ON THE DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST COAST OF AMERICA.
Voyage of Francisco de Ulloa, in 1539.--Cabrillo, in 1542.--Drake, in
1577-80.--The Famous Voyage.--The World Encompassed.--Nuno da
Silva.--Edward Cliffe.--Francis Pretty, not the Author of the Famous
Voyage.--Fleurieu.--Pretty the Author of the Voyage of
Cavendish.--Purchas' Pilgrims.--Notes of Fletcher.--World Encompassed,
published in 1628.--Mr. Greenhow's Mistake in respect to the World
Encompassed and the Famous Voyage.--Agreement between the World
Encompassed and the Narrative of Da Silva.--Fletcher's Manuscript in
the Sloane Collection of the British Museum.--Furthest Limit southward
of Drake's Voyage.--Northern Limit 43 deg. and upwards by the Famous
Voyage, 48 deg. by the World Encompassed.--The latter confirmed by Stow,
the Annalist, in 1592, and by John Davis, the Navigator, in 1595, and
by Sir W. Monson in his Naval Tracts.--Camden's Life of
Elizabeth.--Dr. Johnson's Life of Sir F. Drake.--Fleurieu's
Introduction to Marchand's Voyage.--Introduction to the Voyage of
Galiano and Valdes.--Alexander von Humboldt's New Spain.
The Spaniards justly lay claim to the discovery of a considerable portion
of the north-west coast of America. An expedition from Acapulco under
Francisco de Ulloa, in 1539, first determined California to be a
peninsula, by exploring the Gulf of California from La Paz to its northern
extremity. The chart, which Domingo del Castillo, the pilot of Ulloa, drew
up as the result of this voyage, differs very slightly, according to
Alexander von Humboldt, from those of the present day. Ulloa subsequently
explored the western coast of California. Of the extent of his discoveries
on this occasion there are contradictory accounts, but the extreme limit
assigned to them does not reach further north than Cape Engano, in 30 deg.
north latitude.
In the spring of the following year, 1542, two vessels were despatched
under Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo from the port of Navidad. He examined the
coast of California, as far north as 37 deg. 10', when he was driven back by a
storm to the island of San Bernardo, in 34 deg., where he died. His pilot,
Bartoleme Ferrelo, continued his course northwards after the death of his
commander. The most northern point of land mentioned in the accounts of
the expedition which have been preserved, was Cabo de Fortunas, placed by
Ferrelo in 41 deg., which is supposed by Mr. Greenhow to have been the
headland in 40 deg. 20', to which the name of C. Mendocino was given, in honor
of the viceroy, Mendoza. Other authors, however, whose opinion is entitled
to consideration, maintain that Ferrelo discovered Cape Blanco in 43 deg., to
which Vancouver subsequently gave the name of Cape Orford. (Humboldt,
Essai Politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne, l. iii., c. viii. Introduccion al
Relacion del Viage hecho por las Goletas Sutil y Mexicana en el ano de
1792.)
The Bull of Pope Alexander VI., as is well known, gave to Ferdinand and
Isabella of Spain all the New World to the westward of a meridian line
drawn a hundred leagues west of the Azores. When England, however, shook
off the yoke of the Papacy, she refused to admit the validity of Spanish
titles when based only on such concessions. Elizabeth, for instance,
expressly refused to acknowledge "any title in the Spaniards by donation
of the Bishop of Rome, to places of which they were not in actual
possession, and she did not understand why, therefore, either her
subjects, or those of any other European prince, should be debarred from
traffic in the Indies." In accordance with such a policy, Sir Francis
Drake obtained, through the interest of Sir Christopher Hatton, the
vice-chamberlain of the Queen, her approval of an expedition projected by
him into the South Sea. He set sail from Plymouth in 1577, passed through
the Straits of Magellan in the autumn of 1578, and ravaged the coast of
Mexico in the spring of 1579. Being justly apprehensive that the Spaniards
would intercept him if he should attempt to re-pass Magellan's Straits
with his rich booty, and being likewise reluctant to encounter again the
dangers of that channel, he determined to attempt the discovery of a
north-east passage from the South Sea into the Atlantic, by the reported
Straits of Anian.
There are two accounts, professedly complete, of Drake's Voyage. The
earliest of these first occurs in Hakluyt's Collection of Voyages,
published in 1589, and is entitled "The Famous Voyage of Sir Francis Drake
into the South Sea, and there-hence about the whole Globe of the Earth,
begun in the yeere of our Lord, 1577." It was re-published, by Hakluyt,
with some alterations, in his subsequent edition of 1598-1600, and may be
most readily referred to in the fourth volume of the reprint of this
latter edition, published in 1811. The other account is intitled "The
World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake, collected out of the notes of Mr.
Francis Fletcher, Preacher in this employment, and compared with divers
others' notes that went in the same Voyage." This work was first published
in 1628, by Nicholas Bourne, and "sold at his shop at the Royal Exchange."
It appears to have been compiled by Francis Drake, the nephew of the
circumnavigator, as a dedication "to the truly noble Robert Earl of
Warwick" is prefixed, with his name attached to it. It will be found most
readily in the second volume of the Harleian collection of voyages. There
are also to be found in Hakluyt's fourth volume, two independent, but
unfortunately imperfect, narratives, one by Nuno da Silva, the Portuguese
pilot, who was pressed by Sir F. Drake into his service at St. Jago, one
of the Cape Verde islands, and discharged at Guatulco, where his account
terminates; the other by Edward Cliffe, a mariner on board the ship
Elizabeth, commanded by Mr. John Winter, one of Drake's squadron, which
parted company from him on the west coast of South America, immediately
after passing through the Straits of Magellan. The Elizabeth succeeded in
re-passing the straits, and arrived safe at Ilfracombe on June 2d, 1579;
and Mr. Cliffe's narrative, being confined to the voyage of his own ship,
is consequently the least complete of all, in respect to Drake's
adventures.
It is a disputed point, whether Drake, in his attempt to find a passage to
the Atlantic, by the north of California, reached the latitude of 48 deg. or
43 deg. The Famous Voyage, is the account, on which the advocates for the
lower latitude of 43 deg. rely. The World Encompassed, supported by Stow the
annalist, and two independent naval authorities, cotemporaries of Sir F.
Drake, is quoted in favour of the higher latitude of 48 deg. Before examining
the interval evidence of the two accounts, it may be as well to consider
the authority which is due to them from external circumstances, as Mr.
