Late Explorer John Beecroft

Why do these guys quit before seventy? After achievements Life on Earth empty! There was to be a Macgregor Laird: Before sixty-one years to rest laid... For my avid interest in History, I could not but alight on his story With its private message from Greatness "No, Mystery, no Magic: Eagerness!" What had he shrewdly done: John Beecroft? In their Britain left behind a voice soft To in far-off lands hold her goals aloft While him Portugal, Spain and, sure, France scoffed; In West Africa's Fernando Po Seeing that The Non British did lines toe: In Nigeria's captured Bight of Benin Ensuring that his men got their Quinine; I reckon in the close Bight of Biafra Giving out British bags not of raffia! I could have for John Beecroft my hat doffed, Just that when I last tried a patriot coughed.