Sir Charles Blount, Earl of Devonshire, Sir George Carew, Earl of Totness, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir William Monson, Sir Robert Mansel, and many more great officers by sea and land, survived Queen Elizabeth, may possibly doubt whether the Doctor formed a right judgment of the intention of Providence. This is certain, that the reign of that princess stands in no need at all of rhetorical flourishes; plain language, accuracy in facts, and impartiality in relating them, will set the history of it above anything with which even an ingenious fancy can adorn romance.

* Biog. Brit.

M

MR. THOMAS CAVENDISH.

1586 TO 1592.

THE prosperous voyage of Sir Francis Drake, the first, and hitherto the only, Englishman that had circumnavigated the globe, and the vast treasure he brought home from that adventurous voyage, encouraged others to try their fortunes to the western coasts of America, the West India Islands, and the Azores; but none had ventured to follow the route of Drake before the year 1586, when Mr. Thomas Cavendish, of Trimley, in the county of Suffolk, a gentleman of good family and property, but greatly reduced by indulging in the follies of fashionable life, and frequenting the court, conceived the daring project of a voyage to the South Sea, as the best, the easiest, and the most certain way of recruiting his reduced finances. As war might now be said to have commenced in the preceding year against Spain, it could no longer be considered piratical or unlawful to make reprisals upon Spanish trade, or to commit depredations along the shores of the Pacific.

To enable him to prosecute this object, he built

two vessels, quite new from the stocks, the Desire of 120 tons, and the Content of 60 tons; adding a third, the Hugh Gallant, a bark of 40 tons; all fitted out at his own cost, provisioned for two years, and manned with 123 persons. He constituted himself admiral and commander-in-chief of this little squadron. He sailed from Plymouth on the 21st of July; arrived at Sierra Leone the 25th of August; and destroyed a negro town, in revenge for one of his men being killed by a poisoned arrow; but before this he had burnt 150 houses because of their bad dealings with the Christians.*

gave

They called, and for a few days remained, to water at St. Sebastian, near Rio de Janeiro; thence coasting the shore to the 48th degree of latitude, they entered a harbour to which the admiral the name of Port Desire, after that of his own ship. The inhabitants are described as perfect savages, of a gigantic stature; but all other information concerning them is, that one of their feet measured eighteen inches in length. "The seals too were of a wonderful great bigness, and monstrous of shape, the forepart like a lion. The young are marvellous good meat, hardly to be known from lamb or mutton." ." +

Cavendish left Port Desire, and, coasting to the southward, fell in with a long sand-beach, in lat. 52° 40', reaching to the opening of a strait which

he found to be that of Magelhaens, and which the ships entered in the evening. During the night lights were observed on the north shore, which were thought to be signals, and were answered accordingly with others.

The next morning the General went in a boat to the north side of the strait, where three men were seen on the shore, who waved a white flag. They hailed in Spanish, and inquired to what country the ships belonged. They were told they were English, and Cavendish said if they wished it he would carry them to Peru; but they declined, saying they could not trust themselves with the English. On reflection, however, they thought it better to throw themselves on the mercy of Englishmen, than to perish as the greater part of their countrymen had done; and one of them came into the boat while the other two went to seek their companions. The man who remained was called Hernandez. Being asked what their number was, he replied, "Besides us three, there are fifteen others, three of whom are women." The General then told him that if they would all go to such a point they would be received on board the ships. The wind, however, coming fair, the ships got under weigh, leaving the wretched people behind, except Hernandez; these poor people being the only remains of a Spanish colony left here three years before by Sarmiento, consisting of four hundred

men and thirty women, all of whom, except the eighteen in question, had perished for want of provisions and clothing, which, with the severity of the climate, produced disease and death. Cavendish has been censured, and perhaps justly, for leaving the remnant of these poor creatures to perish like the others.

The ships anchored before the deserted town of San Felipe to take in fresh water and wood, the latter supplied by pulling to pieces the houses or huts of the town. The poor people for whom he did not wait would probably not long survive the fate of the rest. Cavendish changed the name of its ruins to that of Port Famine. In the strait they found plenty of penguins and muscles. On coming to the mouth of a river, the General went in a boat three miles up its stream; fell in with a number of the natives, who gave him the flesh of some animal, and a friendly intercourse took place. But Hernandez told the General they were a traitorous people, who had no other design than to decoy him into an ambuscade. The next time he went on shore, as the natives were approaching, he ordered muskets to be fired at them, by which some were killed. Thus it was that an Englishman forfeited all claim to humanity at the suggestion of a worthless Spaniard, as he turned out to be. On the 24th of February Cavendish entered the South Sea.

They called at the islands of Mocha and Santa