found his way back to his native land, and related his marvellous adventures.
The Golden Hind was now left alone to complete the wonderful voyage of circumnavigation. Drake proceeded along the west coast of America, with the intention of waging a war of retribution on the Spanish settlements and shipping. This resolution would have been still more firmly fixed in his mind if he had known of the cruel fate of his gallant lieutenant John Oxenham and his men. But the news had not yet arrived when Drake sailed from Plymouth.
Having obtained supplies at the island of Mocha, off the coast of Chile, and at Valparaiso, the Golden Hind appeared off Callao, the seaport of Lima, the capital of Peru, and residence of the viceroy. Drake there found seventeen loaded Spanish vessels, and, having obtained tidings of the recent departure for Panama of a richly freighted ship called the Cacafuego, he proceeded in chase.
His unexpected appearance at Callao caused the utmost consternation. The viceroy, Don Franciso de Toledo, younger son of the Count of Oropesa, was astonished. No one had ever passed through the strait since the days of Magellan and Loaysa,[1] and that English ships should have the audacity to make such a voyage had never been conceived possible. All the fancied security of the west coast of America was gone, and a new and quite unexpected state of affairs had to be faced. The viceroy Toledo was a cruel and heartless politician. He was red-handed with the blood of young Tupac Amaru, the last of the Incas, and with the blood of John Oxenham and his gallant comrades. At the same time he was a statesman of considerable ability. His first step was to fit out two armed vessels, and to send them to Panama in pursuit of the Golden Hind. But it was too late. He then resolved to have Magellan's Strait properly surveyed, with a view to its fortification, and to preventing the passage of any more English ships into the South Sea.
For this service he selected the ablest officer in Peru. Don Pedro Sarmiento had served under Mendana in the discovery of the Solomon Islands. He had accompanied the viceroy in his great tour of inspection through all the provinces of his government, had constructed maps of Peru, and had written a history of the Incas.
- ↑ Garcia de Loaysa and Sebastian del Cano passed through the strait in 1526. Simon de Alcazava entered it in 1535, but he was murdered by his men, and his ships never got through.
