drains, by cutting them out in a regular manner, when they are immediately finished with the usual tools 2nd filled up. It has done wonders in some of the wet stiff soils in Sussex, and is much to be recommended in all wet and heavy clays. In stony land it cannot well be used. The subsoil plough, introduced to public notice by Mr. Smith

of Deanston, may be considered in some measure as a drain ing plough, for it loosens the subsoil, so that a few main drains are sufficient to carry off all the superfluous moisture; and it has besides the effect of not carrying off more than what is superfluous. By means of judicious drains and the use of the subsoil plough, the stiffest and wettest land may in time become the most fertile.

The tools used in draining are few and simple. Spades, with tapering blades of different sizes, are required to dig the drains of the proper width, and the sides at a proper angle. Hollow spades are used in very stiff clay. When the drain begins to be very narrow near the bottom, scoops are used, of different sizes, which are fixed to handles at various angles, more conveniently to clear the bottom and lay it smooth to the exact width of the tiles, if these are used; for the more firmly the tiles are kept in their places by the solid sides of the drain, the less likely they are to be moved. (Elkington, Stephens, Johnstone, Donaldson, Young, Marshall.)

DRAKE, SIR FRANCIS, was born in or about the year 1546, in an humble cottage on the banks of the Tavy, in Devonshire. His father, who was a poor and obscure yeoman, had twelve sons, of whom Francis was the eldest. According to Camden, who derived his information from Drake himself, Francis Russel, afterwards earl of Bedford, stood as his godfather, and John Hawkins, a distinguished navigator, defrayed the slight expenses of his short school education. In the days of persecution under Queen Mary, his father, who was known in his neighbourhood as a zealous protestant and a man of some acquirements, fled from Devonshire into Kent, where Drake was brought up; 'God dividing the honour,' says Fuller, betwixt two counties. that the one might have his birth and the other his educa tion.' Under Elizabeth his father obtained an appoint ment among the seamen in the king's navy to read prayers to them;' and soon afterwards was ordained deacon, and made vicar of Upnor church on the Medway, a little below Chatham, where the royal fleet usually anchored. Francis thus grew up among sailors; and while he was yet very young, his father, by reason of his poverty, apprenticed him to a neighbour, the master of a bark, who carried on a coasting trade, and sometimes made voyages to Zeeland and France.' This master kept Drake close to his work, and pains, with patience in his youth,' says Fuller, knit the joints of his soul, and made them more solid and compact.' When his master died, having no children of his own, he bequeathed to young Drake the bark and its equipments. With this he continued in the old trade, and had got together some little money, and was in the fair way of becoming a thriving man, when his ima gination was inflamed by the exploits of his protector Haw kins in the New World; and suddenly selling his ship, he repaired to Plymouth, and embarked himself and his for tunes in that commander's last and unfortunate adventure to the Spanish Main. In this disastrous expedition Drake lost all the money he had in the world, and suffered not a little in character; for he disobeyed orders, and deserted his superior and his friend in the hour of need. He, however, showed skilful seamanship, and brought the vessel he commanded-the Judith, a small bark of 50 tons-safely home. A chaplain belonging to the fleet comforted Drake with the assurance that, as he had been treacherously used by the Spaniards, he might lawfully recover in value upon the king of Spain, and repair his losses upon him whenever and wherever he could. Fuller says, 'The case was clear in sea divinity; and few are such infidels as not to believe doctrines which make for their profit. Whereupon Drake, though a poor private man, undertook to revenge himself on so mighty a monarch, who, not contented that the sun riseth and setteth in his dominions, may seem to desire to make all his own where he shineth.' Being readily joined by a number of sea adventurers, who mustered among them money enough to fit out a vessel, Drake made two or three voyages to the West Indies, to gain intelligence and learn the navigation of those parts; but Camden adds, that ne also got some store of money there, by playing the seaman and the pirate.' In 1570 he obtained a regular commission from Queen Elizabeth, and cruised to some purpose in the West Indies. In 1572 he sailed again for the Spanish Main, with the Pasha, of 70 tons, and the Swan, of 25 tons, the united crews of which amounted to 73 men and boys. He was joined off the coast of South America by another bark, from the Isle of Wight, with 38 men; and with this

