Volume X Part 2 (1/2)
Departing from Tidore, the Spaniards were attended by several kings in their canoes to the isle of _Mare_,[21] where this royal company took leave of them with much apparent regret. In this isle they left one of their s.h.i.+ps which was leaky, giving orders to have it repaired, for its return to Spain. Being now reduced to forty-six Spaniards and thirteen Indians, they directed their course from Mare towards the S.W. pa.s.sing the isles named _Chacotian, Lagoma, Sico, Gioghi, Caphi, Sulacho, Lumatola, Tenetum, Bura_ [Bouro?] _Arubon_ [perhaps Amboina?] _Budia, Celaruri, Benaia, Ambalao, Bandon_ [perhaps Banda?] _Zorobua, Zolot, Moceuamor, Galian_, and _Mullua_, besides many others possessed by Mahometans, heathens, and canibals. They stopped fifteen days at _Mallua_ to repair their s.h.i.+p, being in 8 N. lat. and 169 long.
according to their reckoning. This island produces much pepper, both long and of the ordinary round kind. The tree on which it grows climbs like ivy, and its leaf resembles that of the mulberry. The natives are canibals; the men wearing their hair and beards; and their only weapons are bows and arrows.
[Footnote 21: Marhee Foul, a small isle between Tidore and Motir.--E.]
Leaving _Mallua_ [Moa?] on the 25th January, 1522, they arrived at _Tima_ [Timor?] five leagues to the S.S.W. This island is in lat. 10 S.
and long. 125 E. where they found ginger, white sanders, various kinds of fruits, and plenty of gold and provisions of all kinds. The people of the Moluccas, Java, and _Lozen_ [Luzon, or the princ.i.p.al island of the Philippines], procure their sanders-wood from hence. The natives are idolaters, and have the _lues venerea_ among them, which is a common distemper in all the islands of this great archipelago.
Leaving Timor on the 11th February, they got into the great sea called _Lantchidol_, steering W.S.W. and leaving the coast of a long string of islands on the right hand, and taking care not to sail too near the sh.o.r.e, lest the Portuguese of Malacca should chance to discover them; wherefore they kept on the outside of Java and Sumatra. That they might pa.s.s the Cape of Good Hope the more securely, they continued their course W.S.W. till they got into the lat.i.tude of 42 S. though so sore pinched by hunger and sickness, that some were for putting in at Mosambique for refreshments; but the majority concluded that the Portuguese would prove bad physicians for their distempers, and determined therefore to continue the voyage homewards. In this course they lost twenty-one of their men, and were at length constrained to put in at the island of St Jago, one of the Cape Verds, to throw themselves on the mercy of the Portuguese. So, venturing ash.o.r.e, they opened their miserable case to the Portuguese, who at first relieved their necessities; but the next time they went on sh.o.r.e, detained all who came as prisoners.
Those who still remained in the s.h.i.+p, now reduced to thirteen, having no mind to join their companions in captivity, made all the haste they could away, and being favoured by the winds, they arrived in the harbour of San Lucar, near Seville, on the 7th September, 1522. He who commanded this vessel, which had the good fortune to return from this remarkable voyage, was Juan Sebastian Cano, a native of Guetaria in Biscay, a person of much merit and resolution, who was n.o.bly rewarded by the emperor Charles V. To perpetuate the memory of this first voyage round the world, the emperor gave him for his coat of arms the terrestrial globe, with this motto, _Prima me circ.u.mdedisti_. The newly-discovered straits at the southern extremity of South America, were at first named the _Straits of Vittori_, after the s.h.i.+p which returned; but they soon lost that name, to a.s.sume another which becomes them much better, in honour of their discoverer, and have ever since been denominated the _Straits of Magellan_.
This most celebrated voyage took up three years and twenty-seven days, having commenced on the 10th August, 1519, and concluded on the 7th September, 1522. By its success, the skill and penetration of the great Columbus, who, only twenty-seven years before, had first a.s.serted the possibility of its performance, were fully established. One circ.u.mstance was discovered in this voyage, which, although reason have taught us to explain, could hardly have been expected _a priori_. On the return of the Spaniards to their own country, they found they had lost a day in their reckoning, owing to the course they had sailed; whereas had they gone by the east, and returned by the west, they would have gained a day in their course.
Another circ.u.mstance, which served to heighten the reputation of Magellan, who deserves the sole honour of this voyage, was the difficulty experienced by other able commanders, who endeavoured to fellow the course he had pointed out. The first who made the attempt were two Genoese s.h.i.+ps in 1526, but unsuccessfully. In 1528, Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, sent two s.h.i.+ps with 400 men, to endeavour to find their way through the straits of Magellan to the Moluccas, but without effect. Sebastian Cabot tried the same thing, by order of Emanuel king of Portugal, but was unable to succeed.
CHAPTER II.
VOYAGE BY SIR FRANCIS DRAKE ROUND THE WORLD, IN 1577-1580.[22]
SECTION I.
_Introduction, and Preparation for the Voyage_.
In his Annals of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the learned Cambden informs us, that the father of the celebrated Sir Francis Drake was the Rev. Edmund Drake, vicar of Upnore on the river Medway, and says he had this information from Sir Francis himself. Yet the industrious John Stowe says, that he was the eldest of twelve brethren, the sons of Edmund Drake, mariner, at Tavistock in Devons.h.i.+re, and was born in 1540.
