Melville was earnest. I said they were both the fairest ladies of their 1593 Courts, and that the Queen of England was whiter, but our Queen was very lusome.1 She inquired which of them was of highest stature. I said, our Queen. Then she said the Queen was over high, and that herself was neither over high nor over low. Then she asked what kind of exercises she used. I said that I was dispatched out of Scotland, that the Queen was but new come back from the Highland hunting; and when she had leisure from the affairs of her country, she read upon good books the histories of divers countries, and sometimes would play upon lute and virginals. She speered gin she played well. I said, reasonably for a queen.

That same day, after dinner, my Lord of Hunsdon drew me up to a quiet gallery, that I might hear some music, but he said he durst not avow it, where I might hear the Queen play upon the virginals. But after I had hearkened a while, I took by the tapestry that hung before the door of the chamber, and seeing her back was toward the door, I entered within the chamber and stood still at the door-cheek, and heard her play excellently well; but she left off so soon as she turned her about and saw me, and came forwards, seeming to strike me with her left hand, and to think shame ; alleging that she used not to play before men, but when she was solitary her allane,2 to eschew melancholy; and asked how I came there. I said, as I was walking with my Lord of Hunsdon, as we passed by the chamber door I heard such melody, which roused and drew me within the chamber I wist not how; excusing my fault of homeliness as being brought up in the Court of France, and was now willing to suffer what kind of punishment would please her lay upon me for my offence. Then she sat down low upon a cushion, and I upon my knee beside her; but she gave me a cushion with her own hand to lay under my knee, which I refused, but she compelled me; and called for my Lady Stafford out 2 By herself.

1 Loveable.

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of the next chamber, for she was her allane there. Then she Melville asked whether the Queen or she played best. In that I gave her the praise. She said my French was good; and speired if I could speak Italian, which she spake reasonably well. I said I tarried not above two months in Italy, and had brought with me some books to read upon; but had no leisure to learn the language perfectly. Then she spake to me in Dutch, but it was not good; and would wit what kind of books I liked best, whether of theology, history, or love matters. I said I liked well of all the sorts.

I was earnest to be dispatched; but she said that I tired sooner of her company nor she did of mine. I said, albeit I had no occasion to tire, that it was time to return; but I was stayed two days longer till I might see her dance, as I was informed; which being done, she inquired at me whether she or the Queen danced best. I said the Queen danced not so high and disposedly as she did. Then again she wished that she might see the Queen at some convenient place of meeting. I offered to convoy her secretly to Scotland by post, clothed like a page disguised, that she might see the Queen; as King James the Fifth passed in France disguised, with his own ambassador, to see the Duke of Vendome's sister that should have been his wife; and how that her chamber should be kept as though she were sick, in the meantime, and none to be privy thereto but my Lady Stafford and one of the grooms of her chamber. She said, Alas! gin she might do it; and seemed to like well of such kind of language, and used all the means she could to cause me persuade the Queen of the great love that she bore unto her, and was minded to put away all jealousies and suspicions, and in times coming a straiter friendship to stand between them than ever had been of before; and promised that my dispatch should be delivered unto me very shortly by Mr. Cecil at London.

Sir James Melville.

