pon a rock, where we stuck
fast from eight of the clock at night till four of the clock in the
afternoon the next day, being, indeed, out of all hope to escape the
danger; but our General, as he had always hitherto showed himself
courageous, so now he and we did our best endeavours to save ourselves,
which it pleased God so to bless, that in the end we cleared ourselves
most happily of the danger."

[Illustration: THE _GOLDEN HIND_ AT JAVA. From the Chart of Drake's
Voyages.]

Then they ran across the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope
in calm weather, abusing the Portuguese for calling it the most
dangerous Cape in the world for intolerable storms, for "This Cape,"
said the English, "is a most stately thing and the finest Cape we saw
in the whole circumference of the earth."

And so they came home. After nearly three years' absence Drake
triumphantly sailed his little _Golden Hind_ into Plymouth harbour,
where he had long ago been given up as lost. Shouts of applause rang
through the land at the news that an Englishman had circumnavigated
the world. The Queen sent for Drake to tell his wonderful story, to
which she listened spellbound. A great banquet was held on board the
little ship, at which Elizabeth was present and knighted Drake, while
she ordered that the _Golden Hind_ should be preserved "as a worthy
rival of Magellan's _Victoria_" and as "a monument to all posterity
of that famous and worthy exploit of Sir Francis Drake." It was
afterwards taken to pieces, and the best parts of wood were made into
a chair at Oxford, commemorated by Cowley's lines--

"To this great ship, which round the world has run
And matched in race the chariot of the sun;

* * * * *

Drake and his ship could ne'er have wished from fate
A happier station or more blest estate;
For lo, a seat of endless rest is given
To her in Oxford and to him in Heaven."

Sir Francis Drake died at sea in 1596.

"The waves became his winding sheet, the waters were his tomb,
But for his fame the ocean sea was not sufficient room."

[Illustration: "THE UNROLLING OF THE CLOUDS"--V. The world as known
after its circumnavigation by Sir Francis Drake in the years
1577-1580.]

CHAPTER XXXV

DAVIS STRAIT

But even while Drake was sailing round the world, and Frobisher's
search for a north-west passage had been diverted into a quest for
gold, men's minds were still bent on