Destined to become one of the greatest seamen of all time,
Francis Drake made two voyages to the Spanish Main between 1566
and 1568 in company with his kinsman John Hawkins. Although
lured by the profitable slave trade and South American silver,
the Protestant Drake was further motivated by a fervent anti-Catholicism.
His hatred increased after the loss of Jesus of Lübeck
to Spanish duplicity at San Juan d'Ulua. In 1576, Queen Elizabeth
approved, albeit secretly, Drake's captaincy of a mission with
a threefold aim: to pass through the Strait of Magellan, reconnoiter
the Pacific coast of South America, and, if possible, return
via the Northwest Passage; to establish relations with people
not yet subject to European princes; and to plunder Spanish
shipping.
Drake's command consisted of about 180 men in five ships. The
flagship, Pelican, carried courses, topsails, and topgallants
on her main and foremasts, and a lateen mizzen. The other ships
were Elizabeth (80 tons, 16 guns) under John Winter; Marigold
(30 tons, 16 guns) under John Thomas; Swan (50 tons, 5 guns)
under John Chester; and Christopher (15 tons, 1 gun) under Tom
Moone. After a false start in November, the expedition cleared
Plymouth on December 13, 1577. After stopping at Mogador, Morocco,
the crew sailed for the Cape Verde Islands, capturing half a
dozen Spanish ships and, more important, the Portuguese pilot
Nuño da Silva. His Santa Maria was renamed Mary and put
under command first of Thomas Doughty, one of several "gentlemen
adventurers" on the voyage, and then of Drake himself,
who exchanged Pelican's command with Doughty. The latter proved
a troublemaker and Drake soon relieved him of command altogether.
The ships reached the coast of southern Brazil on April 5,
proceeded from there to the River Plate, and then on to Puerto
San Julian where they landed on June 20. The fleet remained
at anchor for a month, during which the crisis with the mutinous
Doughty came to a head. Tried on the spot, Doughty was found
guilty and executed in the same place that Ferdinand Magellan
had executed the treasonous Gaspar de Quesada in 1520. It was
here, too, that Drake delivered his celebrated sermon enjoining
the "gentlemen to haul and draw with the mariner, and the
mariner with the gentlemen," in order to ensure their mutual
success.
After abandoning the other three ships, Pelican, Marigold,
and Elizabeth put to sea on August 17. Three days later, they
rounded the Cape of Virgins at the entrance to the Strait of
Magellan where Drake rechristened his ship Golden Hind. The
choice of name was political, for the golden hind was found
on the coat of arms of Sir Christopher Hatton, one of the voyage's
principal backers and a friend of the late Thomas Doughty. After
only fourteen days in the strait, the English flag first flew
in the Pacific on September 6, 1578. The ships' luck failed
when a furious storm drove them southward, costing the expedition
two ships. Marigold was lost with her 29 crew, and John Winter
turned back to England. Drake, however, established that the
Strait of Magellan did not separate South America from Terra
Incognita Australis, as was then believed, but that its southern
shore was made up of islands to the south of which lay open
ocean, now known as Drake Passage.
When the storm abated, the English struck north along the unsuspecting
west coast of Spanish America. Looting the small port of Valparaiso
on December 5, they pressed on to Arica, where silver from the
mines of Potosí was shipped to Panama. When Golden Hind
arrived at Callao on February 15, word of the English presence
had preceded them, although there was little the Spanish could
do to detain them. Learning that a treasure ship had sailed
only three days before, Drake took off in pursuit and on March
1 captured Nuestra Señora de la Concepción—nicknamed
the Cacafuego—off Cape Francisco, Colombia. Sailing out
of the main coastal shipping lane, the English transshipped
80 pounds of gold and 26 tons of silver bars equal in value
to about £126,000—or about half the English Crown's
revenues for a year. Although chiefly interested in returning
home with their treasure intact, the English captured a few
more ships whose crews were almost unanimous in their respect
for Drake's gentility and fairness. Their greatest concern was
over his drawings of the coastline, which seemed to suggest
that more English would follow, "for everything is depicted
so naturally that anyone who uses these paintings as a guide
cannot possibly go astray."
In searching for the Strait of Anian, or Northwest Passage,
Drake sailed as far as 48°N—just south of the Strait
of Juan de Fuca—before turning south. On June 17, 1579,
Golden Hind anchored in 38°30N at a "convenient and
fit harbor" generally thought to be Drake's Bay, on Point
Reyes, California, just north of San Francisco Bay. Drake's
dealings with the natives were characteristically evenhanded,
and the English found "a goodly countrye, and fruitfull
soyle, stored with many blessings fit for the use of man"—fit
even to be called New Albion and claimed for his majesty.
On July 25, Golden Hind sailed west across the Pacific, making
no landfall until September 30, when she landed in either the
Palau or Ladrones Islands. By October 16 she was off Mindanao
in the Philippines, from where she turned south for the Moluccas.
The king of Ternate had recently thrown out the Portuguese,
but he allowed Drake to load spices and refit. After a month
preparing for the last leg of their journey home, the expedition
sailed on December 12 but spent a month caught in the maze of
islands and shoals in the Indonesian archipelago. On January
9, Golden Hind struck a coral reef and was held fast for a day
before the wind shifted and she slid into deep water. After
watering his ship at Tjilatjap on the south coast of Java (previously
thought to be connected to Terra Australis), Drake weighed anchor
on March 26. A nonstop journey of over 9,700 miles—remarkable
for its lack of incident—brought Golden Hind to Sierra
Leone on July 22. The first English circumnavigation of the
globe ended on September 26, 1580, when Golden Hind sailed into
Plymouth after a voyage of 2 years, 10 months, and 18 days with
59 of her crew aboard, a great achievement given the record
of many later voyages.
Cautioned to lie low while the diplomatic consequences of his
voyage were considered at London, Drake was finally received
by Queen Elizabeth. On April 4, 1581, Drake was knighted on
the decks of Golden Hind at Deptford. Elizabeth also ordered
the ship displayed in dry-dock, and the intrepid ship remained
on public view until the 1660s.
Hampden, Francis Drake Privateer. Sugden, Sir
Francis Drake.
