WESTWARD Ho 



mixture of exploration and trade but which did infinite good to England 

 at sea. He was born in or about 1545 in Devonshire but was brought 

 up on the Kentish coast. Sir John Hawkyns, who was his kins- 

 man, saw to such education as was thought necessary for a gentle- 

 man in those days and then apprenticed him while still a child to the 

 coasting trade. It was good experience and permitted him to take his 

 place in overseas expeditions at the age of eighteen. At twenty-two he 

 was Captain of the Judith with Hawkyns when they were betrayed at 

 Vera Cruz, and although he made his name as a magnificent seaman he 

 lost his whole capital in the disaster but was lucky enough to escape 

 with his life. He was soon back in those waters having his revenge on 

 the Spaniards under the cover of Letters of Marque from Queen 

 Elizabeth. The next few expeditions were devoted rather to plunder- 

 ing Spanish towns than to legitimate trading but they increased his 

 reputation as a seaman and in one of them he got a sight of the Pacific 

 Ocean from the Isthmus of Panama and determined to sail it in the 

 first British ship to visit its waters. With the assistance of Queen 

 Elizabeth he set out with five small vessels at the end of 1577, skirted 

 down the coast of Brazil, where he scuttled two of his ships as useless and 

 proceeded with the rest. The necessary execution of his lieutenant 

 Thomas Doughty for mutiny delayed the expedition further and he had 

 considerable difficulty in negotiating the Straits of Magellan, the remain- 

 ing two ships with him turning back. With his flagship the Pelican, 

 now renamed Golden Hind, he carried on, captured a number of Spanish 

 ships on the West coast, and went as far up as latitude 48 North in an 

 attempt to find a passage back into the Atlantic. Failing this he struck 

 across the Pacific, nearly lost his ship in the Celebes, and crawled past 

 the Cape of Good Hope on very short rations. Finally he made 

 Plymouth in September, 1580, two years and ten months after sailing, 

 and there was considerable doubt as to whether he would be knighted 

 or hanged as a pirate. Fortunately the Queen decided on the former 

 course and he settled down until he was wanted to help thwart Philip's 

 Armada. 



John Oxenham. 



A Drake in miniature, John Oxenham, who was one of his men on 

 his first expedition, certainly deserves passing mention for his daring. 

 When Drake had temporarily foresworn the sea and had retired to 

 Court, Oxenham scraped together enough to buy a little ship at Plymouth 

 and sailed in 1575 on a daring expedition. Drake had taught^ the 

 Spaniards to guard their mule convoys effectively, so Oxenham decided 

 that he would get into the Pacific and intercept them there. Arriving 

 at the Isthmus of Panama he concealed his ship as well as he could and 

 crossed with his little partv, being verv careful not to disturb the 

 Spaniards. On the Pacific a fortv-five foot pinnace was built 

 and launched. He was thus the first Englishman to navigate in 

 that ocean, capturing two treasure shins and then setting about the 

 return journey. By this time the Spaniards were alarmed and managed to 



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