e
bolder project of sailing directly across the Pacific Ocean to the Far
East, from which he could proceed to the Cape of Good Hope and skirt
the Coast of Africa. So he resolutely turned his prow into an unknown
sea, and after sixty-eight days sighted land.

Again the savages crowded around his ship in their canoes, but they
were far different from the Indians of California. These men were naked
with blackened teeth and sullen looks. Finding the ship not to their
liking, they loosed a shower of stones, to which Drake responded by
firing one of his cannon, which frightened them until they fell out of
their canoes into the water, and remained there until the _Golden Hind_
had sailed away.

Drake stopped at many islands and traded with the natives he met there.
He visited the Philippines and an island called Terenate, where he
received a native king who called on him with the utmost pomp and
ceremony. This potentate was surrounded with grave old men with white
beards, who believed in the Mohammedan religion, and they welcomed
Drake as though he himself were a mighty king.

At the court of the King of Terenate Drake discovered a Chinaman, who
professed to be of royal blood, and gave him a courteous invitation to
visit the Emperor of China. But Drake was eager to get home and
continued his voyage as quickly as possible. He stopped at Java, and
then made for the Cape of Good Hope--which his followers declared was
the fairest and most goodly cape in all the world, and the most welcome
to set eyes on. Rounding the Cape, he directed his course for Sierra
Leone and the Coast of Guinea, and, coming into waters that he knew, he
continued northward until the shores of England were sighted from his
masthead. And at last he dropped anchor triumphantly in Plymouth harbor
after a voyage that had lasted three years.

He had suffered from tempest, battle and shipwreck, and on one occasion
had run his vessel on the rocks while in Asiatic waters. He had taken a
princely fortune from the Spaniards and engaged in fierce combats with
them. He had accomplished more as a geographer and navigator than any
Englishman up to his time, and had taken the English flag where it had
never been seen before. And as a result of these exploits all England
rang with his fame, songs were composed in his honor and he was
considered to be more than human by many people who held that only by
magic could he have accomplished a voyage so miraculous.

Elizabet