DRAKE'S GREAT VOYAGE. 305 



should succeed in re-capturing- it; and marched resolutely in quest of the Spaniards, relying 

 upon the Maroons as well as upon his own people/' But Ortega and his men were 

 experienced in bush-fighting, and they succeeded in killing eleven Englishmen, and live 

 negroes, and took seven of Oxeuham's party prisoners. He, with the remnant of his party, 

 went back to search for his hidden ship; it had been removed by the Spaniards. And 

 now the latter sent 150 men to hunt the Englishmen out, while those whom they failed 

 to take were delivered up by the natives. Oxeiiham and two of his officers were taken 

 to Lima and executed; the remainder suffered death at Panama. 



The greatest semi-commercial and piratical voyage of this epoch is undoubtedly that 

 of Drake, who reached the South Seas* via the Straits of Magellan the third recorded 

 attempt, and the first made by an Englishman and was the first English subject to circum- 

 navigate the globe. Elizabeth gave it her secret sanction, and when Drake was introduced 

 to her court by Sir Christopher Hatton, presented him a sword, with this remarkable speech : 

 " We do account that he which striketh at thee, Drake, striketh at us ! " The expedition, 

 fitted at his own cost, and that of various adventurers, comprised five vessels ; the largest, his 

 own ship, the Pelican, being only 100 tons. His whole force consisted of " 164 men, gentle- 

 men, and sailors ; and was furnished with such plentiful provision of all things necessary 

 as so long and dangerous a voyage seemed to require." The frames of four pinnaces were 

 taken, to be put together as occasion might require. " Neither did he omit, it is said, to 

 make provision for ornament and delight ; carrying to this purpose with him expert musicians, 

 rich furniture (all the vessels for his table, yea, many belonging to the cook-room, being of 

 pure silver) with divers shows of all sorts of curious workmanship, whereby the civility and 

 magnificence of his native country might, among all nations whither he should come, be the 

 more admired/' f Few of his companions knew at the outset the destination of his voyage ; 

 it was given out that they were bound merely for Alexandria. 



The expedition sailed on November 15th, 1577, from Plymouth, and immediately 

 encountered a storm so severe that the vessels came near shipwreck, and were obliged 

 to put back and refit. When they had again started under fairer auspices, Drake gave his 

 people some little information as to his proposed voyage, and appointed an island off the 

 coast of Barbary as a rendezvous iu case of separation at sea, and subsequently Cape Blanco, 

 where he mustered his men ashore and put them through drills and warlike exercises. 

 Already, early in January, he had taken some minor Spanish prizes, and a little later, off the 

 island of Santiago, chased a Portuguese ship, bound for Brazil, " with many passengers, 

 and among other commodities, good store of wine/' Drake captured and set the people 

 on one of. his smaller pinnaces, giving them their clothes, some provisions, and one butt of 

 wine, letting them all go except their pilot. The provisions and wine on board the prize 

 proved invaluable to the expedition. From the Cape de Verde Islands they were nine 

 weeks out of sight of land, and before they reached the coast of Brazil, when near the 

 equator, " Drake, being very careful of his men's health, let every one of them blood with 



* Whenever the South Seas are mentioned in these early records, they must be understood to mean the South 

 Pacific, and, indeed, sometimes portions of the North Pacific. The title still clings to the Polynesian Islands, 

 t Burnoy's "Voyages," 



39 