insignificant force he took and plundered the town of Nombre de Dios, and made great spoil among the Spanish shipping. He partially crossed the Isthmus of Darien, and obtained a view of the great Pacific, an ocean as yet closed to English enterprise; and with his eyes anxiously fixed upon its waters, he prayed God to grant him 'life and leave once to sail an English ship in those seas.'

After some extraordinary adventures, Drake returned to England, with his frail barks absolutely loaded and crammed with treasure and plundered merchandise; and on the 9th of August, 1573, anchored at Plymouth. It was a Sunday, and the townsfolk were at church; but when the news spread thither that Drake was come, there remained few no people with the preacher,' all running out to welcome the Devonshire hero. Drake being employed in the interval in the service of the queen in Ireland, was forestalled in the honour of being the first Englishman to sail on the Pacific by one John Oxenham, who had served under him as common sailor and cook; but as this man merely floated a pinnace' on the South Sea, and was taken by the Spaniards and executed as a pirate, he could scarcely be an object of

envy.

In 1577, under the secret sanction of Queen Elizabeth, Drake departed on another marauding expedition, taking with him five vessels, the largest of which was of 100, and the smallest of 15 tons. The united crews of this miniature fleet amounted to 164 men, gentlemen and sailors. Among the gentlemen were some young men of noble families, who (not to mention the plunder anticipated) 'went out to learn the art of navigation.' After many adventures along the coasts of the South American continent, where some of his attacks were completely successful, Drake and his choice comrades came to Port Julian, on the coast of Patagonia, near the Straits of Magalhaens, where they were much comforted by finding a gibbet standing-a proof that Christian people had been there before them. Drake, during his stay in Port Julian, put to death Master Doughtie,' a gentleman of birth and education, whose fate is still involved in some mystery, notwithstanding the laudable endeavours of Dr. Southey to rescue the fame of one of our greatest naval heroes from the suspicion of a foul murder. On the 20th of August Drake reached Cape Virgenes, and sailed through the Strait of Magalhaens, being the third navigator who performed that passage. On the 17th day after making Cape Virgenes he cleared the strait, and entered the Pacific or South Sea. Having obtained an immense booty by plundering the Spanish towns on the roast of Chili and Peru, and by taking, among many other vessels, a royal galleon called the 'Cacafuego,' richly laden with plate, he sailed to the north in the hope of finding a passage back to the Atlantic, a little above California. He reached lat. 48° N., where the extreme severity of the cold discouraged his men, and he put back ten degrees, and took shelter in Port San Francisco. After staying five weeks in that port, he determined to follow the example of Magalhaens, and steer across the Pacific for the Moluccas. He made Ternate, one of the Molucca group, in safety, and thence set his course for Java.

From Java he sailed right across the Indian Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope, which he doubled without accident, and thence shaped his course homewards. He arrived at Plymouth on Sunday, the 26th September, 1579, after an absence of two years and nearly ten months, during which he had circumnavigated the globe, and spent many months on the almost unknown south-western coasts of America. Drake was most graciously received at court, and Elizabeth now asserted more firmly than ever her right of navigating the ceean in all its parts, and denied the exclusive right which the Spaniards claimed over the seas and lands of the New World. And though the queen yielded so far as to pay a considerable sum out of the treasure Drake had brought home to the procurator of certain merchants who urged, rith some reason, that they had been unjustly robbed, enough was left to make it a profitable adventure for the privateers. At her orders Drake's ship was drawn up in a little creek near Deptford, there to be preserved as a monument of the most memorable voyage that the English had ever yet performed: she partook of a banquet on board the vessel, and there knighted the captain. During part of the year 1585, and the whole of 1586, Drake was actively employed against Philip II. on the coasts of Spain and Portugal, in the Canaries, the Cape de Verdes, the West India