Greenhow's account of the two works is calculated to mislead the judgment
of the reader in this respect.
Mr. Greenhow, (p. 73,) in referring to the Famous Voyage, says that it was
"written by Francis Pretty, one of the crew of Drake's vessel, at the
request of Hakluyt, and published by him in 1589. It is a plain and
succinct account of what the writer saw, or believed to have occurred
during the voyage, and bears all the marks of truth and authenticity."
This statement could not but excite some surprise, as the Famous Voyage
has no author's name attached to it, either in the first edition of 1589,
or in any of the later editions of Hakluyt, the more so because Hakluyt
himself, in his Address to the favorable reader, prefixed to the edition
of 1589, leads us to suppose that he was himself the author of the work.
"For the conclusion of all, the memorable voyage of Master Thomas Candish
into the South Sea, and from thence about the Globe of the Earth doth
satisfie me, and I doubt not but will fully content thee, which as in time
it is later than that of Sir F. Drake, so in relation of the Philippines,
Japan, China, and the isle of St. Helena, it is more particular and exact;
and therefore the want of the first made by Sir Francis Drake will be the
lesse; _wherein I must confess to have taken more than ordinary paines,
meaning to have inserted it in this worke_; but being of late (contrary to
my expectation,) seriously dealt withall, not to anticipate or prevent
another man's paines and charge in drawing all the services of that
worthie knight into one volume, I have yielded unto those my friends which
pressed me in the matter, referring the further knowledge of his
proceedings to those intended discourses."
Hakluyt, however, appears to have had the narrative privately printed,
and, contrary to the intention which he entertained at the time when he
wrote his preface, and compiled his table of contents, and the index of
his first edition, in neither of which is there any reference to the
Famous Voyage, he has inserted the Famous Voyage between pages 643 and
644, evidently as an interpolation. It is nowhere stated that any copy of
this edition exists, in which this interpolation does not occur. It is
alluded to by Lowndes in his Bibliographical Manual, vol. ii., p. 853,
art. "Hakluyt." It is printed apparently on the same kind of paper, with
the same kind of ink, and in the same kind of type with the rest of the
work, but the signatures at the bottom of the pages, by which term are
meant the numbers which are placed on the sheets for the printer's
guidance, do not correspond with the general order of the signatures of
the work. This fact, combined with the circumstance that the pages are not
numbered, furnishes a strong presumption that it was printed subsequently
to the rest of the work. On the other hand there is evidence that it was
printed to bind up with the rest, from the circumstance that at the
bottom of the last page the word "Instructions" is printed to correspond
with the first word at the top of p. 644, being the title of the next
treatise--"Instructions given by the Honorable the Lords of the Counsell
to Edward Fenton, Esq. for the order to be observed in the voyage
recommended to him for the East Indies, and Cathay, April 9, 1582."
It can hardly be doubted that this account is the narrative about which
Hakluyt himself "had taken more than ordinary paines." Hakluyt, as is well
known, was a student of Christ Church, Oxford, who like his imitator
Purchas, was imbued with a strong natural bias towards geographical
studies, and himself compiled many of the narratives which his collection
contained.
This inference as to the authorship of the Famous Voyage, drawn from the
allusion in Hakluyt's preface to the work, will probably appear to many
minds more justifiable, if the claim set up in behalf of Francis Pretty
can be shown to be utterly without foundation. It may be as well,
therefore, to dispose of this at once. What may have been Mr. Greenhow's
authority it would be difficult to say, though it may be conjectured, from
another circumstance which will be stated below, that he has been misled
by an incorrect article on Sir Francis Drake in the Biographie
Universelle. M. Eyries, the writer of this article, refers to Fleurieu as
his authority. Fleurieu, however, who was a distinguished French
hydrographer, and edited, in Paris, in the year VIII. (1800) a work
intitled "Voyage autour du Monde, par Etienne Marchand," with which he
published some observations of his own, intitled "Recherches sur les
terres de Drake," enumerates briefly in the latter work the different
accounts of Drake's voyage, but he no where mentions the name of the
author of the Famous Voyage. Fleurieu's information, indeed, was not in
every respect accurate, as he states that the edition of Hakluyt which
contained the Famous Voyage "ne parut a Londres qu'en 1600." What he says,
however, of the author, is comprised in a short note to this effect:--"Le
gentilhomme Picard, (employe sur l'escadre de Drake,) auteur de cette
relation, en ayant remis une copie au Baron de St. Simon, Seigneur de
Courtomer, celui-ci engagea Francois de Louvencourt, Seigneur de
Vauchelles, a en faire un extrait en Francais sous le titre de 'le Voyage
Curieux faict autour du Monde par Francois Drach, Amiral d'Angleterre,'
qui fut imprime chez Gesselin, Paris, 1627, en 8vo."
It might be supposed from this statement, that the work of M. de
Louvencourt would disclose the name of the gentleman of Picardy, who had
been the companion of Drake; but on referring to the edition just cited of
the French translation, the only allusion to Drake's companion which is to
be found in the work, occurs in a few words forming part of the dedication
to M. de St. Simon:--"Or, Monsieur, je le vous dedie, parceque c'est vous
que m'aviez donne, m'ayant fait entendre, que vous l'aviez eu d'un de vos
sujets de Courtomer, qui a fait le meme voyage avec ce seigneur." Nothing
further can safely he inferred from this, than that M. de St. Simon
received the English copy, which M. de Louvencourt made use of, from one
of his vassals who had accompanied Drake in his expedition; but whether
this Picard subject of the lord of Courtomer was the author of the
narrative, does not appear from the meagre dedication, which seems to have
been the basis upon which Fleurieu's statement was founded.
Fleurieu refers to the Famous Voyage as printed in duodecimo, in London,
in the year 1600. This edition, however, cannot be traced in the catalogue
of the British Museum or the Bodleian Library, nor does Watt refer to it
in his Bibliotheca Britannica: but Fleurieu may have had authority for his
statement, though the size of the edition is at least suspicious. Even the
French translation of 1627, of which there was an earlier edition in 1613,
apparently unknown to Fleurieu, is in 8vo, and an English edition of the
Famous Voyage, slightly modified, which was published in London in 1752,
and may be found in the British Museum, is a very mean pamphlet, though in
8vo. The separate editions likewise of Drake's other voyages which are to
be met with in public libraries are in small quarto, so that there would
be no argument from analogy in favor of an edition in 12mo. The fact,
however, of its having disappeared, might perhaps be urged as a sign of
the insignificance of the edition.
