which contained ‘good and rich fraight, and diuers Spaniards of account,’ whom they ‘ransomed for good round summes,’ which employment was much more congenial to Cavendish than Raleigh's scheme of ‘Westerne planting.’ Proceeding on their course to Isabella in Hispaniola (Hayti), where they landed, they sailed through the Bahamas, and after sighting the mainland of Florida they arrived on 26 June at their anchorage of Wocokon in Virginia. On July 11 Cavendish formed one of a select company who landed with Grenville, and, among others, Thomas Harriott and John White, the artist to the expedition, in order to explore the mainland of what is now known as North Carolina. After having discovered three towns and a great lake, and industriously sown the seeds of future troubles by their lawless conquest of the harmless natives during a period of eight days, they returned to the fleet. On 27 July the fleet removed to Hatoraske (Hatteras inlet); on 25 Aug. Grenville set sail for England, capturing on his way another richly laden Spanish ship, with which he arrived at Plymouth 18 Sept. 1585. That he was accompanied by Cavendish on his return is certain, as the name of the latter is omitted from the list of 108 gentlemen ‘that remained one whole yeere in Virginia’ under Ralph Lane, the first governor of the colony (Hakluyt, 1598, iii. 251–4).
Immediately after his return to England Cavendish began to prepare on his own account an expedition closely modelled upon that of Sir Francis Drake of eight years before. Of this famous voyage, by which he is best known, there are preserved two accounts: 1. ‘The worthy and famous Voyage of Master Thomas Cavendish, made round about the Globe of the Earth, in the space of two years and less than two months,’ by N. H. (ib. 1589, p. 809). 2. ‘The admirable and prosperous Voyage of the Worshipful Mr. Thomas Cavendish, of Trimley, in the county of Suffolk, esquire, into the South Sea, and from thence round about the circumference of the whole earth; begun in the year of our Lord 1586, and finished 1588. Written by Mr. Francis Pretty, lately of Eye, in Suffolk, a gentleman employed in the same action’ (ib. 1599–1600, iii. 803). The fleet of three ships, manned by 123 hands all told, consisted of the Desire of 140 tons, the Content of 60 tons, and the Hugh Gallant, a barque of 40 tons. Cavendish departed from London 10 June 1586, and, after calling at Harwich, proceeded to Plymouth, whence they sailed 21 July. From internal evidence it may be safely inferred that the first and shorter narrative by N. H. was written under the eye of Cavendish on board the Desire; but the second and more interesting one was partly written by Pretty on board the Hugh Gallant barque before it was sunk near the equator in the Pacific, for want of hands. After an ineffectual skirmish with five large Biscayan ships off Cape Finisterre, five days out from England, Cavendish sailed by the coast of Barbary and the Canaries to Sierra Leone, where he anchored in the harbour 21 Aug. Here his stay of ten days was varied by an attempt to burn the native town and the capture of a sailor of Oporto belonging to a Portuguese ship cast away in the inner harbour. On 6 Sept. he departed from Sierra Leone, and, after a short stay at one of the Cape Verde islands, he shaped his course for South America, reached Cape Frio in Brazil 31 Oct. and anchored the next day under the island of St. Sebastian. Here, in order to refit, take in water and fuel, and to build a new pinnace of 10 tons, he anchored for twenty-three days. On 23 Nov. he set sail towards the Straits of Magellan, discovering on his way (17 Dec.) a fine harbour almost as large as Plymouth, known to this day as Port Desire, so named after his own ship, where he spent Christmas in studying the manners and arts of the Patagonians. Departing from Port Desire 28 Dec., Cavendish went coasting along S.S.W. until 3 Jan. 1587, when he reached the opening of the straits, where he lost an anchor in a great storm which lasted three days. On the 6th he commenced his tortuous passage through the straits. The next day he observed traveling overland towards the River Plate a party of twenty-three poor starved Spaniards, two of whom were women, all that remained of the two unfortunate colonies of four hundred persons planted by Pedro Sarmiento, and starved to death in King Philip's City, built and fortified three years before to command the narrowest part of the straits. On 9 Jan. Cavendish reached the ill-fated city, which he renamed the ‘Town of Famine,’ now known as Port Famine; here during his stay of five days he discovered, buried within the four forts, six pieces of ordnance, which he carried off. Cavendish was only too ‘glad to hasten from this place for the noisome stench and vile sauour wherewith it was infected, through the contagion of the Spaniards' pined and dead carcases’ (N. H.) Near the same spot a rescued Spaniard pointed out the hull of a small barque which was judged to be the John Thomas, probably abandoned by Sir Francis Drake nine years before. On 14 Jan. Cavendish resumed his perilous voyage through the straits, which occupied him more than six