islands, and on the coast of South America, where Cartha gena and other towns were taken and plundered. In the course of this expedition Drake visited the Enguish colony in Virginia, which had been recently planted by Raleigh, and finding the colonists in great distress, he took them on board and brought them home with him. It is said that tobacco was first brought into England by the men who returned from Virginia with Drake. In 1587, when formidable preparations were making in the Spanish ports for the invasion of England, Elizabeth appointed Drake to the command of a fleet equipped for the purpose of destroying the enemy's ships in their own harbours. This force did not exceed thirty sail, and only four were of the Navy Royal, the rest, with the exception of two yachts belonging to the Queen, being furnished by merchant adventurers. In the port of Cadiz, the first place he attacked, he found sixty ships and many vessels of inferior size, all protected by land batteries. Drake entered the roads on the morning of the 19th April, and he burnt, sunk, or took thirty ships, some of which were of the largest size; and it appears he might have done much more mischief but for the necessity he was under of securing as much booty, in goods, as he could for the benefit of the merchant adventurers. He then turned back along the coast, taking or burning nearly a hundred vessels between Cadiz and Cape St. Vincent, besides destroying four castles on shore. This was what Drake called singeing the king of Spain's beard.' From Cape St. Vincent he sailed to the Tagus, and entering that river, came to anchor near Cascaes, whence he sent to tell the Marquis Santa-Cruz, who was lying up the river with a large force of galleys, that he was ready to exchange bullets with him. The marquis, who had been appointed general of the Armada preparing for the invasion of England, and who was esteemed the best sailor of Spain, declined the challenge, and he died (the English writers say of vexation at the mischief done by Drake) before that ill-fated expedition could sail.

The operations we have briefly related delayed the sailing of that armament more than a year, and gave Élizabeth time to prepare for her defence. Having thus performed the public service, Drake bore away to the Azores, on the lookout for the treasure ships from India, and he was so fortunate as to fall in with an immense carrack most richly laden. He took it, of course, and the taking of this ship," says a contemporary, was of a greater advantage to the English merchants than the value of her cargo to the captors; for, by the papers found on board, they so fully understood the rich value of the Indian merchandizes, and the manner of trading into the eastern world, that they afterwards set up a gainful traffic, and established a company of East India merchants.' Drake generously spent a considerable part of his prize-money in supplying the town of Plymouth with good, fresh water, for hitherto there was none, except what the inhabitants fetched from a mile distance.

His next service at sea was as vice-admiral in the fleet under Charles Lord Howard of Effingham, lord high admiral of England, which, with the assistance of the elements, scattered and destroyed the 'Invincible Armada' of Spain. (ARMADA.) The seamanship of Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher contributed largely to the happy result. In the following year, 1589, Drake was employed as admiral in an expedition sent to Portugal, in the hope of expelling the Spaniards, who had taken possession of that kingdom, by establishing the claims of Antonio, a pretender, around whom the English expected the Portuguese would rally. The whole expedition was badly planned, most miserably supplied with money and the other means of war, and but lamely executed after the landing of the troops. It was also disgraced by cruelties unusual even in that age, and inexcusable, notwithstanding the provocation which the English had so recently received on their own shores. In 1595 Drake and Sir John Hawkins, who had good experience in those parts, represented to Elizabeth that the best place for striking a blow at the gigantic power of Spain was in the West Indies; and an expedition thither was prepared, Drake and Hawkins sailing together with twenty-six ships, on board of which was embarked a land force under the orders of Sir Thomas Baskerville and Sir Nicholas Clifford. There were too many in command, and the usual bad consequences ensued. After losing time in debate they were obliged to give up an attempt on the Canaries with some loss. When they got among the West India islands Drake and Hawkins not only quarrelled but separated for some time, and before reaching the east end of Puerto Rico Hawkins died, his

