Navigator; born near Tavistock,
Devonshire, England, between 1539 and 1546.
Becoming a seaman in early youth, he was owner and master of a ship at the age of eighteen years. After making commercial voyages to
Guinea,
Africa, he sold her, and invested the proceeds in an expedition to
Mexico, under
Captain Hawkins, in 1567.
The fleet was nearly destroyed in an attack by the Spaniards at
San Juan de Ulloa (near
Vera Cruz), and
Drake returned to
England stripped of all his property.
The Spanish government refused to indemnify him for his losses, and he sought revenge and found it. Queen Elizabeth gave him a commission in the royal navy, and in 1572 he sailed from
Plymouth with two ships for the avowed purpose of plundering the Spaniards.
He did so successfully on the coasts of
South America, and returned in 1573 with greater wealth than he ever possessed before.
Drake was welcomed as a hero; he soon won the title honorably by circumnavigating the globe.
He had seen from a mountain on
Darien the waters of the
Pacific Ocean, and resolved to explore them.
Under the patronage of the
Queen, he sailed from
Plymouth in December, 1577; passed through the
Strait of Magellan into the
Pacific Ocean; pillaged the
Spanish settlements on the coasts of
Peru and
Chile, and a Spanish galleon laden with
gold and
silver bullion; and, pushing northward, discovered the bay of
San Francisco, took possession of
California in the name of his
Queen, and named the country New Albion, or
New England.
He had sailed northward as high, probably, as latitude 46°, or near the boundary between
Oregon and the
British possessions, and possibly he went farther north, for he encountered very cold weather in June, and turned back.
Drake entered a fine bay and landed his stores, preparatory to repairing his ship; and he remained on the coast fully a month, hospitably treated by the natives.
Late in June he was visited by the king of the country and his official attendants.
The former was dressed in rabbit-skins—a peculiar mark of distinction.
His officers were clad in feathers, and his other followers were almost naked.
Drake received them cordially.
The sceptre-bearer and
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another officer made speeches, after which the natives indulged in a wild dance, in which the women joined.
Then
Drake was asked to sit down, when the king and his people desired him to “become the king and governor of the country.”
Then
the king, singing with all the rest, set a crown upon
Drake's head, and saluted him as Hioh, or sovereign.
Drake accepted the honor in the name of Queen Elizabeth.
After taking possession of the country he erected a wooden post, placed upon it a copper plate, with an inscription, on which was asserted the right of Queen Elizabeth and her successors to the kingdom, with the time of his arrival there, and a statement of the voluntary resignation of the country to the
English by the king and people.
On the same plate were engraved the portrait and arms of the
Queen and the navigator.
Then he sailed for the
Molucca Islands.
It is believed that
Sir Francis Drake entered the “
Golden Gate” of
San Francisco Bay, and that near its shores the ceremony of his coronation took place.
Fearing encounters with the Spaniards on his return with his treasure-laden vessels,
Drake sought a northeast passage to
England.
Met by severe cold, he turned back, crossed the
Pacific to the
Spice Islands, thence over the
Indian Ocean, and, doubling the
Cape of Good Hope, reached
England in November, 1580.
The delighted
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Queen knighted
Drake, who afterwards plundered Spanish towns on the
Atlantic coasts of
America; and, returning, took a distressed English colony from
Roanoke Island and carried them to
England.
In command of a fleet of thirty vessels, in 1587, he destroyed 100 Spanish vessels in the harbor of
Cadiz; and from a captured vessel in the
East India trade the
English learned the immense value of that trade and how to carry it on. As
vice-admiral,
Drake materially assisted in defeating the
Spanish Armada in 1588; and the next year he ravaged the coasts of the
Spanish peninsula.
After various other exploits of a similar kind, he accompanied
Hawkins to the
West Indies in 1595.
Hawkins died at
Porto Rico, and
Drake, in supreme command, gained victory after
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Part of map of Drake's voyages, published at close of sixteenth century.
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victory over the Spaniards.
He died near Puerto Bello, Dec. 27, 1595, and was buried at sea.
