e 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 Cambde