One of Drake's smallest vessels was captured by the Spaniards, who, by putting the crew of it to the torture, extracted information respecting the plans of the expedition. When Drake attacked Puerto Rico he found that place fully warned and prepared, and his desperate attack was defeated. Sailing away, he took and burned Rio de la Hacha, Rancheria, Santa Martha, and Nombre de Dios; getting no greater spoil than 20 tons of silver, and 2 bars of gold. Drake remained in the harbour of Nombre de Dios, a most unhealthy place, while Baskerville with a part of the land forces made a vain and ruinous attempt to cross the isthmus of Darien, in order to plunder and destroy the city of Panama. A fatal disease broke out among soldiers and sailors, and soon deprived them of the important services of the chief surgeon of the fleet. When many of his men and three of his captains had died, the hardy Drake himself fell sick, and after struggling some twenty days with his malady, and the grief occasioned by his failures, he expired on the 27th of December, 1595. On the same day the fleet anchored at Puerto Bello, and in sight of that place, which he had formerly taken and plundered, his body received a sailor's funeral

The waves became his winding sheet,
The waters were his tomb;
But for his fame the ocean sea

Was not sufficient room.

So sang one of his admiring contemporaries. Though the reputation of Drake as a skilful seaman and a bold commander was deservedly great, still, unless we judge him by the circumstances and the standard of the times, he must appear in many of his exploits in no other light than that of a daring and skilful buccaneer. (Southey, Naval History; Harris, Collection of Voyages.)

DRAKENBORCH, ARNOLD, was born at Utrecht, in 1684, studied in that university under Grævius and Peter Burmann, and at the age of 20 wrote an elaborate dissertation De Præfectis Urbis,' which established his reputation as a scholar. The heads of the chapters will best explain the various bearings and the classical importance of the subject. Ch. 1. is 'De Præfectis Urbis in genere,' in which the author explains the various kinds of magistrates at Rome who bore this name at different epochs, their various appellations, such as Custos Urbis, &c. 2. De Præfectis Urbis sub Regibus institutis,' who were appointed by several kings to take care of the city of Rome during their absence in war. Similar officers were occasionally appointed under the republic during the absence of the two consuls. 3. 'De Præfecto Urbis feriarum Latinarum caussa;' this was also a temporary magistrate appointed while the consuls were attending the Latin festivals on the Alban Mount. [ALBA LONGA.] 4. De ultimo Præfecto sub Imperatoribus creato.' Augustus created the permanent office of præfect of Rome, which was filled by a senator appointed by the emperor, sometimes for life, sometimes for a shorter period. Messala Corvinus was the the first præfect appointed, but he soon after resigned, and Mæcenas succeeded him. Panvinius, in his Annals,' has given a list of a". the præfects of Rome from Augustus to the fall of the empne. In the following chapters Drakenborch explains the nature, importance, and various duties of the office. 5. De his qui ad Præfecturam Urbis admittuntur, eorumque dignitate. 6. De Jurisdictione Præfecti Urbis.' 7. De Curâ Præfecti Urbis circa annonam.' 8. De Curâ Præfecti Urbis circa ædificia.' 9. 'Idem circa ludos.' 10. 'De variis Officiis ad Præfectum Urbis pertinentibus.' 11. De Insignibus Præfecti Urbis.' The præfect of Rome was the first civil magistrate of the city and country around as far as the hundredth milliary stone; he ranked next to the emperor, was supreme judge in all important causes, heard appeals from the inferior magistrates, had charge of the police of the city, the superintendence of the markets and provisions, and, what was no less important at Rome, of the public games. He had under his orders the 'milites urbanos et stationarios,' a sort of militia which kept guard in the city.

