Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/25

 1577, and sailed to Brazil, and thence coasting southward passed through the straits of Magellan. All of his ships but the Pelican, in which he sailed, were either abandoned, destroyed in the storm or returned to England. But Drake was undismayed. Changing the name of his vessel to Golden Hind, he swept up the western coast of South America, plundering towns and shipping as he went. He then coasted California and North America, as far as 48° north latitude. Returning again southward, he anchored in a little harbor near the Bay of San Francisco and took possession of the country in the name of Queen Elizabeth, calling it New Albion. Having overhauled and reprovisioned his ship, he struck boldly across the Pacific and after an absence of nearly three years at last reached Plymouth, England, on Sunday, September 26, 1580——being the first Englishman and the next person after Magellan to circumnavigate the globe. He arrived very richly freighted with gold, silver, silk, pearls and precious stones, amounting in value to one million and a half sterling, represented perhaps in modern values about $40,000,000. Queen Elizabeth visited Drake's ship at Deptford, and knighted him and bestowed upon him a coat of arms and a crest. And the King of Spain issued a proclamation offering 20,000 ducats for Drake's head. Soon after these events he served as mayor of Plymouth and as member of Parliament.

Queen Elizabeth having come to an open breach with the King of Spain, Drake was sent in 1585 with a fleet of twenty-six sail to attack the Spanish settlements in the West Indies. He took St. Jago in Cuba, St. Domingo. Carthegena and St. Augustine, and carried away booty to the amount of £60,000 sterling. Sailing northward he visited Lane's colony at Roanoke, and finding them disheartened took them all on board and carried them back to Portsmouth, England. which he reached July 28, 1586.

Drake was not long left idle. In 1381 he was sent with a strong fleet against the Spanish coast and created much havoc in sinking and burning 100 Spanish vessels, and destroying four castles on the shore; and off the Azores captured a Portugese East-Indiaman loaded with wealth estimated at £10.000. This was what Drake called "singing the King's beard." lie liberally employed some of the wealth he had acquired in bringing water from a distant spring to the town of Plymouth. Drake was active in preparing England against the attack of the Spanish Armada. It was his urgent advice to the Queen not to wait the attack, but to carry the war to the Spanish coast and thereby break up the proposed movement. In the battle with the Armada he was vice-admiral under Lord Charles Howard, and his squadron had the principal share in the discomfiture of the Spanish fleet as it fled before the storms and foe.

The next year Drake was sent with a body of land forces under Sir John Norris for the purpose of restoring Don Antonio to the throne of Portugal. But the expedition was attended with a large loss of life and was not successful in its primary objects, though Drake had the good fortune to capture a large fleet laden with naval stores, thus putting an end to all proposals of an invasion from Spain. For the next few years Drake was actively but peacefully employed on shore, and in 1593 sat in parliament for Plymouth. In 1594 he was admiral of a fleet to make another attack on the West Indies, and Sir John Hawkins was vice-admiral. The expedition seems to have been unfortunate from the beginning.