THE VOYAGE OF 1595 143 



" Whether," writes Mr. Corbet, " this treaty was actually 

 concluded is not stated, but this visit was afterwards 

 regarded as the great result of Drake's voyage. It was 

 a picture of his reception at Ternate that the Queen had 

 engraved on the cup she gave him in honour of his achieve- 

 ment, and the alleged treaty became a sheet-anchor of 

 our Eastern diplomacy for nearly a century afterwards." 

 Thence Drake groped his way among the islands to Java, 

 where he put in "at some port on the South coast " a 

 fact curious to those who have noted the apparent 

 ignorance, at this time, of the South coast, 1 and "found 

 great courtesy," for four of the five kings who governed the 

 island were " a-shipboard at once." Thence he sailed 

 home by the Portugal route round the Cape, having touched 

 with bare point the Spanish shield, and challenged to 

 mortal combat for the Pacific. 



In 1586 Thomas Cavendish sailed in the same track, Cavendish's 

 and on the same business. Off the Cape of St. Lucar, 

 on the West side of the point of California, he caught 

 " the Admiral of the South Sea, called the Sta. Anna, 

 and, after a valiant fight with the whole noise of trumpets," 

 he forced the Spaniards to " parl for mercy, desiring 

 our General to save their lives and to take their goods. 

 So the General of his great mercy and humanity promised 

 their lives, and good usage." And he took 122,000 pesos 

 of gold, and the rest of the riches that the ship was laden 

 with, silks, satins, damasks, with musks, and divers other 

 merchandise ; good samples of the great Asiatic trade 

 of Spain. And he also took men born in Japan and in 

 the Philippines, a Portugal skilled in the navigation of 

 China and Japan, and a Spaniard who was a very good 

 pilot for the trade route to the Philippines. And with 

 their help he sailed to these islands, where he met with good 

 reception. He summoned the chiefs of one island to appear 

 before him, and " made himself and his company known 

 unto them, that they were Englishmen and enemies of 

 the Spaniards ; and thereupon spread his ensign and 



1 The map of Hondius, however, which marks his track, shows 

 his port on the South coast (Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 336). 



