of four days' duration in the Channel, N. H. closes his narrative thus: ‘On … 10 Sept. 1588, like wearied men, through the favour of the Almighty, we got into Plymouth, where the townsmen received us with all humanity’ (Hakluyt, 1589).
The fame of Cavendish as the second English circumnavigator of the globe was now almost at its zenith. Popular feeling respecting the voyage and its leader found expression in ballads, the titles only of three of which are preserved to us under their respective entries for publication (3 Nov. 1588): ‘A Ballad of Master Cavendish's Voyage, who by travel compassed the Globe of the World, arriving in England with abundance of treasure’ (14 Nov. 1588); ‘A new Ballad of the famous and honourable coming home of Master Cavendish's Ship the Desire, before the Queen's Maiesty at her Court at Greenwich,’ 12 Nov. 1588, &c. (3 Dec. 1588); ‘Captain Robert's Welcome of good-will to Captain Cavendish.’ This last, however, may have been either a ballad or a broadside (cf. Arber, Reg. Stat. Comp. ii. 505–9). Two of the rarest cartographical records of the voyage are to be found on the terrestrial globe by Molyneux (see supra), and an equally rare map by Jodocus Hondius, who engraved the gores for the globe. Respecting the first Blundeville writes: ‘The voyage as well of Sir F. Drake as of Mr. Th. Candish is set down and showed by help of two lines, the one red … doth show what course Sir Francis observed in all his voyage … the blew line showeth in like manner the voyage of Master Candish.’ A unique example of this globe, the first made in England in 1592, the year of Cavendish's death, is preserved in the library of the Middle Temple. The map of the world in hemispheres, engraved by Hondius in 1597, evidently copied from the globe, is also accompanied by the accounts of Sir F. Drake's voyage, and that of Cavendish by N. H., both translated from Hakluyt (1589) into Dutch. The allusion in one of the ballads to Cavendish's reception by the queen at Greenwich serves somewhat to confirm the tradition that a greater part of his wealth, either inherited or acquired by spoiling the Spaniards, was squandered ‘in gallantry and following the court’ (Biog. Brit.) The tradition also serves to throw some light upon the causes that led him to undertake his last fated voyage, which was evidently meant for a repetition of the previous one in every particular, as proved by the heading of the record preserved to us, which reads, ‘The last Voyage of the worshipfull M. Thomas Candish (sic), esquire, intended for the South sea, the Phillipines, and the coast of China, with three tall ships and two barks. Written by M. J. Jane’ (Hakluyt). The fleet, comprising the Leicester galleon, commanded by Cavendish, the Roebucke, his old ship the Desire, commanded by Captain John Davis of Arctic fame [q. v.], the Black Pinnace, and the Daintie, left Plymouth on 26 Aug. 1591, and sighted the coast of Brazil at St. Salvador (lat. 12° 58′ 16″ S.), or Campos (lat. 21° 36′ 30″ S.), on 29 Nov., where they were becalmed four days. After a feeble attempt to take the town of Santos (lat 23° 55′ 1″ S.) on 24 Jan., he set forward on his voyage, but, owing to the lateness of the season and the unusually bad weather, Cavendish was separated from the rest of his fleet until 18 March, when he rejoined Davis at Port Desire. Two days later they sailed for the Straits of Magellan, where, after many furious storms, they sailed halfway through the straits, and on 21 April 1592 the ships anchored in a cove four leagues W. from Cape Froward, where they remained until 15 May, enduring great hardships, Cavendish all the while being with Davis on board the Desire. It soon became obvious that Cavendish had outlived his reputation as a leader of men; unnerved probably by his own misery and that of his crews, he resolved against their wishes to make for the Cape of Good Hope in his own ship, the Leicester, but being deterred by the sound advice of Davis from attempting ‘so hard an enterprise with so feeble a crew,’ he determined to depart out of the Straits of Magellan, ‘and to return again for Santos in Brazil.’ On 20 May, the fleet being once more off Port Desire about thirty leagues, Cavendish in the night altered his course to seaward, in consequence of which, the Desire and Black Pinnace being lost sight of in the darkness, he never saw Davis afterwards. Cavendish once more made for Brazil. After several disastrous attempts to land at Santos and Espirito Santo, where he was deserted by the Roebucke, he made one last effort to reach St. Helena. He ‘got within two leagues,’ and afterwards sought for an island in 8° S. lat. (evidently Ascension). The last notice of Cavendish in the homeward voyage of the Leicester is his own record of the death of his cousin, John Locke, in 8° N. lat. Cavendish died a few days later, probably of a broken heart. In his last hours he accused Davis of having deserted him, but from all we know of the character of Davis this is not only unjust, but also incredible. Long after the separation of the fleet on 20 May previous, Davis not only returned to Port Desire to seek for Cavendish, but he also made no less than three unsuccessful attempts to sail through the straits