It is very immaterial, even if Fleurieu has hazarded a hasty statement in
respect to there having been a separate edition of the Famous Voyage as
early as 1600. Thus much, at least, is certain, that Fleurieu is incorrect
in stating that the edition of Hakluyt, in which it was inserted, did not
appear before 1600; for a careful comparison between the French
translation, and the respective English editions of 1589 and 1600,
furnishes conclusive evidence that M. de Louvencourt's translation was
made from the narrative in the edition of 1589. Two examples will
suffice. The edition of 1589 gives 55-1/3 degrees of southern latitude,
and 42 degrees of northern latitude, as the extreme limits of Drake's
voyage towards the two poles, which the French translation follows; whilst
the edition of 1600 gives 57-1/3 degrees of southern latitude, and 43
degrees of northern latitude, as the southern and northern extremes. There
can therefore be little doubt that the work, which M. de Louvencourt
translated, was the narrative about which Hakluyt himself had taken no
ordinary pains: and which he printed separately from his general
collection of voyages, so that it might be circulated privately, though he
incorporated it into the work after it was completed.
So far, indeed, are we from finding any good authority for attributing the
authorship of the Famous Voyage of Sir Francis Drake to Francis Pretty,
one of his crew, as unhesitatingly advanced by Mr. Greenhow, that, on the
contrary there is the strongest negative evidence that it was not written
by a person of that name, unless we are prepared to admit that there were
two individuals of that name, the one a native of Picardy, and vassal of
the Sieur de Courtomer, the other an English gentleman, "of Ey in
Suffolke;" the one a companion of Drake, in his voyage round the world in
1577-80, the other a companion of Cavendish, in his voyage round the world
in 1586-88; the one the author of the Famous Voyage of Sir Francis Drake,
the other the writer of the Admirable and Prosperous Voyage of the
Worshipful Master Thomas Candish.
Hakluyt, in his edition of 1589, gave merely "The Worthy and Famous Voyage
of Master Thomas Candishe, made round about the Globe of the Earth in the
space of two yeeres, and lesse than two months, begon in the yeere 1586,"
which is subscribed at the end, "written by N. H.;" but in his edition of
1600, he published a fuller and more complete narrative, entitled, "The
Admirable and Prosperous Voyage of the Worshipfull Master Thomas Candish,
of Frimley, in the Countie of Suffolke, Esquire, into the South Sea, and
from thence round about the circumference of the whole earth; begun in the
yeere of our Lord 1586, and finished 1588. Written by Master Francis
Pretty, lately of Ey, in Suffolke, a gentleman employed in the same
action." The author, in the course of the narrative, styles himself
Francis Pretie, and says that he was one of the crew of the "Hugh Gallant,
a barke of 40 tunnes," which, with the Desire, of 120, and the Content, of
60 tons, made up Cavendish's small fleet. This Suffolk gentleman, for
several reasons, could not be the same individual as the Picard vassal of
the lord of Courtomer, nor is it probable that he ever formed part of the
crew of Drake's vessel in the Famous Voyage, as he no where alludes to the
circumstance, when he speaks of places which Drake visited, nor even when
he describes the hull of a small bark, pointed out to them by a Spaniard,
whom they had lately taken on board, in the narrowest part of the Straits
of Magellan, "which we judged to be a bark called the John Thomas." Now it
is contrary to all probability that the writer of this passage should have
been one of Drake's crew, for the vessel, whose hull was seen on this
occasion, was the Marigold, a bark of 50 tons, which had formed one of
Drake's fleet of five vessels, and had been commanded by Captain John
Thomas, which fact would have been known to one of Drake's companions, who
could never have committed so gross a blunder as to confound the name of
the ship with the name of the captain. That the circumstances of the loss
of the Marigold made no slight impression upon the minds of Drake's
companions, is shown from its being alluded to in all the narratives of
Nuno da Silva, Cliffe, and Fletcher, without exception.
Drake had succeeded in passing the Straits of Magellan with three of his
vessels: the Golden Hind, his own ship; the Elizabeth, commanded by
Captain Winter; and the Marigold, by Captain Thomas. On the 30th of
September, 1578, the Marigold parted from them in a gale of wind, and was
wrecked in the Straits. On the 7th of October the Elizabeth likewise
parted company from the Admiral; she, however, succeeded in making her way
back through the Straits, and arrived safe at Ilfracombe on the 7th of
June, 1579. It is singular that, in all the three accounts, which are
known to be written by companions of Drake, the separation of the
Marigold, as well as of the Elizabeth, is alluded to; whereas, in the
Famous Voyage, there is no allusion to the loss of the Marigold, but only
to the separation of the Elizabeth, whose safe arrival in England made the
fact notorious. If Hakluyt wrote the Famous Voyage, the general notoriety
of the separate return of the Elizabeth would account for his not
overlooking that circumstance, whilst he omitted all allusion to the
Marigold, about which his information would be comparatively imperfect. If
one of Drake's own crew was the author, it is difficult to suppose that he
would have carefully alluded to "their losing sight of their consort, in
which Mr. Winter was," who did not perish, and should omit all mention of
the loss of the Marigold, which is spoken of in the World Encompassed "as
the sorrowful separation of the Marigold from us, in which was Captain
John Thomas, with many others of our dear friends."
The course of this inquiry seems to justify the following conclusions:
that the "Famous Voyage of Sir Francis Drake" is, strictly speaking, an
anonymous work; that it is very improbable that it was compiled by one of
Drake's crew; on the contrary, Hakluyt's own preface to his edition of
1589, seems to warrant us in supposing that he had himself been employed
in preparing the narrative, which he printed separately from the rest of
his work, but subsequently inserted into it. Hakluyt had most probably
procured information from original sources, but he had certainly not
access, in 1589, to what he subsequently considered to be more trustworthy
sources, for he made various alterations in his narrative, in his edition
of 1600. There is assuredly not the slightest ground for attributing it to
Francis Pretty; and if M. Eyries was the originator of this mistake, he
must undoubtedly have confounded the Famous Voyage of Drake with the
Famous Voyage of Candish. All that can be inferred from M. de
Louvencourt's dedication of his French translation to M. de St. Simon is,
that the Lord of Courtomer had received the English original from one of
his vassals, who had sailed with Drake; but the most ingenious
interpretation of his words will not warrant us in inferring that the
donor was likewise the author of the work.
