r Francis Fletcher,
preacher in this employment," from whose notes the "World
Encompassed," which is a narrative of this voyage, was compiled,
speaks of acts very little different from highway robbery, such as
would now be held disgraceful in open war; as for instance, on
meeting a Spaniard driving eight llamas, each laden with one hundred
pounds' weight of silver, "they offered their service without
entreaty, and became drovers, not enduring to see a gentleman Spaniard
turned carrier." Enriched by the most valuable spoil, jewels, gold,
and silver, Drake steered to the northward, hoping to discover a
homeward passage in that quarter. In the forty-eighth degree of north
latitude, in what is now the State of Washington, he was stopped by
the cold; and, determining to traverse the Pacific, he landed,
careened his ship, and, in the queen's name, took possession of the
country, which he named New Albion, September 29, 1579; he sailed
again, and reached the Molucca Islands November 4th. In his passage
thence to the island of Celebes, he incurred the most imminent danger
of the whole voyage. The ship struck, as they were sailing before a
fair wind, on a reef of rocks, so precipitous that it was impossible
to lay out an anchor to heave her off. They stuck fast in this most
hazardous situation for eight hours. At the end of that time the wind
shifted, and the ship, lightened of part of her guns and cargo, reeled
off into deep water, without serious injury. Had the sea risen, she
must have been wrecked. This was Drake's last mishap. He reached
Plymouth in the autumn of 1580, after nearly three years' absence.
Accounts differ as to the exact date of his arrival.

Since Drake had for this voyage the queen's commission, by which we
must suppose the license to rob the Spaniards to have been at least
tacitly conceded, he seems to have been rather hardly used, in being
left from November to April in ignorance how his bold adventure was
received at court. Among the people it created a great sensation, with
much diversity of opinion; some commending it as a notable instance of
English valor and maritime skill, and a just reprisal upon the
Spaniards for their faithless and cruel practices; others styling it a
breach of treaties, little better than piracy, and such as it was
neither expedient nor decent for a trading nation to encourage. During
this interval, Drake must have felt his situation unpleasant and
precarious; but the queen turn