[148] The first voyage of Cavendish is worthy of more note than it has received. Starting in July, 1586, he circumnavigated the globe, passing through the Straits of Magellan westwards, in eight months less than Drake. He was the first English navigator to discern the value of the position of St. Helena, to describe with accuracy the Philippine Islands, and to bring home a map and description of China. He is believed to have been only twenty-two years of age when he took the command in his first most adventurous voyage. In a third voyage he was shipwrecked in 1591 or 2 on the coast of Brazil, and died there.
[149] Pattern-pieces for the silver intended for circulation in the East Indies, bearing the name of Queen Elizabeth and the date 1601, exist in various collections. No coins, however, were actually struck from the dies of the patterns.
[150] See further details in Macpherson, ii. pp. 216-218. The money actually sent out he states to have been Spanish.
[151] Anderson’s ‘Annals of Commerce,’ vol. ii. p. 208, quoting from Guicciardini. The Dutch sent fourteen ships to India in 1602. Macpherson, ii. p. 227.
[152] It is likely that the great value of their new trade with the Brazils led the Portuguese to care less for the rich but more distant and dangerous trade with the far East.
[153] See Meadows Taylor’s ‘Man. of India Hist.,’ pp. 289-322; ‘Mar. and Inl. Discov.,’ vol. ii. pp. 195-198.
[154] The tomb of Adams is still in existence, is fenced round, and treated with the greatest respect by the Japanese people.
[155] Accounts differ in the names of the four vessels.
[156] See further details on all these matters in ‘Calendar of State Papers, East India, 1617-1621,’ in the ‘Polls series,’ Lond. 8, 1872.
[157] The text of this treaty is given by Macpherson, ii. pp. 293-295.