Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/144

 128 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 64. shore, overhauled and scoured, the rigging looked to, and the sails new bent. On the 17th of August, August. answering to the February of the northern hemisphere, all was once more in order. Drake sailed from Port St Julian, and on the 2Oth entered the Straits, and felt his way between the walls of mountain ' in ex- treme cold with frost and snow continually.' To relieve the crews who were tried by continual boat work and heaving the lead in front of the ships, they were allowed occasional halts at the islands, where they amused and provisioned themselves with killing infinite seals and penguins. Everything which they saw, birds, beasts, trees, climate, country, were strange, wild, and wonder- ful. After three weeks' toil and anxiety they September. had accomplished the passage, and found themselves in the open Pacific. 1 But they found also that it was no peaceful ocean into which they had en- tered, but the stormiest they had ever encountered. Their vessels were now reduced to three ; the pinnace had been left behind at Port St Julian, and there re- mained only the Pelican, the Elizabeth, and the thirty- ton cutter. Instantly that they emerged out of the Straits they were caught in a gale which swept them six hundred miles to the south-west. For six weeks they were battered to and fro, in bitter cold and winds which seemed as if they blew in those latitudes for ever. The cutter went down in the fearful seas, carrying her crew with her. The Elizabeth and the Pelican were 1 September 6.