32 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
group of large islands, some of which the explorers be- 
lieved to be connected by land with New Guinea, and as 
some gold was picked up, though neither apes nor pea- 
cocks were found, they called them the Solomon Islands 
on account of their resemblance to Ophir. This partial 
success stimulated Mendana to continue his explorations, 
to the brilliant conclusion of which we shall refer 
presently. 
The scene of interest shifts back to “ where wild meet- 
ing oceans boil besouth Magellan/’ and for the first time 
an English explorer appears on the stage, no less heroic 
a figure than Sir Francis Drake, the boldest buccaneer 
of the Elizabethan age when the sphere of the “ ten com- 
mandments ” did not extend beyond the mouth of the 
Channel and every man who owned a ship was free to 
make his fortune as seemed right in his own eyes on the 
high seas. Drake who cared nothing for the Pope’s 
Line of Demarcation, or the Spaniards’ valour, much as he 
appreciated their galleons, set out in 1578 “ to seek that 
strait in which the vulgar believe not but the reality of 
which is confirmed by many cosmographers.” He found 
the strait, passed through into the Pacific in the remark- 
ably short time of 18 days and after sailing some distance 
to the northwest met with one of the gales of the region 
and was driven far to the southwest. He was in latitude 
“ 57 0 or somewhat better ” before he recovered control of 
his ship. He had reached the farthest south yet attained, 
though still nine degrees north of the Antarctic circle 
within which a distorted report of his voyage in De Dry’s 
great compendium of travels represented him as having 
been driven. Drake found himself soon after in the neigh- 
bourhood of a group of islands which he named the Eliza- 
bethides after the Queen, and turning northward came on 
