Sir Francis Drake, the greatest of the naval adventurers of England of
the time of Elizabeth, was born in Devonshire about 1540. He went to
sea early, was sailing to the Spanish Main by 1565, and commanded a ship
under Hawkins in an expedition that was overwhelmed by the Spaniards
in 1567. In order to recompense himself for the loss suffered in this
disaster, he equipped the expedition against the Spanish treasure-house
at Nombre de Dios in 1572, the fortunes of which are described in the
first of the two following narratives. It was on this voyage that he was
led by native guides to "that goodly and great high tree" on the isthmus
of Darien, from which, first of Englishmen, he looked on the Pacific,
and "besought Almighty God of His goodness to give him life and leave to
sail once in an English ship in that sea."

The fulfilment of this prayer is described in the second of the voyages
here printed, in which it is told how, in 1578, Drake passed through the
Straits of Magellan into waters never before sailed by his countrymen,
and with a single ship rifled the Spanish settlements on the west
coast of South America and plundered the Spanish treasure-ships; how,
considering it unsafe to go back the way he came lest the enemy should
seek revenge, he went as far north as the Golden Gate, then passed
across the Pacific and round by the Cape of Good Hope, and so home, the
first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. Only Magellan's ship had
preceded him in the feat, and Magellan had died on the voyage. The Queen
visited the ship, "The Golden Hind," as she lay at Deptford and knighted
the commander on board.

Drake's further adventures were of almost equal interest. Returning
from a raid on the Spaniards in 1586, he brought home the despairing
Virginian colony, and is said at the same time to have introduced from
America tobacco and potatoes. Two years later he led the English fleet