Spanish America was indeed in an uproar as the news of Drake’s exploits trickled in slowly from every settlement along the coast. With no one sure where the elusive Englishman would strike next, every town was in constant alert, and every seaman kept a watch for an unknown sail. One Spanish captain, at least, urged his superiors to look northward; he was certain that Drake would not come back among the angry Spanish again. But by the time the Viceroy of New Spain had made up his mind, Drake was already too far on his way up north.
The Golden Hind had struck out far into the Pacific and, caught by the northwest trade winds, had steadily sailed northward, doubtlessly looking for the fabled Northwest Passage which attracted so much effort by European sailors of those years. But gradually the climate grew more and more uncomfortable, “and the further we went, the more colde increased upon us.” Freezing rain and thick fogs alternated until the sailors, fresh from the tropics, were unable to go on. After a brief stop on the Oregon coast, “a bad baye” with the “most vile, thicke, and stinking fogges,” they turned southward again, and on June 17 anchored in a comfortable harbor at 38 degrees north latitude, a few miles north of San Francisco Bay.
Few, if any, Europeans had ever come this far north to California; the local Indians, at any rate, had never encountered white men before. They came forward, led by a shaman, and presented Francis Drake with a headdress of rare feathers and a necklace of beads, and threw themselves on the ground before him. Drake accepted these offerings in the name of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, and he proclaimed an English protectorate over the entire region. The land he called New Albion, the Latin term for England, and so that the Indians might see a portrait of their new ruler, the English set up a brass plate and placed in its center an English coin.
Drake and his crews spent nearly five weeks on the coast of northern California, resting and refitting their ship for the long voyage home. At the beginning of August, the Golden Hind once again pushed off, sailing straight toward the west. As the California coast receded toward the eastern horizon, the Indians could be seen on a hill, assembled around a large bonfire, imploring their gods to return their white king back to earth again.
Like Magellan’s crews sixty years earlier, the English sailors now faced the immense expanse of the Pacific Ocean. For nearly seventy days they sailed westward without ever sighting land until, at the end of October, they arrived at the island of Ternate. From there, following closely in Magellan’s course, they called frequently and without any problems at the Moslem-held islands, taking on provisions and doing some trading. At several of these islands Drake was even able to sign treaties with local rulers, many of whom were only too happy to begin a trade with the rivals of the monopolizing Portuguese. About the middle of June 1580, the Golden Hind finally rounded the Cape of Good Hope and sailed northward along the African coast, always avoiding the Spanish and Portuguese islands.
All sorts of rumors had meanwhile arisen in England and Spain. News of the Golden Hind’s successes in Peru and Mexico had come in, and all England had celebrated. But 1579 turned into 1580, and still there was no sign of Francis Drake and his ships, and friends began to despair. Rumors arose that the Golden Hind had been captured and sunk, and that her captain had been hanged. English diplomatic circles began to breathe easier with the hope that perhaps the sea had smoothed over a most difficult situation. Then, in August 1580, the London captains and merchants received news of still more of Drake’s incredible actions, and they too began to worry, for they had just sent off a fleet of their own to trade with Spain.
And bad news for England soon followed. The king of Portugal had died, and the Spanish armies had immediately marched into Lisbon, adding all the Portuguese possessions to the Spanish Empire. This annexation gave Philip II exactly what he wanted and needed; the Portuguese navy was even larger than Spain’s, making Philip’s the greatest fleet in all Europe and a serious threat for England. Unless Elizabeth’s diplomatic skills could once more pull her country out of the fast-entangling situation on the Continent, serious trouble for England lay on the horizon.
It was during all this turmoil that on September 26, 1580, Francis Drake sailed the Golden Hind into Plymouth Harbor, loaded to the gunwales with Spanish gold and silver. It is said that the first question the captain asked ashore was about the Queen’s health; Drake well realized that had Elizabeth died in the meanwhile, he might very well be looked upon as a common pirate. But Elizabeth was not only alive and healthy, but determined to hurt Spain as much as she could without provoking an immediate war. While the Spanish ambassador raged in vain, and while the London merchants trembled for their fleet, the Queen ordered the Golden Hind to be brought to London, where she became a sensational attraction. And on April 4, 1581, the Queen herself attended a banquet aboard the ship. There, surrounded by her court and by thousands of her adoring subjects, Elizabeth, Queen of England, openly challenged the king of Spain. Philip II had demanded Drake’s head; instead, the Queen now asked her captain to kneel, touched his shoulders with a sword, and then pronounced the words of everlasting fame: “I bid thee rise, Sir Francis Drake!”