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which no English captain had then entered, and which the Spaniards had no idea of their attempting to enter. The news of Drake's return from this voyage, on a Sunday in August, 1573, and of his entrance into Plymouth harbour, reached the town's folk when they were at church. Many of them had a personal interest no doubt in the return of their countrymen, and all were enthusiastic in their admiration of Drake. They rushed from the church to the harbour, and great was the welcoming and the joy.

DRAKE'S VOYAGE TO THE PACIFIC.

DRAKE's first enterprise was so much admired that he had no difficulty in arranging a second. 164 gentlemen adventurers and choice seamen readily engaged to accompany him,-" to learn the art of navigation,”—and also, I am of opinion, the art of conquering the Spaniards, and of enriching themselves at their expense. Queen Elizabeth was just the sovereign to appreciate such voyages, and to reward such men. She desired to check the gigantic power

of Spain, which was growing more and more dangerous; and she wished to increase her own dominions, and to enhance the fame of the nation, and to extend the knowledge of various sciences by maritime observation.

Drake arrived at the Magellan straits in winter. They are always very tempestuous, but he effected a passage through them in seventeen days,-less time than any other navigator before his time, or for some time after, found necessary. In the Pacific he had of course constantly to dispute his way with Spaniards. Drake, however, despite every obstacle, sailed much farther south than even any of the Spanish discoverers, and penetrated farther on the north-western coast of America than any preceding navigator. As he passed along from shore to shore, isle to isle, he made sagacious observations which have proved of great benefit to his country.

It has been observed, that his design of sailing northwards round America on his return home was another signal proof of the boldness of his mind. And the ease and certainty with

which he shaped his course through those unknown seas has never been equalled, except by Captain Cook; and we must not compare the difficulties of Drake, with his small and rudely fitted vessels, to those of Cook, with the most consummate arrangements which the British Admiralty under George III. could provide. "Perfect in his seamanship, relying implicitly on his own resources, and possessing that high courage which knows not even the bodings of fear, Drake was, in all seasons and latitudes, perfectly at home on the ocean."

Having coasted California, and North America as far as the forty-eighth degree, in hopes of finding a passage to the Atlantic, and being disappointed in this expectation; he landed on the country which he named New Albion, and took possession of it in Queen Elizabeth's

name.

After this he again boldly sailed across the Pacific Ocean. Within less than six weeks, he reached the Molucca Islands, and touched at Ternate. Thence, by Java and the Cape of Good Hope, he proceeded homewards, and

reached Plymouth on November 3d, 1580, having completed the first circumnavigation of the globe, in two years, ten months, and twenty days; and brought home an immense mass of treasure, taken from Spanish towns on the coasts of Chili and Peru, and from various Spanish vessels, including a royal galleon, called the Caca Fuego, richly laden with plate.

Queen Elizabeth did rightly in taking possession, very graciously, of the treasure, and laying it up to be returned to the Spaniards, in case they should demand it.

She did rightly also in honouring him with her praise; for on the whole he well merited it. His ship, the Pelican, she ordered to be preserved in a little creek near Deptford, on the Thames, as a monument of his enterprise.

It was a happy day for Drake, when the Queen came with great ceremony to grace with her royal presence a banquet in the ship which

"Matched in race the chariot of the Sun."

The honour of knighthood, which he here received from her hands, could not have been conferred on him in a fitter time or place.

Soon after this banquet, Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, complained to the Queen, with arrogant violence, of Drake's having so much as dared to sail in the Indian Sea. Elizabeth promptly replied, that a title to the ocean could not belong to any people, or private persons, "forasmuch as neither nature, nor public use and custom, permitteth any possession thereof." There spake the penetrating understanding, the intrepid spirit, of our greatest Queen. To her belongs the glory of having first asserted the undoubted right of England to navigate the ocean in all its parts.

He

One most characteristic anecdote of Drake's subsequent career must not be omitted. was the chief hero in the great national defence against the invasion of the Spanish Armada. The Queen made him vice Admiral on that occasion, and he was posted at his native place to watch for the approach of the Spanish fleet. He was playing bowls on the Plymouth Hoe with his officers when a Scottish privateer brought the news that he had seen the Spanish fleet off the Lizard. Amidst the sudden bustle,

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