DRAKE, having in his former expedition had a view of the South Sea; and formed a resolution to sail upon it, did not suffer himself to be diverted from his design by the prospect of any difficulties that might obstruct the attempt, nor any dangers that might attend the execution; obstacles which brave men often find it more easy to overcome, than secret envy, and domestic treachery. Drake's reputation was now sufficiently advanced to incite detraction and opposition; and it is easy to imagine, that a man, by nature superior to mean artifices, and bred, from his earliest years, to the labour and hardships of a sea life, was very little acquainted with policy and intrigue; very little in the methods of application to the most powerful and great; and unable to obviate the practices of those whom his merit had made his enemies. Nor are such the only opponents of great enterprises: there are some men of narrow views, and grovelling conceptions, who, without the instigation of personal malice, treat every new attempt as wild and chimerical; and look upon every endeavour to depart from the beaten track, as the rash effort of a warm imagination, or the glittering speculation of an exalted mind, that may please and dazzle for a time, but can produce no real or lasting advantage.