Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/163

 1 5 79-] VOYAGE OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 147 passage, if it existed, must be of enormous length, Drake resolved to go no further, and expecting, as proved to be the case, that the Spaniards would be on the look-out for him at Magellan's Straits, he deter- mined on the alternative route by the Cape of Good Hope. The Portuguese had long traded with China. In the ship going to the Philippines he had found a Portuguese chart of the Indian Archipelago, and with the help of this and his own skill he trusted to find his way./' Running back to San Francisco, he landed and made acquaintance with the Indians there. A native chief came to visit him with a number of his tribe. He dis- tributed medicines and ointments among them, and they in turn mistook him for a god, and offered sacrifice to him. The King, as the chief was called, resigned crown and sceptre, and made over California with its buried treasures to the use of her Majesty of England. He remained long enough to discover the gold with which the soil was teeming ; but time pressed, and set- ting sail again, and avoiding the dangerous neighbour- hood of the Philippines, he made a straight course to the Moluccas, where he again halted at the little island of Ternate, south of Celebes^ The ship was again docked and scraped. The crew were allowed another month's rest, when they feasted their eyes on the mar- vels of tropical life, then first revealed to them in their luxuriance vampires ' as large as hens,' crayfish a foot round, and fireflies lighting the midnight forest. Start- ing once more they had now to feel their way among