16 



Gardiner G. Hubbard — Discoverers of America. 



his ships, and returned home by the cape of Good Hope, reach- 

 ing Plymouth in September, 1580, the second man to cil-cumnavi- 

 gate the work! (figure 2*). What his reception would be at home 

 was questionable. The news of his exploits had reached Spain 

 the year before, and the ambassador of Philip demanded that he 

 should be executed as a pirate, and renewed the demand as soon 

 as he heard of the explorer's return. The result of this demand 

 was for some time doubtful ; but when it was heard that a Span- 

 ish hostile fleet had landed on the Irish coast, the queen deter- 

 mined to support Drake and receive her share of the spoils. 

 What they were we are not told, but they must have been very 



Figure 2 — Drake's Circumnavigation. 



great as Drake's share Avas 10,000 pounds, equal to $400,000 of our 

 money today. This voyage of Drake completed the discovery 

 of America from the northern coast of Labrador southward 

 around cape Horn and northward to 48°, the latitude of Van- 

 couver island. 



Nearly one hundred years elapsed from the first voyage of 

 Columbus to the voj^age of Drake, each of whom vainly sought 

 a way through America — the one from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 

 the other from the Pacific to the Atlantic. 



Thus, before the end of the sixteenth century, the whole con- 

 tinent of America, save the arctic border, had been circumnavi- 



* Compiled by John B. Torbert from "Tlie Life of Sir Francis Di-ake," 

 ])y Julian Covl^ett, 1892. 



