1578.] cavendish's expedition. 77 



The success of Drake's enterprise encouraged other English 

 adventurers to attempt similar expeditions through the Straits of 

 Magellan ; and it stimulated the navigators of his nation in their 

 efforts to discover northern passages into the Pacific Ocean. Of 

 their predatory excursions, none were attended with success, except 

 that of the famous Thomas Cavendish, or Candish, who rendered 

 his name almost as terrible to the Spaniards as that of Drake, by 

 his ravages on the west coasts of America, during his voyage of 

 circumnavigation of the globe, in 1587. In this voyage, Cavendish 

 lay, for some time, near Cape San Lucas, the southern extremity 

 of California, and there captured the Manilla galleon Santa Anna, 

 on her way, with a rich cargo of East India goods, to Acapulco, 

 which he set on fire, after plundering her, and landing her crew on 

 the coast. The unfortunate Spaniards, thus abandoned in a desert 

 country, must soon have perished, had they not succeeded in 

 repairing their vessel, which was driven ashore near them, after the 

 extinction of the flames by a storm, and sailing in her to a port on 

 the opposite coast of Mexico. Among these persons were Juan 

 de Fuca and Sebastian Vizcaino, of each of whom much will be 

 said in this chapter. 



About this time, the search for northern passages of communi- 

 cation between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans was begun by 

 the English ; * and it was prosecuted at intervals, by the navigators 

 of that nation and of Holland, during nearly sixty years, after 

 which it was abandoned, or rather suspended. In the course of 

 the voyages undertaken for this object, eastward as well as west- 

 ward from the Atlantic, many important geographical discoveries 

 and improvements in the art and science of navigation were 

 effected ; and the persons thus engaged acquired an honorable and 

 lasting reputation, by their skill, perseverance against difficulties, 

 and contempt of dangers. The Spanish government was, at the 

 same period, according to the direct testimony derived from its 

 official acts, and the accounts of its historians, kept in a state of 

 constant alarm, by these efforts of its most determined foes to 

 penetrate into an ocean of which it claimed the exclusive posses- 

 sion ; and the uneasiness thus occasioned was, from time to time, 

 increased, by rumors of the accomplishment of the dreaded 

 discovery. 



These rumors were, for the most part, in confirmation of the 



* The first voyage made from England, with the express object of seeking a north 

 west passage to the Pacific, was that of Martin Frobisher, in 1576. 



