Three days after the receipt of the letter, Ned Hearne stood with his bundle on the quay at Plymouth.

Near him lay a large rowboat from the ships, waiting to take off the last comers.

A little way behind, Captain Francis Drake and his brother, Captain John Drake, talked with the notable people of Plymouth, who had come down to bid them farewell; the more since this was a holiday, being Whitsun Eve, the 24th May, and all in the town who could spare time had made their way down to the Hove to watch the departure of the expedition; for none could say how famous this might become, or how great deeds would be accomplished by the two little craft lying there.

Each looker on thought to himself that it might be that, to the end of his life, he should tell his children and his children's children, with pride, "I saw Mr.Drake start for his great voyage." Small, indeed, did the fleet appear, in comparison to the work which it had to do.

It was composed of but two vessels.