Doughty, kneeling side by side, then the flash of the sword and Drake
holding up the head of his friend with the words, "Lo, this is the
end of traitors."

It was now midwinter, and for six weeks they remained in harbour till
August came, and with three ships they emerged to continue their way
to the Straits of Magellan. At last it was found and boldly they entered.
From the towering mountains that guarded the entry, tempests of wind
and snow swept down upon the "daring intruders." As they made their
way through the rough and winding waters, they imagined with all the
other geographers of their time that the unknown land to the south
was one great continent leading beyond the boundaries of the world.
Fires lit by the natives on this southern coast added terror to the
wild scene. But at the end of sixteen days they found themselves once
more in the open sea. They were at last on the Pacific Ocean. But it
was anything but pacific. A terrible tempest arose, followed by other
storms no less violent, and the ships were driven helplessly southward
and westward far beyond Cape Horn. When they once more reached the
coast they found in the place of the great southern continent an
indented wind-swept shore washed by waves terrific in their height
and strength. In the ceaseless gale the _Marygold_ foundered with all
hands and was never heard of again. A week later the captain of the
_Elizabeth_ turned home, leaving the _Pelican_, now called the _Golden
Hind_, to struggle on alone. After nearly two months of storm, Drake
anchored among the islands southward of anything yet known to the
geographers, where Atlantic and Pacific rolled together in one
boisterous flood. Walking alone to the farthest end of the island,
Drake is said to have laid himself down and with his arms embraced
the southernmost point of the known world.

[Illustration: THE SILVER MAP OF THE WORLD. The reverse half, showing
the route of Drake's voyage home from California in 1579-1580, through
the Spice Islands and the Indian Ocean. The end of the homeward track,
round the Azores, will be seen on the previous Silver Map
illustration.]

He showed that the Tierra del Fuego, instead of being part of a great
continent--the Terra Australis--was a group of islands with open sea
to east, south, and west. This discovery was first shown on a Dutch
silver medallion struck in Holland about 1581, known as The Silver
Map of the world, and may be seen to-day in the British