It may be not unworthy of remark, that Purchas, in the fifth volume of his
Pilgrims, (p. 1181,) gives a list of persons known to the world as the
companions of Drake, in which the name of Francis Pretty is not found.
"Men noted to have compassed the world with Drake, which have come to my
hands, are Thomas Drake, brother to Sir Francis, Thomas Hood, Thomas
Blaccoler, John Grippe, George, a musician, Crane, Fletcher, Cary, Moore,
John Drake, John Thomas, Robert Winterly, Oliver, the gunner, &c." It
would be a reflection upon the well-known pains-taking research of
Purchas, to suppose that he would have omitted from his list the name of
the author of the Famous Voyage, had he been really one of Drake's crew.
The other narrative, which is far more full and complete than the Famous
Voyage, is entitled the "World Encompassed." It was published under the
superintendence of Francis Drake, a nephew of the Admiral, if not compiled
by him; the foundation of it, as stated in the title, seems to have been
the notes of Francis Fletcher, the chaplain of Drake's vessel, "compared
with divers others' notes that went in the same voyage." Fleurieu, in
speaking of this work, says: "Celleci est le recit d'un temoin oculaire:
et la fonction qu'il remplissait a bord du vaisseau amiral pourrait faire
presumer que, s'il n'etait pas l'homme de la flotte le plus experimente
dans l'art de la navigation, du moins il devait etre celui que les etudes
exigees de sa profession avaient mis le plus a portee d'acquerir quelques
connaissances, et qui pouvait le mieux exprimer ce qu'il avait vu."
(Recherches sur les terres australes de Drake, p. 227.)
Fleurieu, in further illustration of the probable fitness of Fletcher for
his task, refers to the excellent account of Anson's Voyages, written by
his chaplain, R. Walter, and to the valuable treatise on naval evolutions,
compiled by the Jesuit Paul Hoste, the chaplain of Tourville.
The earliest edition of "The World Encompassed" appeared in 1628, and a
copy of this date is to be found in the Bodleian Library, at Oxford. It
was printed for Nicholas Bourne, as "the next voyage to that to Nombre de
Dios, in 1572, formerly imprinted." A second edition was printed in 1635,
and is in the King's Library at the British Museum. A third edition was
published in 1652, and may be found in the Library of the British Museum.
It was therefore impossible not to feel surprise at Mr. Greenhow's
deliberately stating, that this work was not published before 1652, the
more so as Watt, in his Bibliotheca Britannica, refers to the first
edition of 1628. It is the coincidence of this second error, which
warrants the supposition that Mr. Greenhow has placed too implicit a faith
in the writer of the article upon Drake, in the Biographie Universelle. M.
Eyries, the author of that article, there writes, "Un autre ouvrage
original est celui qui fut compose sur les memoires de Francis Fletcher,
chapelain sur le vaisseau de Drake. Ces memoires furent compares et fondus
avec ceux de plusieurs autres personnes qui avaient ete employees dans la
meme expedition; le resultat de ce travail parut sous ce titre: The World
Encompassed, by Sir F. Drake, collected out of the notes of Master F. F.,
preacher in this employment, and others. Londres, 1652, 8vo." There is
another slight error in this statement, as the work is a small 4to, not an
8vo.
It has been deemed the more necessary to point out carefully the errors of
Mr. Greenhow, in regard to these two narratives, because he contrasts them
expressly (p. 74) as "the one proceeding entirely from a person who had
accompanied Drake in his expedition, and published in 1589, during the
life of the hero; the other compiled from various accounts, and not given
to the world until the middle of the following century."
In respect to the narrative of the World Encompassed, Mr. Greenhow thus
expresses himself:--"It is a long and diffuse account, filled with dull
and generally absurd speculations, and containing moreover a number of
statements, which are positive and evidently wilful falsehoods; yet it
contains scarcely a single fact not related in the Famous Voyage, from
which many sentences and paragraphs are taken verbatim, while others
convey the same meaning in different terms. The journal, or supposed
journal of Fletcher's, remains in manuscript in the British Museum: and
from it were derived the false statements above mentioned, according to
Barrow, who consulted it."
Mr. Greenhow's opinion of the length and diffuseness of the narrative, and
of the dulness and general absurdity of the speculations, will probably be
acquiesced in by those who have read the World Encompassed, but the rest
of his observations have been made at random. The World Encompassed does
not profess to be an original work, but to be a compilation from the notes
of several who went the voyage. It is therefore highly probable that the
compiler had before him "The Famous Voyage" amongst other narratives, and
we should be prepared to find many statements alike in the two accounts.
But it seems hard to suppose with Mr. Greenhow, that, where the World
Encompassed differs from the Famous Voyage, the statements are "positive
and evidently wilful falsehoods." There are several statements, for
instance, where the two narratives differ, and where the World Encompassed
agrees with Nuno da Silva's account, or with Cliffe's narrative.
For instance, on the second day after clearing the Straits of Magellan, on
Sept. 7th, a violent gale came on from the northeast, which drove Drake's
three vessels, the Golden Hind, the Elizabeth, and the Marigold to the
height of 57 deg. south according to Cliffe, and about 200 leagues in
longitude west of the strait, according to the Famous Voyage. They could
make no head against the gale for three weeks, and during that interval
there was an eclipse of the moon, which is alluded to in all the
narratives. According to Nuno da Silva, they lay driving about, without
venturing to hoist a sail till the last day of September, and about this
time lost sight of the Marigold. The Elizabeth still kept company with the
Golden Hind, but on or before October 7th, Drake's vessel parted from her
consort. We now come to a very important event in Drake's voyage, which
would seem to be one of the supposed "positive and evidently wilful
falsehoods," to which Mr. Greenhow alludes.