Jane 1593

TH

JOHN DAVYS THE NAVIGATOR

HE sixth of August we set sail and went to Penguin Isle, and the next day we salted twenty hogsheads of seals, which was as much as our salt could possibly do, and so we departed for The Straits [of Magellan] the poorest wretches that ever were created. The seventh of August, toward night, we departed from Penguin Isles, shaping our course for The Straits, where we had full confidence to meet with our General [Cavendish]. The ninth we had a sore storm, so that we were constrained to hull, for our sails were not to endure any force. The fourteenth we were driven in among certain Isles, never before discovered by any known relation, lying fifty leagues or better from the shore, East and Northerly from The Straits in which place, unless it had pleased God of his wonderful mercy to have ceased the wind, we must of necessity have perished. But the wind shifting to the East, we directed our course for The Straits, and the eighteenth of August we fell with the Cape in a very thick fog; and the same night we anchored ten leagues within the Cape. The nineteenth day we passed the first and the second Straits. The twentyfirst we doubled Cape Froward. The twenty-second we anchored in Savage Cove, so named because we found many savages there. Notwithstanding the extreme cold of this place, yet do all these wild people go naked, and live in the woods like satyrs, painted and disguised, and fly from you like wild deer. They are very strong, and threw stones at us of three or four pound weight an incredible distance. The twenty-fourth, in the morning, we departed from this cove, and the same day we came into the North-West reach, which is the last reach of The Straits. The twenty-fifth we anchored in a good cove, within fourteen leagues of the South Sea in this place we purposed to stay for the

:

General, for the strait in this place is scarce three miles broad, so that he could not pass but we must see him. After we had stayed here a fortnight in the deep of winter, our victuals consuming (for our seals stunk most vilely, and our men died pitifully through cold and famine, for the greatest part of them had not clothes to defend the extremity of the winter's cold), being in this heavy distress, our Captain [John Davys] and Master thought it the best course to depart from The Straits into the South Sea, and to go for the Isle of Santa Maria, which is to the Northward of Baldivia in thirty-seven degrees and a quarter, where we might have relief, and be in a temperate clime, and there stay for the General, for of necessity he must come by that Isle.

So we departed the thirteenth of September, and came in sight of the South Sea. The fourteenth we were forced back again, and recovered a cove three leagues within The Straits from the South Sea. Again we put forth, and being eight or ten leagues free of the land, the wind rising furiously at West-North-West, we were enforced again into The Straits only for want of sails; for we never durst bear sail in any stress of weather, they were so weak. So again we recovered the cove three leagues within The Straits, where we endured most furious weather, so that one of our two cables brake, whereby we were hopeless of life. Yet it pleased God to calm the storm, and we unrived our sheets, tacks, halliers, and other ropes, and moored our ship to the trees close by the rocks. We laboured to recover our anchor again, but could not by any means, it lay so deep in the water, and, as we think, clean covered with ooze. Now had we but one anchor, which had but one whole fluke, a cable spliced in two places, and a piece of an old cable. In the midst of these our troubles it pleased God that the wind came fair the first of October; whereupon with all expedition we loosed our moorings and weighed our

Jane

1593

Jane anchor, and so towed off into the channel; for we had 1593 mended our boat in Port Desire, and had five oars of the pinnace. When we had weighed our anchor, we found our cable broken, only one strand held: then we praised God, for we saw apparently His mercies in preserving us. Being in the channel, we rived our ropes, and again rigged our ship; no man's hand was idle, but all laboured even for the last gasp of life. Here our company was divided; some desired to go again for Port Desire, and there to be set on shore, where they might travel for their lives, and some stood with the Captain and Master to proceed.

Whereupon the Captain said to the Master: Master, you see the wonderful extremity of our estate, and the great doubts among our company of the truth of your reports, as touching relief to be had in the South Sea. Some say in secret, as I am informed, that we undertake these desperate attempts through blind affection that we bear to the General. For mine own part, I plainly make known unto you that the love which I bare to the General caused me first to enter into this action, whereby I have not only heaped upon my head this bitter calamity now present, but also have in some sort procured the dislike of my best friends in England, as it is not unknown to some in this company. But now, being thus entangled by the providence of God for my former offences (no doubt), I desire that it may please His Divine Majesty to show us such merciful favour, that we may rather proceed than otherwise: or if it be His will that our mortal being shall now take an end, I rather desire that it may be in proceeding than in returning. And because I see in reason that the limits of our time are now drawing to an end, I do in Christian charity entreat you all, first to forgive me in whatsoever I have been grievous unto you; secondly, that you will rather pray for our General than use hard speeches of him; and let us be fully persuaded that not for his cause and negligence, but