This valuable little work of Drakenborch has gone through several editions; that of Bareuth, 1787, contains an extract from the author's funeral oration, by Professor Oosterdyk, in which the other works of Drakenborch are mentioned. Upon leaving Utrecht he went to Leyden to study the law, but there also he devoted his chief attention

wrote, in 1707, another dissertation 'De Officio Præfectorum Prætorio,' in which he explains and illustrates the nature and duties of that important military office in the same manner as he had done for that of the præfects of the city. He states the changes made by various emperors, and lastly by Constantine, who, having abolished the prætorians, appointed four præfects of the prætorium, one for each division of the empire, who were supreme magistrates within their respective jurisdictions.

Drakenborch undertook, by the advice of Peter Burmann, an edition of Silius Italicus, which appeared in 1717. On Burmann's removal to Leyden, Drakenborch succeeded him in the chair of eloquence and history at Utrecht. His edition of Livy, on which he bestowed much time and labour, was published in 1738-46, in 7 vols. 4to. The value of the edition lies in the large collection of various readings, and the illustration of idioms by parallel passages drawn from the writings of Livy. The text is decidedly inferior to that which is found in the unpretending editions by Stroth, Raschig, &c. He published also, De Utilitate et Fructu humanarum Disciplinarum Oratio inauguralis;' Oratio funebris in Mortem Francisci Burmanni,' and other orations and dissertations, and also a History of Utrecht,' and 'Genealogies of the noble Families of Holland.' He died at Utrecht in 1747.

DRAMA, ATTIC (ôpãμa, an action), is said by Aristotle (Poet. iv., 14) to have arisen from the recitations of the leaders of the DITHYRAMBUs. To understand this statement we must bear in mind that a Greek tragedy always consisted of two distinct parts; the dialogue, which was written in the Attic dialect, and corresponded in its general features to the dramatical compositions of modern times, and the chorus, which to the last was more or less pervaded by Dorisms, and the whole tone of which was lyrical rather than dramatical. We must add that the metre of the dialogue, whether Iambic or Trochaic, was staid and uniform; while the choruses were written with every variety of metre. In a word, the dialogue was meant to be recited; the chorus was intended to be sung. It is obvious that these two elements must have had different origins. The one was an offshoot of the lyric poetry which sprung up among the Dorians, the other is to be referred to the rhapsodical recitations which were peculiar to the Ionian branch of the Greek nation; and as the Athenians stood in the middle between the Ionians and the Dorians, so the Attic drama may be considered as the point of intersection of the Ionian and Dorian literatures. That choral and consequently lyrical poetry should spring up among the Dorians was a natural result of the peculiar organization of a Doric state [DORIANS]; and the Epos as naturally arose among the Ionians, the countrymen of Homer. (Hist. of the Literature of Greece, in the Library of Useful Knowledge, p. 41 and following.) [HOMER.] The Ionian epic poetry, which was written in dactylic hexameters, was recited by a set of men called rhapsodists [RHAPSODY]; and the gnomic and didactic poetry of Hesiod was recited in the same way. But the dactylic hexamete was not found suitable for gnomic poetry, and a modification of it, consisting also of six feet, but each foot shorter by a half-time than the dactyl, was substituted for it. This metre (the Iambic), or a lengthened form of it (the Trochaic), was used by Archilochus, Simonides of Amorgus, and Solon, whose verses were recited by themselves or by rhapsodists in the same way as the epic poetry which preceded them.

The lyric poetry of the Dorians was originally appropriated to the worship of Apollo, but the particular odes and choruses used in this worship were in process of time transferred to the cognate deity, Bacchus (who was, like Apollo, the god of the sun [BACCHUS and DEMETER]; and these odes and choral dances had, all of them, their repre sentatives in the dramatic poetry of a later age. (Athenæus, p. 630, D.) But the Dithyrambus was the earliest species of choral poetry connected with the worship of Bacchus, and it appears from many allusions, and indeed from Dithyrambic fragments, that while the body of the song was composed in irregular metres, the poet himself, or some rhapsodist, acting as exarchus, or leader, in his place, recited trochaics as an introduction. Here then was a mixture of recitation and chorus perfectly analogous to the tragedy of later time, which was probably suggested by it; and it is in this sense, we doubt not, that Aristotle