Perhaps both accounts may be true; and Mr Edmund Drake, though a mariner originally, may have had a competent share of learning, and may have been admitted to orders on the final establishment of the Reformation.
[Footnote 22: Hakluyt, IV. 232. Harris, I. p. 14. Oxford Coll. II. sect.
xvi. Callender's Voy. I. 288. The original account of this voyage was published at London, in 4to, in 1600, and reprinted in 1618.--E.]
This celebrated naval hero received the Christian name of Francis from his G.o.dfather the earl of Bedford, but does not appear to have derived any great patronage from that n.o.bleman. He was sent young to sea, as an apprentice to the master of a small bark, who traded with France and Zealand; and his master, a bachelor, taking a great affection for him, left him his bark at his death. At eighteen years of age, he was purser of a s.h.i.+p on a voyage to the Bay of Biscay, and at twenty made a voyage to the coast of Guinea. In all these voyages he distinguished himself by extraordinary courage, and by a sagacity beyond his years. In 1565, his laudable desire of glory induced him to venture his all in a voyage to the West Indies, which had no success. In 1567, he served under his kinsman Sir John Hawkins in the bay of Mexico, but was again unfortunate, returning from the voyage rich in character and fame, but with almost ruined circ.u.mstances. These disappointments served only to increase his desire of bettering his fortunes at the expence of the grand enemy of his country, against whom he made two other voyages into these parts; the first in 1570 with two s.h.i.+ps, the Dragon and Swan and the second in 1571, in the Swan alone, chiefly for information, that he might qualify himself for undertaking some enterprize of greater importance; which he at length carried into execution with great courage and perseverance.
His character for bravery and seamans.h.i.+p being now established, he soon found a sufficient number of persons willing to adventure a part of their fortunes in a privateering voyage which he proposed. He accordingly sailed from Plymouth on the 24th May, 1572, in the Pasco, a s.h.i.+p only of seventy tons, having for his consort the Swan of 250 tons, commanded by his brother John Drake, with seventy-three men and boys, and provisions for a year. Such were the mighty preparations he had made for attacking the power of Spain in the West Indies, in which he considered himself justified, in order to make reprisals for the losses he had formerly sustained from the Spaniards. In this voyage he surprised and plundered the famous town of Nombre de Dios; and soon afterwards had a distant view of the South Sea from the top of a high tree, which inflamed him with the desire of conducting an English s.h.i.+p thither, which attempt he had perhaps never thought of but for that circ.u.mstance.
In this expedition he acquired immense riches for his owners, and considerable wealth for himself; and being of an honourable and generous disposition, he scorned to avail himself of advantages, which most other men would have considered as their right. Of this we have the following remarkable instance. Having presented a cutla.s.s to a captain or cacique of the free Indians inhabiting the isthmus of Darien, the cacique gave him in return four large ingots of gold, which he immediately threw into the common stock, saying, ”My owners gave me that cutla.s.s, and it is just they should receive their share of its produce.” His return to England from this successful expedition was equally fortunate, as he sailed in twenty-three days from Cape Florida to the Scilly islands.
Arriving at Plymouth on Sunday, the 9th August, 1573, during divine service, the news of his return was carried to church, on which few persons remained with the preacher, all the congregation running out to welcome the adventurous Drake, who had been absent fourteen months and sixteen days in this voyage.
The wealth he gained in this expedition he generously expended in the service of his country, equipping no less than three frigates at his own expence, which he commanded in person, and with which he contributed materially to the reduction of the rebellion in Ireland, under the supreme command of the earl of Ess.e.x. After the death of that n.o.bleman, he chose Sir Christopher Hatton for his patron, then vice-chamberlain to the queen, and afterwards lord high-chancellor of England. By his interest, not without great opposition, captain Drake obtained a commission from queen Elizabeth for the voyage of which it is now proposed to give an account, and which he had long meditated. Being thus provided with the royal authority, his friends contributed largely towards the intended expedition, while he applied himself with all diligence to get every thing in readiness for the important undertaking; having in view to attack the powerful monarchy of Spain, in its richest yet most vulnerable possessions on the western coasts of America, with what would now be considered a trifling squadron of five small barks.
The s.h.i.+ps, as they were then called, fitted out for this bold enterprize, were, the Pelican, afterwards named the Hind, of 100 tons, admiral-s.h.i.+p of the squadron, under his own immediate command as captain-general; the Elizabeth, vice-admiral, of 80 tons, commanded by Captain John Winter, who was lieutenant-general of the expedition; the Marigold, a bark of 30 tons, Captain John Thomas; the Swan, a fly-boat of 50 tons, Captain John Chester; and the Christopher, a pinnace of 15 tons, Captain Thomas Moon. These s.h.i.+ps were manned with 164 able-bodied men, including officers, and were provided with an ample supply of provisions, ammunition and stores, for so long and dangerous a voyage.
Captain Drake likewise provided the frames of four pinnaces, which were stowed on board in pieces, ready to be set up as occasion might require.
He is also said to have made provision for ornament and delight, carrying with him a band of musicians, together with rich furniture and much silverplate, all the vessels for his table, and many of those belonging to the cook-room, being of that metal. This magnificence is stated by his biographers, to have been intended as a display for the honour of his country among foreign nations.
SECTION II.