The Famous Voyage conducts Sir F. Drake in a continuous course
north-westward, after losing sight of the Elizabeth, to the island of
Mocha, in 38 deg. 30' south, whereas the World Encompassed says, that "Drake,
being driven from the Bay of the Parting of Friends out into the open sea,
was carried back again to the southward into 55 deg. south, on which height
they found shelter for two days amongst the islands, but were again driven
further to the southward, and at length fell in with the uttermost part of
land towards the South Pole," in about 56 deg. south. Here Fletcher himself
landed, and travelled to the southernmost part of the island, beyond which
there was neither continent nor island, but one wide ocean. We altered the
name, says Fletcher in his MS. journal, from Terra Incognita, to Terra
nunc bene Cognita. Now this account in the World Encompassed, varying so
totally from that in the Famous Voyage, is fully borne out by the positive
evidence of Nuno da Silva, who says, that after losing sight of another
ship of their company, the Admiral's ship being now left alone, with this
foul weather they ran till they were under 57 deg., where they entered into
the haven of an island, and stayed there three or four days. The Famous
Voyage would lead the reader to suppose, that after leaving the Bay of
Severing of Friends, the Elizabeth and Golden Hind were driven in company
to 57 deg. 20' south; but it is altogether contrary to probability that Cliffe
should have omitted the fact of the Elizabeth having been in company with
Drake when he discovered the southernmost point of land, had such been the
case. The author of the Famous Voyage has evidently mixed up the events of
the gale in the month of September with those of the storm after the 8th
of October. This is a very striking instance of the truth of Captain W.
Burney's remark, "that the author of the Famous Voyage seems purposely, on
some occasions, to introduce confusion as a cloak for ignorance."
Again, the World Encompassed mentions that Drake was badly wounded in the
face with an arrow by the natives in the island of Mocha, about which the
Famous Voyage is altogether silent, but Nuno da Silva confirms this
statement. Other instances might be cited to the like purport.
Mr. Greenhow, at the end of his note already cited, says, "The journal, or
supposed journal of Fletcher, remains in MS. in the British Museum, and
from it were derived the false statements above mentioned, according to
Barrow, who consulted it." Mr. Greenhow has nowhere particularised what
these false statements are, unless he means that the statements are false
which are at variance with the Famous Voyage. It is evident, however, that
such a view assumes the whole point at issue between the two narratives to
be decided upon internal evidence in favour of the Famous Voyage, which a
careful examination of the two accounts will not justify.
But it is incorrect to refer to Fletcher's journal, as the source of the
assumed false statements in the World Encompassed. The manuscript to which
Captain James Burney refers, in his Voyage of Sir Francis Drake round the
world, as "the manuscript relation of Francis Fletcher, minister, in the
British Museum," forms a part of the Sloane Collection, in which there is
likewise a manuscript of Drake's previous expedition to Nombre de Dios. It
is not, however, properly speaking, a MS. of Fletcher's, but a MS. copy of
Fletcher's MS. It bears upon the fly-leaf the words, "e libris Joh.
Conyers, Pharmacopolist,--Memorandum, Hakluyt's Voyages of Fletcher." Its
title runs thus: "The First Part of the Second Voyage about the World,
attempted, contrived, and happily accomplished, to wit, in the time of
three years, by Mr. Francis Drake, at her Highness's command, and his
company: written and faithfully laid down by Ffrancis Ffletcher, Minister
of Christ, and Presbyter of the Gospel, adventurer and traveller in the
same voyage." On the second page is a map of England, and above it these
words: "This is a map of England, an exact copy of the original to a hair;
that done by Mr. Ffrancis Ffletcher, in Queen Elizabeth's time; it is
copied by Jo. Conyers, citizen and apothecary of London, together with the
rest, and by the same hand, as follows."
The work appears to have been very carefully executed by Conyers, and is
illustrated with rude maps and drawings of plants, boats, instruments of
music and warfare, strange animals, such as the Vitulus marinus and
others, which are referred to in the text of the MS., opposite to which
they are generally depicted, and each is specially vouched to be a
faithful copy of Fletcher's MS.
There is no date assigned to Fletcher's own MS., but we might fairly be
warranted in referring it to a period almost immediately subsequent to the
happy accomplishment of the voyage, from the leader of the company being
spoken of as "Mr. Francis Drake." The Golden Hind reached England in
November, 1580, and Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in April, 1581;
there was then an interval of four months, during which the circumstances
of his voyage and his conduct were under the consideration of the Queen's
Council, and Fletcher may have completed his journal before their
favourable decision led to Drake's receiving the honour of knighthood. On
comparing the World Encompassed with this MS., it will be found that most
of the speculations, discussions, and fine writing in the World
Encompassed have emanated from the nephew of the hero, or whoever may have
been the compiler of the work, and have not been derived from this MS.,
which is written in rather a sober style, and is much less diffuse than
might reasonably be expected. Fletcher's imagination seems certainly to
have been much affected by the giant stature of the Patagonians, and by
the terrible tempest which dispersed the fleet after it had cleared the
Straits of Magellan. In respect to the Patagonians, Cliffe, it must be
allowed, says, they were "of a mean stature, well limbed, and of a duskish
tawnie or browne colour." On the other hand, Nuno da Silva says, they were
"a subtle, great, and well-formed people, and strong and high of stature."
Whichever of the two accounts be the more correct, this circumstance is
certain, that four of the natives beat back six of Drake's sailors, and
slew with their arrows two of them, the one an Englishman, and the other a
Netherlander, so that they could be no mean antagonists. In respect to the
tempest, the events of it must have with reason fixed themselves deep into
Fletcher's memory, for he writes in his journal, "About which time the
storm being so outrageous and furious, the barke Marigold, wherein Edward
Bright, one of the accusers of Thomas Doughty, was captain, with 28 souls,
was swallowed up, which chanced in the second watch of the night, wherein
myself and John Brewer, our trumpeter, being watch, did hear their fearful
cries continued without hope, &c."
There is a greater discrepancy between the Famous Voyage and the World
Encompassed, as to the furthest limit of Drake's expedition to the north
of the equator, than, as already shown, in regard to the southern limit.
