Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/145

 1578.] VOYAGE OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 129 separated. The bravest sailor might well have been daunted at such a commencement, and Winter recover- ing the opening again and believing Drake to be lost, called a council in his cabin and proposed to return to England, x They had agreed to meet, if they were parted, on the coast in the latitude of Valparaiso. The men, with better heart than their commander, desired to keep the appointment. But those terrible weeks had sickened Winter. The way home lay temptingly open, and if lost a second time might never be recovered. He overruled the opinion of the rest, re-entered the Straits, and reached England in the following June. Drake meanwhile had found shelter among the islands of Tierra del Fuego. He waited there till the advancing season brought milder weather, and amused himself meanwhile with studying the habits of the natives, who swarmed about his ship in their canoes stark naked, men and women, notwithstanding the terrible climate. At length spring brought fair winds and smooth seas, and running up the coast and looking about for her consort, the Pelican or Golden Hind for she had both names fell in with an Indian fisherman, who in- formed Drake that in the harbour of Valparaiso, already a small Spanish settlement, there lay a great galleon which had come from Peru. Galleons were the fruit that he was in search of. He sailed in, and the Span- ish seamen, who had never yet seen a stranger in those waters, ran up their flags, beat their drums, and pre- pared a banquet for their supposed countrymen. The Pelican shot up alongside. The English sailors leapt VOL. Hi. U