Those Who Still Remained In The Ship, Now Reduced To Thirteen, Having No
Mind To Join Their Companions In Captivity, Made All The Haste They
Could Away, And Being Favoured By The Winds, They Arrived In The Harbour
Of San Lucar, Near Seville, On The 7th September, 1522.
He who commanded
this vessel, which had the good fortune to return from this remarkable
voyage, was Juan Sebastian
Cano, a native of Guetaria in Biscay, a
person of much merit and resolution, who was nobly rewarded by the
emperor Charles V. To perpetuate the memory of this first voyage round
the world, the emperor gave him for his coat of arms the terrestrial
globe, with this motto, Prima me circumdedisti. The newly-discovered
straits at the southern extremity of South America, were at first named
the Straits of Vittori, after the ship which returned; but they soon
lost that name, to assume another which becomes them much better, in
honour of their discoverer, and have ever since been denominated the
Straits of Magellan.
This most celebrated voyage took up three years and twenty-seven days,
having commenced on the 10th August, 1519, and concluded on the 7th
September, 1522. By its success, the skill and penetration of the great
Columbus, who, only twenty-seven years before, had first asserted the
possibility of its performance, were fully established. One circumstance
was discovered in this voyage, which, although reason have taught us to
explain, could hardly have been expected a priori. On the return of
the Spaniards to their own country, they found they had lost a day in
their reckoning, owing to the course they had sailed; whereas had they
gone by the east, and returned by the west, they would have gained a day
in their course.
Another circumstance, which served to heighten the reputation of
Magellan, who deserves the sole honour of this voyage, was the
difficulty experienced by other able commanders, who endeavoured to
fellow the course he had pointed out. The first who made the attempt
were two Genoese ships in 1526, but unsuccessfully. In 1528, Cortes, the
conqueror of Mexico, sent two ships with 400 men, to endeavour to find
their way through the straits of Magellan to the Moluccas, but without
effect. Sebastian Cabot tried the same thing, by order of Emanuel king
of Portugal, but was unable to succeed.
CHAPTER II.
VOYAGE BY SIR FRANCIS DRAKE ROUND THE WORLD, IN 1577-1580.[22]
* * * * *
SECTION I.
Introduction, and Preparation for the Voyage.
In his Annals of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the learned Cambden
informs us, that the father of the celebrated Sir Francis Drake was the
Rev. Edmund Drake, vicar of Upnore on the river Medway, and says he had
this information from Sir Francis himself. Yet the industrious John
Stowe says, that he was the eldest of twelve brethren, the sons of
Edmund Drake, mariner, at Tavistock in Devonshire, and was born in 1540.
Perhaps both accounts may be true; and Mr Edmund Drake, though a mariner
originally, may have had a competent share of learning, and may have
been admitted to orders on the final establishment of the Reformation.
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