We have here, unfortunately, no independent narrative to appeal to in
support of either statement, as the Portuguese pilot was dismissed by
Drake at Guatulco, and did not accompany him further. Hakluyt himself does
not follow the same version of the story in the two editions of his
narrative. In the Famous Voyage, as interpolated in the edition of 1589,
he gives 55-1/3 deg. south, as the furthest limit southward; but in the
edition of 1600, he gives 57-1/3 deg.; in a similar manner we find 42 deg. north,
as the highest northern limit mentioned in the edition of 1589, whilst in
that of 1600 it is extended to 43 deg. Hakluyt thus seems to have found that
his earlier information was not to be implicitly relied upon, but we have
no clew to the fresh sources to which he had at a later period found
access. The World Encompassed, on the other hand, continues Drake's course
up to the 48th parallel of north latitude. The two narratives, however, do
not appear to be altogether irreconcileable. In the Famous Voyage, as
amended in the edition of 1600, we have this statement:--"We therefore set
sail, and sayled (in longitude) 600 leagues at least for a good winde, and
thus much we sayled from the 16 of April till the 3 of June. The 5 day of
June, being in 43 degrees towards the pole arcticke, we found the ayre so
colde that our men, being greevously pinched with the same, complained of
the extremitie thereof, and _the further we went, the more the cold
increased upon us_. Whereupon we thought it best for that time to seek the
land, and did so, finding it not mountainous, but low plaine land, till we
came within 38 degrees towards the line. In which height it pleased God to
send us into a faire and good baye, with a good winde to enter the same."
It will be seen from this account, that it was in the 43d, or, as in the
earlier edition of 1589, the 42d parallel of north lat., that the cold was
first felt so intensely by Drake's crew, and that the further they went,
the more the cold increased upon them; so that from the latter passage it
may be inferred that they did not discontinue their course at once as soon
as they reached the 43d parallel.
It appears, likewise, that Drake, from the nature of the wind, was obliged
to gain a considerable offing, before he could stand towards the
northward: 600 leagues _in longitude_, according to the first edition (the
second edition omitting the words 'in longitude,') which does not differ
much from the World Encompassed. The latter states--"From Guatulco, or
Aquatulco, we departed the day following, viz., April 16, setting our
course directly into the sea, whereupon we sailed 500 leagues in longitude
to get a wind: and between that and June 3, 1400 leagues in all, till we
came into 42 degrees of latitude, where the night following we found such
an alternation of heat into extreme and nipping cold, that our men in
general did grievously complain thereof."
The cold seems to have increased to that extremity that, in sailing two
degrees further north, the ropes and tackling of the ship were quite
stiffened. The crew became much disheartened, but Drake encouraged them,
so that they resolved to endure the uttermost. On the 5th of June they
were forced by contrary winds to run into an ill-sheltered bay, where they
were enveloped in thick fogs, and the cold becoming still more severe,
"commanded them to the southward whether they would or no." "From the
height of 48 degrees, in which now we were, to 38, we found the land by
coasting along it to be but low and reasonable plain: every hill, (whereof
we saw many, but none very high,) though it were in June, and the sun in
his nearest approach to them, being covered with snow. In 38 deg. 30' we fell
in with a convenient and fit harbour, and June 17th came to anchor
therein, where we continued until the 23d day of July following."
The writer of this account, in another paragraph, confirms the above
statement by saying, "add to this, that though we searched the coast
diligently, even unto 48 deg., yet we found not the land to trend so much as
one point in any place towards the East, but rather running on continually
north-west, as if it went directly into Asia."
Mr. Greenhow is disposed to reject the statement of the World Encompassed,
for two reasons: first, because it is improbable that a vessel like
Drake's could have sailed through six degrees of latitude from the 3d to
the 5th of June; secondly, because it is impossible that such intense cold
could be experienced in that part of the Pacific in the month of June, as
is implied by the circumstances narrated, and therefore they must be
"direct falsehoods."
The first objection has certainly some reason in it; but in rejecting the
World Encompassed, Mr. Greenhow adopts the Famous Voyage as the true
narrative, so that it becomes necessary to see whether Hakluyt's account
is not exposed to objections equally grave.
Hakluyt agrees with the author of the World Encompassed, in dating Drake's
arrival at a convenient harbour on June 17,--(Hakluyt gives this date in
vol. iii., p. 524,)--so that Drake would have consumed twelve days in
running back three and a half degrees, according to one version of the
Famous Voyage, and four and a half degrees according to the other, before
a wind which was so violent that he could not continue to beat against it.
There is no doubt about the situation of the port where Drake took
shelter, at least within half a degree, that it was either the Port de la
Bodega, in 38 deg. 28', as some have with good reason supposed, (Maurelle's
Journal, p. 526, in Barrington's Miscellanies,) or the Port de los Reyes,
situated between La Bodega and Port San Francisco, in about 38 deg., as the
Spaniards assert; and there is no difference in the two stories in respect
to the interval which elapsed after Drake turned back, until he reached
the port. There is, therefore, the improbability of Drake's vessel,
according to Hakluyt, making so little way in so long a time _before_ a
wind, to be set off against the improbability of its making, according to
the World Encompassed, so much way in so short a time on a wind, the wind
blowing undoubtedly all this time very violently from the north-west. Many
persons may be disposed to think that the two improbabilities balance each
other.
In respect to the intense cold, it must be remembered that the Famous
Voyage, equally with the World Encompassed, refers to the great extremity
of the cold as the cause of Drake's drawing back again till he reached
38 deg. There can, therefore, be no doubt that Drake did turn back on account
of his men being unable to bear up against the cold, after having so
lately come out of the extreme heat of the tropics. Is it more probable
that this intense cold should have been experienced in the higher or the
lower latitude? for the intense cold must be admitted to be a fact. Drake
seems to have been exposed to one of those severe winds termed _Northers_,
which in the early part of the summer, bring down the atmosphere, even at
New Orleans and Mexico, to the temperature of winter; but without seeking
to account for the cold, as that would be foreign to the present inquiry,
the fact, to whatever extent it be admitted, would rather support the
statement that Drake reached the 48th parallel, than that he was
constrained to turn back at the lower latitude of 43 deg.
It may likewise be observed that the description of the coast, "as
trending continually north-westward, as if it went directly into Asia,"
would correspond with the 48th parallel, but be altogether at variance
with the 43d; and it is admitted by all, that Drake's object was to
discover a passage from the western to the eastern coast of North America.
His therefore finding the land not to trend so much as one point to the
east, but, on the contrary, to the westward, whilst it fully accounts for
his changing his course, determines also where he decided to return. It
should not be forgotten that the statement in the World Encompassed, that
the coast trended to the westward in 48 deg., was in contradiction of the
popular opinion regarding the supposed Straits of Anian, and if it were
not the fact, the author hazarded, without an adequate object, the
rejection of this part of his narrative, and unavoidably detracted from
his own character for veracity.
