THE VOYAGE OF 1595 141 



that the South Sea, as well as the North Sea, was to be 

 the prey of strange seamen. 



The fear was well-founded ; but the leader was to be, Drake's 

 not John Hawkins, but Francis Drake. It was in 1572 ^nd^he 

 that Drake, Eternal English Boy, climbed the " goodly world, 1578. 

 and great tree," whence he could " see at once the two 

 seas, which he had so longed for " ; and, having " seen 

 that sea of which he had heard such golden reports, 

 he besought Almighty God of His goodness to give him 

 life and leave to sail once in an English ship on that sea." 

 And in 1578, "his mind pricked on continually night 

 and day to perform his vow," he pierced once more the 

 long-abandoned strait which Magellan had discovered 

 fifty years before. At the Western end " God by a con- 

 trary wind and intolerable tempest seemed to set Himself 

 against us." The ships were seized by a North-West 

 storm, the like of which " no traveller hath felt, neither 

 hath there ever been seen such a tempest, that any records 

 make mention of, so vigilant and of such continuance, 

 since Noah's flood, for it lasted from September 7th 

 to October 28th, full 52 days." On second thought, 

 God's intention was not " to set Himself against us," 

 but to force us to make a highly important geographical 

 discovery to bring us to " the uttermost part of the 

 land towards the South Pole." They discovered that 

 the Mercatorian maps were wrong ; that Tierra del Fuego Tierra del 

 was not part of a great South Continent, but the head 

 of a group of islands, ending in a Cape where " the Atlantic 

 Ocean and the South Sea meet in a most large and free 

 scope." Chaplain Fletcher drew a map of the islands, 

 and wrote across them, with evident criticism of Mercator's 

 phrase, ;< Terra Australis, nunc bene cognita." Drake 

 showed his joy in characteristic boyish way; "seeking 

 out the most Southerly part of the island, he cast himself 

 down upon the uttermost point grovelling, and so reached 

 his body over it." Then he told his people " that he had 

 been upon the Southernmost known land in the world, Drake's 

 and yet further to the Southward upon it than any of 

 them, yea, or any man as yet known." 



