On the Spanish Main; Or, Some English Forays on the Isthmus of Darien

The Spanish Main in the age of Elizabeth I was a place where Englishmen went to become rich or become corpses. John Masefield, the future Poet Laureate, resurrects that violent, glittering world in prose that crackles like salt air. This is not dry history but a swashbuckling account of Francis Drake's transformation from a poverty-stricken sailor into England's most fearsome corsair, the man who would circle the globe and drive Spain to madness. Masefield traces Drake's early voyages to the West Indies, the disastrous encounter at San Juan d'Ulloa that forged his lifelong vendetta against the Spanish, and the meticulous preparations for the great raids that followed. He populates his narrative with the desperate gentlemen adventurers, seasoned sea dogs, and cutthroats who manned Drake's ships, all driven by the same hunger for gold and glory. The book captures both the romance and the brutality of buccaneering life: the long months of privation, the terror of battle, the savage code that governed these outlaws of the sea. For readers who dream of tall ships and black flags, of the thin line between privateer and pirate, this is an irresistible plunge into England's most audacious age of adventure.