We have, however, two cotemporaries of Sir Francis Drake, who confirm the
statement of the World Encompassed. One of these has been strangely
overlooked by Mr. Greenhow; namely, Stow the annalist, who, under the year
1580, gives an account of the return of Master Francis Drake to England,
from his voyage round the world. "He passed," he says, "forth northward,
till he came to the latitude of forty-seven, thinking to have come that
way home, but being constrained by fogs and cold winds to forsake his
purpose, came backward to the line ward the tenth of June, 1579, and
stayed in the latitude of thirty-eight, to grave and trim his ship, until
the five-and-twenty of July." This is evidently an account derived from
sources quite distinct from those of either of the other two narratives.
It occurs as early as 1592, in an edition of the Annals which is in the
Bodleian Library at Oxford, so that it was circulated two years at least
before Drake's death.
The other authority is that of one of the most celebrated navigators of
Drake's age, John Davis, of Sandrug by Dartmouth, who was the author of a
work entitled "The World's Hydrographical Discovery." It was "imprinted at
London, by Thomas Dawson, dwelling at the Three Cranes in the Vine-tree,
in 1595," and may be found most readily in the 4th volume of the last
edition of Hakluyt's Voyages. After giving some account of the dangers
which Drake had surmounted in passing through the Straits of Magellan,
which Davis had himself sailed through three times, he proceeds to say,
that "after Sir Francis Drake was entered into the South Seas, he coasted
all the western shores of America, until he came into the septentrional
latitude of forty-eight degrees, being on the back side of Newfoundland."
Now Davis is certainly entitled to respectful attention, from his high
character as a navigator. He had made three voyages in search of a
north-west passage, and had given his name to Davis' Straits, as the
discoverer of them; he had likewise been the companion of Cavendish in his
last voyage into the South Seas, in 1591-93, when, having separated from
Cavendish, he discovered the Falkland islands. He was therefore highly
competent to form a correct judgment of the value of the accounts which he
had received respecting Drake's voyage, nor was he likely, as a rival in
the career of maritime discovery, to exaggerate the extent of it. We find
him, on this occasion, deliberately adopting the account that Drake
reached that portion of the north-west coast of America, which
corresponded to Newfoundland on the north-east coast, or, as he distinctly
says, the septentrional latitude of 48 degrees.
Davis, however, is not the only naval authority of that period who adopted
this view, for Sir William Monson, who was admiral in the reign of
Elizabeth and James I., and served in expeditions against the Spaniards
under Drake, in his introduction to Sir Francis Drake's voyage round the
world, praises him because "lastly and principally that after so many
miseries and extremities he endured, and almost two years spent in
unpractised seas, when reason would have bid him sought home for his rest,
he left his known course, and ventured upon an unknown sea in forty-eight
degrees, which sea or passage we know had been often attempted by our
seas, but never discovered." And in his brief review of Sir F. Drake's
voyage round the world, he says: "From the 16th of April to the 5th of
June he sailed without seeing land, and arrived in forty-eight degrees,
thinking to find a passage into our seas, which land he named Albion."
(Sir W. Monson's Naval Tracts, in Churchill's Collection of Voyages, vol.
iii., pp. 367, 368.)
Mr. Greenhow (p. 75) says, that Davis's assertion carries with it its own
refutation, "as it is nowhere else pretended that Drake saw any part of
the west coast of America between the 17th degree of latitude and the
38th." But surely Davis might use the expression, "coasted all the western
shores of America," without being supposed to pretend that Drake kept in
sight of the coast all the way. The objection seems to be rather verbal
than substantial. Again, Sir W. Monson is charged by the same author with
inconsistency, because he speaks of C. Mendocino as the "furthest land
discovered," and the "furthermost known land." But Sir W. Monson is on
this occasion discussing the probable advantages of a north-west passage
as a saving of distance, and he is speaking of C. Mendocino, as the
"furthermost known part of America," i. e., the furthermost headland from
which a course might be measured to the Moluccas, and he is likewise
referring especially to the voyage of Francisco Gali, so that this
objection is more specious than solid. It should likewise not be
forgotten, that in the most approved maps of that day, in the last edition
of Ortelius, for example, and in that of Hondius, which is given in
Purchas's Pilgrims, C. Mendocino is the northernmost point of land of
North America. It may also not be amiss to remark, that in the map which
Mr. Hallam (in his Literature of Europe, vol. ii., c. viii., Sec. v.) justly
pronounces to be the best map of the sixteenth century, and which is one
of uncommon rarity, Cabo Mendocino is the last headland marked upon the
north-west coast of America, in about 43 deg. north latitude. This map is
found with a few copies of the edition of Hakluyt of 1589: in other
copies, indeed, there is the usual inferior map, in which C. Mendocino is
placed between 50 deg. and 60 deg. The work, however, in which it has been
examined for the present purpose, is Hakluyt's edition of 1600, in which
it is sometimes found with Sir F. Drake's voyage traced out upon it: but
in the copy in the Bodleian Library, no such voyage is observed; whilst
the line of coast is continued above C. Mendocino and marked, in large
letters, "Nova Albion." Thus Hakluyt himself, in adopting this map as "a
true hydrographical description of so much of the world as hath been
hitherto discovered and is common to our knowledge," has so far admitted
that Nova Albion extended beyond the furthest land discovered by the
Spaniards. On the other hand, Camden, in his life of Elizabeth, first
published in 1615, adopts the version of the story which Hakluyt had put
forth in his earliest edition of the Famous Voyage, making the southern
limit 55 deg. south, and the northern 42 deg. north, which Hakluyt has himself
rejected in his later edition. There can be little doubt that Camden's
account bears internal evidence of having been copied in the main from
Hakluyt. Purchas, as we may gather from his work, merely followed Hakluyt.
In addition to these, Mr. Greenhow enumerates several comparatively recent
authors as adopting Hakluyt's opinion. Of these, perhaps Dr. Johnson has
the greatest renown. He published a life of Drake in parts, in five
numbers of the Gentleman's Magazine for 1740-41. It was, however, amongst
his earliest contributions, when he was little more than thirty years of
age, and therefore is not entitled to all the weight which the opinion of
Dr. Johnson at a later period of life might carry with it. But as it is,
the passage, as it stands at present, seems to involve a clerical error.
