Part I Exploits Off South America
“Meekly content and tamely stay-at-home
The sea-birds seemed that piped across the waves;
And Drake, bemused, leaned smiling to his friend
Doughty and said, ‘Is it not strange to know
When we return, yon speckled herring-gulls
Will still be wheeling, dipping, flashing there?
We shall not find a fairer land afar
Than those thyme-scented hills we leave behind!
Soon the young lambs will bleat across the combes,
And breezes will bring puffs of hawthorn scent
Down Devon lanes; over the purple moors
Lav’rocks will carol; and on the village greens
Around the maypole, while the moon hangs low,
The boys and girls of England merrily swing
In country footing through the flowery dance.’”
—Alfred Noyes (Drake).
THE BATTLE OF THE
FALKLAND ISLANDS