Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/199

Rh SI XTEENT II CEN'I‘UI{Y.:| San Francisco, nearly on the equator, he captured a very rich Spanish treasure-ship called the “ Cacafuego”; and it is right to observe that England was then at peace with Spain. Drake resolved to attempt the discovery of a passage from the Paciﬁc to the Atlantic, and with this object he co11tim1ed to shape a course northwards along the American continent. On the 5tl1 of June 1579 the “Golden Hind” reached her - most northern point in 48°, when the attempt was aban- doned, and Drake put into a harbour to reﬁt, named Port GEOGRAPHY I city of Quito. 185 account was written of the mighty stream by Father Cristoval de Acuiia, who ascended it from its mouth to the The voyage of Drake across the Paciﬁc was preceded by that of Alvaro de Mendaﬁa, who was des- ' patched from Peru in 1567 to discover the Australian land which was believed to exist in the South Sea. After a voyage of eighty days across the Paciﬁc,Mendaﬁa discovered the Salomon Islands ; and the expedition returned in safety to Callao. The appearance of Drake on the Peruvian coast Drake, which appears to have been the modern harbour of. led to an expedition being ﬁtted out at Callao, to go in San Francisco, on the coast of California. The coast from the southern extremity of the Californian peninsula to Cape Mendocino was discovered by Juan ltodrigucz Cabrillo and Francisco de Ulloa in 1539. Drake’s discoveries extend rom Cape Mendocino to 48° N. Leaving California, Drake sailed across the Paciﬁc and reached the Philippine Islands in October. 1Ie touched at '1‘ ornate and Java, and rounded the Cape of Good Hope on June 15, 1580. The “Golden Hind” anchored safely at 1’lyniouth on the 26th of the following September. Drake was graciously received and knighted by the queen, and the “ Golden Hind,” the ﬁrst English ship that circum- navigated the globe, was preserved for many years at Deptford. When at last she was broken up, a chair was made from one of her planks anal presented to the uni- versity of Oxford. Mr Thnnas Cavendish, a gentleman of Suffolk, emulous of I)rake’s example, ﬁtted out three vessels for an expedition to the South Sea, and sailed from Plymouth on July 21, 1586. Cavendish passed through Magellan’s Straits in January 1587, and, taking the same route as Drake along the west coast of America, he reached Mazatlan in Septe1n- ber. A rich Spanish treasure-ship was captured off Cape San Lucis, the southern extremity of California, on the 4th of November, and Cavendish then steered across the Paciﬁc, seeing no land until he reached the Ladrone Islands. lIe arrived safely at Plyniouth on the 9th of September 1588. The third English voyage into the Paciﬁc was not so fortunate. Sir Iiichard Hawkins sailed from Plymouth on the 12th of June 1593 in the good ship “Dainty,” passed through Magell-1n’s Straits, and all went well until they reached the bay of Atacames, 57 miles north of the equator, in June 1391. Here the English were attacked by a Spanish fleet, and, after a desperate naval engagement, lfawkins was forced to s'.11'render. Hawkins declared his object to be discovery and the survey of unknown lands, and his voyage, though terminating in disaster, bore good fruit. The 0I)servz(tio7zs of Sir 1i’[c/Lard Ilazv/rins in. his 1'o_z/«(.3/r2z'1zto the South Sea, published in 1622, are very valuable, and form the most charming work of the kind which was written during that period. It was long before another English ship entered the Paciﬁc Ocean. Sir John Narborough took two ships through the Straits of Magellan in 1670 and touched on the coast of Chili; but it was not until 1685 that Cook and Dampier sailed over the part of the Paciﬁc where, nearly a century before, the “ Dainty ” ' chase of hin1_. under the command of Pedro Sarmiento. He sailed from Callao in'October 1579, and made a careful survey of the Straits of Magellan, with the object of forti- fying that entrance to the South Sea. The colony which he afterwards took out from Spain was a complete failure, and is only remembered now from the name of “Port Famine” which Cavendish gave to the site at which he found the starving remnant of Sarmiento's settlers. In June 1595 Mendaﬁa sailed from the coast of Peru in command of a second expedition to colonize the Salomon Islands. After discovering the Marquesas, he reached the island of Santa Cruz of evil memory, where he and many of the settlers died. His young widow took command of the survivors and brought them safely to Manila. The viceroys of Peru still persevered in their attempts to plant a colony in Australia. Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, who was pilot- under Mendaﬁa and Luis Vaez de Torres were sent in command of two ships to continue the work of exploration. They sailed from Callao on December 21, 1605, and dis- covered several islands of the N cw Hebrides group. They anchored in a bay of a large island which Quiros named “Australia del Espiritu Santo.” From this place Quiros returned to America, but Torres continued the voyage, passed through the strait between Australia and New Guinea which bears his name, and explored and mapped the southern and (as has recently been proved) also the eastern coast of New Guinea. The Portuguese, in the early part of the 17th century P011“. (1578-1640), Vere under the dominion of Spain, and their guese ex- enterprise was to some extent. damped ; but their n1ission- 1’1°’“'5- aries extended geographical knowledge in Africa. Father Francisco Paez acquired great influence in Abyssinia, and explored its highlands from 1600 to 1622. and Lobo traversed the deserts between the coast of the Red Sea and the mountains, became acquainted with the shores of Lake Tsana, and discovered the sources of the Abai or Blue Nile in 1624-1633. But the attention of the Portuguese was mainly devoted to vain attempts to maintain their monopoly of the trade of India against the powerful rivalry of the English and Dutch. The English enterprises were persevering, continuous, and successful. James Lancaster made a voyage to the Indian Ocean from 1591 to 1591 ; and in 1599 the merchants and adventurers of London resolved to form a company, with the object of establishing a trade with the East Indies. On the 31st of December 1599 Queen Elizabeth granted the Fathers Mendez. had to strike her flag to the Spaniard. The exploring enterprise of the Spanish nation did not wane after the conquest of Peru and Mexico, and the charter of incorporation to the East India Company, and 17.151; Sir James Lancaster, one of the directors, was appointed India general of their first ﬂeet. He was accompanied by John C°“" S nish e:1ora- acquisition of the vast empire of the Indies. It was rather spurred into renewed activity by the audacity of Sir John Hawkins in the West Indies, and by the appearance of Drake, Cavendish, and Richard Hawkins in the Paciﬁc. In the interior of South America the Spanish conquerors had explored the region of the Andes from the istlnnns of Panama to Chili ; and in 1511 Francisco de Orellana dis- covered the whole course of the Amazon from its source in the Quitenian Andes to the Atlantic. A second voyage down the great river was made in 1561 by the mad pirate Lope de Aguirre; but it was not until 1639 that a full Davis, the great Arctic navigator, as pilot-major. voyage was eminently successful. The ships touched at Acln'n in Sumatra and at Java, returning with full ladings of pepper in 1603. The second voyage was commanded by Sir Henry Middleton ; but it was in the third voyage, under Keelinge and Hawkins, that the mainland of India was first reached in 1607. Captain Hawkins la11ded at Surat and travelled overland to Agra, passing some time at the court of the Great Mogul. In the voyage of Sir Edward Michelborne, John Davis of Arctic fame lost his life in a ﬁght with a Japanese junk on December 37, 1605. The . . — 24 This I’““’''