"From Guatulco, which lies in 15 deg. 40', they stood out to sea, and without
approaching any land, sailed forward till on the night following the 3d of
June, being then in the latitude of 38 deg., they were suddenly benumbed with
such cold blasts that they were scarcely able to handle the ropes. This
cold increased upon them, as they proceeded, to such a degree that the
sailors were discouraged from mounting upon deck; nor were the effects of
the climate to be imputed to the warmth of the regions to which they had
been lately accustomed, for the ropes were stiff with frost, and the meat
could scarcely be conveyed warm to the table. On June 17th they came to
anchor in 38 deg. 30'."
In the original paper, as published in the Gentleman's Magazine for
January, 1741, Dr. Johnson writes 38 deg. in numbers as the parallel of
latitude where the cold was felt so acutely. This would be in a far lower
latitude than what any of the accounts of Drake's own time gives; so that
it may for that reason alone be suspected to be an error of the press,
more particularly as Drake is made ultimately to anchor in 38 deg. 30', a
higher latitude than that in which his crew were benumbed with the cold.
We must either suppose that Dr. Johnson entirely misunderstood the
narrative, and intentionally represented Drake as continuing his voyage
northward in spite of the cold, and anchoring in a higher latitude than
where his men were so much discouraged by its severity, or that there is a
typographical error in the figures. The latter seems to be the more
probable alternative; and if, in order to correct this error, we may
reasonably have recourse to the authority from which he derived his
information as to the latitude of the port where Drake cast anchor, it is
to the World Encompassed, and not to the Famous Voyage, that we must
refer; for it is the World Encompassed which gives us 38 deg. 30' as the
latitude of the convenient and fit harbour, whereas the Famous Voyage
sends Drake into a fair and good bay in 38 deg.
The dispute between Spain and Great Britain respecting the fur trade on
the north-west coast of America having awakened the attention of the
European powers to the value of discoveries in that quarter, a French
expedition was in consequence despatched in 1790, under Captain Etienne
Marchand, who, after examining some parts of the north-west coast of
America, concluded the circumnavigation of the globe in 1792. Fleurieu,
the French hydrographer, published a full account of Marchand's Voyage, to
which he prefaced an introduction, read before the French Institute in
July, 1797. In this introduction he reviews briefly the course of maritime
discovery in these parts, and states his opinion, without any
qualification, that Sir Francis Drake made the land on the north-west
coast of America in the latitude of 48 degrees, which no Spanish navigator
had yet reached. Mr. Greenhow (p. 223) speaks highly of Fleurieu's work,
though he considers him to have been careless in the examination of his
authorities. He observes, that "his devotion to his own country, and his
contempt for the Spaniards and their government, led him frequently to
make assertions and observations at variance with truth and justice." It
may be added, that at the time when he composed his introduction, the
relations of France and Great Britain were not of a kind to dispose him to
favour unduly the claims of British navigators.
The same train of events which terminated in the Nootka Convention, led to
a Spanish expedition under Galiano and Valdes, of which an account was
published, by order of the king of Spain, at Madrid, in 1802. The
introduction to it comprises a review of all the Spanish voyages of
discovery along the north-west coast, in the course of which it is
observed, that, from want of sufficient information in Spanish history,
certain foreign writers had undervalued the merit of Cabrillo, by
assigning to Drake the discovery of the coast between 38 deg. and 48 deg.;
whereas, thirty-six years before Drake's appearance on that coast,
Cabrillo had discovered it between 38 deg. and 43 deg. A note appended to this
passage states:--"The true glory which the English navigator may claim
for himself is the having discovered the portion of coast comprehended
between the parallels of 43 deg. and 48 deg.; to which, consequently, the
denomination of New Albion ought to be limited, without interfering with
the discoveries of preceding navigators." (Relacion del Viage hecho por
las Goletas Sutil y Mexicana en el ano de 1792. Introduccion, pp. xxxv.
xxxvi.)
To the same purport, Alexander von Humboldt, in his Essai Politique sur la
Nouvelle Espagne, says:--"D'apres des donnees historiques certaines, la
denomination de Nouvelle Albion devrait etre restreinte a la partie de la
cote qui s'etend depuis les 43 deg. aux 48 deg., ou du Cap de Martin de Aguilar, a
l'entree de Juan de Fuca," (l. iii., c. viii.) And in another passage: "On
trouve que Francisco Gali cotoya une partie de l'Archipel du Prince de
Galles ou celui du Roi George (en 1582.) Sir Francis Drake, en 1578,
n'etait parvenu que jusqu'aux 48 deg. de latitude au nord du cap Grenville,
dans la Nouvelle Georgie."
The question of the northern limits of Drake's expedition has been rather
fully entered into on this occasion, because it is apprehended that
Drake's visit constituted a _discovery_ of that portion of the coast which
was to the north of the furthest headland which Ferrelo reached in 1543,
whether that headland were Cape Mendocino, or Cape Blanco; and because Mr.
Greenhow, in the preface to the second edition of his History of Oregon
and California, observes, that in the accounts and views there presented
of Drake's visit to the north-west coast, all who had criticised his work
were silent, or carefully omitted to notice the principal arguments
adduced by the author. We may conclude with observing, that on reviewing
the evidence it will be seen, that in favour of the higher latitude of 48 deg.
we have a well authenticated account drawn up by the nephew of Sir Francis
Drake himself, from the notes of several persons who went the voyage,
confirmed by independent statements in two contemporary writers, Stow the
annalist, and Davis the navigator, and supported by the authority of Sir
W. Monson, who served with Drake in the Spanish wars after his return; and
on this side we find ranked the influential judgment of the ablest modern
writers who have given their attention to the subject, such as the
distinguished French hydrographer Fleurieu, the able author of the
Introduction to the Voyage of the Sutil and Mexicana, published by the
authority of the king of Spain, and the learned and laborious Alexander
von Humboldt. On the opposite side stands Hakluyt, and Hakluyt alone; for
Camden and Purchas both followed Hakluyt implicitly, and though they may
be considered to approve, they do not in any way confirm his account;
while Hakluyt himself has nowhere disclosed his sources of information,
and by the variation of the two editions of his work in the two most
important facts of the whole voyage, namely, the extreme limits southward
and northward respectively of Drake's expedition, he has indirectly made
evident the doubtful character of the information on which he relied, and
has himself abandoned the version of the story, which Camden and the
author of the Vie de Drach, have adopted upon his authority.