It was a Sunday, and the townsfolk were at church ; but when the news spread thither that Drake was come, "there remained few or no people with the preacher," all running out to welcome the Devon shire hero. A Relation' of this voyage, revised by Drake himself, was published by his nephew in 1646 in a small and now very rare quarto volume. In this 'Relation ' Drake himself asserts strongly that the voyage was undertaken by him expressly to avenge himself for his treacherous usage by the viceroy of Mexico.
Drake being employed in the interval in the service of the queen in Ireland, was forestalled in the honour of being the first English man to sail on the Pacific by one John Oxenham, who had served under him as common sailor and cook ; but as this man merely floated a`pinnace' on the South Sea, and was taken by the Spaniards and executed as a pirate, be could scarcely be an object of envy.
In 1577, under the secret sanction of Queen Elizabeth, Drake departed on another marauding expedition, taking with him five vessels, the largest of which was of 100, and the smallest of 15 tons.
The united crews of this miniature fleet amounted to 161 men, gentlemen and sailors. Among the gentlemen were some young men of noble families, who (not to mention the plunder anticipated) "went out to learn the art of navigation." After many adventures along the coasts of tho South American continent, where some of his attacks were completely successful, Drake and his choice comrades came to Port Julian, on the coast of Patagonia, near the Straits of Magalhaeus, where they were much comforted by finding a gibbet standing—a proof that Christian people had been there before them. Drake, during his stay in Port Julian, put to death ` Master Deughtie,' a gentleman of birth and education, whose fate is still involved in some mystery, notwithstanding the laudable endeavours of Dr. Southey and Mr. Barrow to rescue the fame of one of our greatest naval heroes from the suspicion of a foul murder.
On the 20th of August Drake reached Cape Virgenes, and sailed through the Strait of Magalhaens, being the third navigator who had performed that passage. On the seventeenth day after making Cape Virgenes he cleared the strait, and entered the Pacific or South Sea.
Having obtained an immense booty by plundering the Spanish towns on the coast of Chili and Peru, and by taking, among many other vessels, a royal galleon called the Caeafuego,' richly laden with plate, he boldly determined to sail in his little vessel of 100 tons, with its diminished and sickly crew, to the north-east, in the hope of finding in that direction a passage back to the Atlantic. He reached North lat., where the extreme severity of the cold discouraged his men, and contrary winds arising ho put back ten degrees, and took shelter in Port San Francisco. Here ho established friendly relations with the natives, and formally took possession of the country, which he named New Albion, in tho name of the Queen of Eogland. After staying five weeks iu that port, he determined to follow the example of Magalhaens, and steer acrosa the Pacific for the Moluccas. He made Ternate, one of the Molucca group, in safety, and thence set his course for Java. From Java he sailed right across the Indian Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope, which he doubled without accident, and thence shaped his course homewards.
Drake arrived at Plymouth on Sunday the 26th of September 1579, after an absence of two years and nearly ten months, during which he had circumnavigated the globe, and spent many months on the almost unknown south-western coasts of America. Drake was most graciously received at court, and Elizabeth now asserted more firmly than ever her right of navigating the ocean in all its parts, and denied the exclusive right which the Spaniards claimed over the seas and lands of the New World. And though the queen yielded so far as to pay a con siderable sum out of the treasure Drake had brought home to the procurator of Certain merchants who urged, "with some reason," that they had been unjustly robbed, enough was left to make it a profitable adventure for the privateers, who appear to have received payment at the rate of 47/. for every 1/. ventured. (Barrow, p. 177.) At her orders Drake's ship was drawn up in a little creek near Deptford, there to be preserved as a monument of the moat memorable voyage that the English had ever yet performed : she partook of a banquet on board the vessel, and there knighted the captain.