orld by an Englishman. On December 13th Drake sailed from Plymouth in the Golden Hind with four other small ships and about 160 men. They were set out to raid the Spanish property on the Pacific coast of the New World. He abandoned two ships in the Rio de Plata in South America, and, with the remaining three, navigated the Straights of Magellan. A storm came and drove the ships farther south; one ship and its crew was destroyed. Another ship was separated from Drake’s vessel and returned to England. Drake continued alone up the coast of South America. He then plundered Valparaiso and smaller settlements, cut loose the shipping in Callao and captured a rich Spanish ship. With the newly acquired Spanish charts, Drake continued along the coast looking for a possible passage to the Atlantic Ocean. He sailed possibly as far as Washington state and then turned south again towards San Francisco to repair his ship. He then sailed across the Pacific to the Moluccas and arrived at Plymouth on September 26, 1580. In 1585 Drake commanded a fleet that sacked Vigo in Spain and burned Sao Tiago in the Cape Verde Islands. It was the first act of open war with Spain. He took Santo Domingo and Cartagena and plundered the Florida coast. He also rescued Sir Walter Raleigh’s Roanoke colony under Ralph Lane on the Carolina coast. He returned to England and heard news of the preparations of the Spanish Armada. In 1587 Drake entered the harbor of Cadiz with 26 ships and destroyed 30 of the ships the Spanish assembled. When the Spanish Armada sailed in 1588, Drake was appointed vice admiral of the English fleet at Plymouth. He began a chase up the Channel and slowly captured several ships. In 1589 it was decided to destroy the remnants of the Armada in Spain. Also in 1589, Drake was in joint command of an attempted invasion of Portugal but failed to capture Lisbon. Queen Elizabeth was so displeased with this failure that Drake w...
