Atlantic coast. The voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot in 1497 and 1498
were not followed up in the same way that Spain followed up those of
Columbus, and for nearly eighty years the flag of England was not
displayed in any of our waters.[1] At last, in 1576, Sir Martin
Frobisher set out to find a northwest passage to Asia. Of course he
failed; but in that and two later voyages he cruised about the shores of
our continent and gave his name to Frobisher's Bay.[2] Next came Sir
Francis Drake, the greatest seaman of his age. He left England in 1577,
crossed the Atlantic, sailed down the South American coast, passed
through the Strait of Magellan, and turning northward coasted along
South America, Mexico, and California, in search of a northeast passage
to the Atlantic. When he had gone as far north as Oregon the weather
grew so cold that his men began to murmur, and putting his ship about,
he sailed southward along our Pacific coast in search of a harbor, which
in June, 1579, he found near the present city of San Francisco. There he
landed, and putting up a post nailed to it a brass plate on which was
the name of Queen Elizabeth, and took possession of the country.[3]
Despairing of finding a short passage to England, Drake finally crossed
the Pacific and reached home by way of the Cape of Good Hope. He had
sailed around the globe.[4]

[Footnote 1: For Cabot's voyages read Fiske's _Discovery of America_,
Vol. II., pp. 2-15.]

[Footnote 2: See map of 1515.]

[Footnote 3: The white cliffs reminded Drake strongly of the cliffs of
Dover, and as one of the old names of England was Albion (the country of
the white cliffs), he called the land New Albion.]