It has been contended that Drake fully believed that by his discoveries in America he had laid the foundations of an English civilization here, as a rival to Spanish civilizations. Spain then had a practical monopoly of settlements in America. It is to be remembered that Drake's work was in advance of all the English settlements and attempts at settlements on the Atlantic coast, including those of Gosnold, Amidas and Barlow, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Raleigh. Drake named the country he had visited Albion. He may have gone as far north as Vancouver. There seems to be no doubt that he reached the Bay of San Francisco, and perhaps repaired his ships there.
Drake was born in Tavistock, in England, about 1540, and died off Porto Bello in 1596. Before making his visit to the Pacific coast he had served under Sir John Hawkins, as commander of a small vessel, which went out against the Spanish; had visited the West Indies and commanded a freebooting expedition in which he captured an immense treasure, afterward abandoned; had burned a Spanish vessel at Cartagena, and captured several ships; had crossed the Isthmus of Panama and become the first Englishman to see the Pacific, and had served in Ireland under the Earl of Essex.
It was in December, 1577, that he started on the expedition during which he visited the Pacific coast as here described. It was a freebooting enterprise. Drake sailed through the Strait of Magellan. After visiting California he crossed the Pacific, and, reaching England by way of the Cape of Good Hope in 1580, Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. Queen Elizabeth on his return knighted him on board his own ship. His after career was equally notable, including as it did an important command under Lord Howard in the great sea fight of July, 1588, in which the Armada of Spain was overthrown In the English Channel.
HUDSON'S DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER
[ [1] ] Juet, on a previous voyage with Hudson, had been Hudson's mate, but on the voyage to New York Harbor he was his clerk and kept a journal. From this document, which is included in the "Old South Leaflets," the account here given is taken. Hudson himself also kept a journal, but this has been lost. It is curious that Juet, on the last voyage which Hudson made—the one to Hudson Bay, in which he was sent adrift in a small boat and left to perish—became the leader in the mutiny.
Before coming to America, Henry Hudson, an Englishman in Dutch service, had sailed to the east coast of Greenland, visited Spitzbergen, and attempted to find a northeast passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It was his attempt to find a northwest passage which led him, in September, 1609, into the harbor of New York and up the river named after him. In the following year he sailed again from Holland, seeking a northwest passage and thus entered Hudson Bay. Here he spent the winter. In the following June, when about to return home, the crew mutinied; Hudson, and eight others, were seized, bound and set afloat in a small boat that was never heard from again.
[ [2] ] Sandy Hook.
[ [3] ] Probably Staten Island.
[ [4] ] Coney Island.
[ [5] ] The Narrows.