Elizabethan Sea Dogs
ELIZABETHAN SEA-DOGS A CHRONICLE OF DRAKE AND HIS COMPANIONS BY WILLIAM WOOD _1918, Yale University Press_ Printed in the United States of America PREFATORY NOTE Citizen, colonist, pioneer! These three words carry the history of the United States back to its earliest form in 'the Newe Worlde called America.' But who prepared the way for the pioneers from the Old World and what ensured their safety in the New? The title of the present volume, _Elizabethan Sea-Dogs_, gives the only answer. It was during the
whom they are intended die. Open graves of this kind can be
seen in several of their burial grounds. Places of burial
are selected some distance from the village, and, if
possible, in a grove of mesquite trees.
Immediately after the remains have been buried, the house
and personal effects of the deceased are burned and his
horses and cattle killed, the meat being cooked as a repast
for the mourners. The nearest relatives of the deceased as a
sign of their sorrow remain within their village for weeks,
and sometimes months; the men cut off about six inches of
their long hair, while the women cut their hair quite short.
* * *
The custom of destroying all the property of the husband
when he dies impoverishes the widow and children and
prevents increase of stock. The women of the tribe, well
aware that they will be poor should their husbands die, and
that then they will have to provide for their children by
their own exertions, do not care to have many children, and
infanticide, both before and after birth, prevails to a
great extent. This is not considered a crime, and old women
of the tribe practice it. A widow may marry again after a
year's mourning for her first husband; but having children
no man will take her for a wife and thus burden himself with
her children. Widows generally cultivate a small piece of
ELIZABETHAN SEA-DOGS A CHRONICLE OF DRAKE AND HIS COMPANIONS BY WILLIAM WOOD _1918, Yale University Press_ Printed in the United States of America PREFATORY NOTE Citizen, colonist, pioneer! These three words carry the history of the United States back to its earliest form in 'the Newe Worlde called America.' But who prepared the way for the pioneers from the Old World and what ensured their safety in the New? The title of the present volume, _Elizabethan Sea-Dogs_, gives the only answer. It was during the