Chap. IX.]
VOYAGES OF DRAKE AND CAVENDISH.
209
Jewel presented to Drake
HV <l KKN Elizabbtii. ^ Front oriRinal in Nulwel. Couit
and, on the 26th of September, 1580, cast anchor again in the harboui" of ad isss.
Plymouth.
It is presmned, that when Drake set out he had an understanding with the
government, but it was not deemed poUtic to acknowledge it. His proceedings,
as WtU- had not been declared, were certainly of a piratical
character; and when the Spanish court complained of
them, it was easier to disavow his authority than to
apologize for his conduct. The nation, however, was so
much elated by his achievements, and the determination
to profit by the information which he had brought home
was so unanimous, that Queen Elizabeth, after standing- aloof for some time, threw aside all reserve, publicly
visited him on boai'd his ship at Deptfoi-d, and attested
her approbation of his conduct by confemng upon him
the honour of knighthood. A few yeai"s later, Sir Francis
Drake again awakened the public mind to the importance
of the trade with India by the capture of a Portuguese
carrack, whose cargo of almost fabulous value inflamed
the imagination, while its papers and journals furnished
most important information as to the means by which a direct trade with India
might be most easily established, and most successfully carried on.
In 1586, about two years before Drake had made this capture, Mr. Thom.us Thomas
Cavendish commenced the other voyage by the Straits of Magalhaens above
refeired to. His fleet of three ships, fitted out at his own expense, was manned by 1 26 officers and sailors, seve- ral of whom had accompanied Drake wiien he circumnavifjated the globe. The expedition sailed on the 21st of July ; and, following the coiu'se which sails for "" Drake had taken, proceeded through the Straits of Magalhaens, skirted the west coast of America, making many rich captm-es, and committing much unjus- tifiable devastation ; and then steered across the Pacific for the Ladrones, which were reached on the 3d of January, 1 587. The future coui-se of the voyage is thus summed up by Cavendish him- self In a letter to Lord Hunsdon, lord -chamberlain, dated 9th September,
1588, he says, —
"I am humbly to desire yovu* honour to make kuowen unto her majesty the desire T have Vol. I. 27
Pacific.
Thomas Cavendish. — From a print by Pa<.-<
