3 pages, plus 3 plates, one showing the portrait illustrations of Drake and Cavendish, and two showing the draft. Original condition with blue wrappers, titles to front, and containing all the ads. This is a complete issue, seldom found in such good and original condition. This is an enlightening succinct account of tremendous historical importance, the most significant discovery of two documents found in the British Museum, revealing the actual draft project and other correspondence concerning Drake's secret voyage, which existed prior to the dramatic expedition. Previous to this report, all discussions as to what plan and instructions Drake carried with him when he finally sailed for Magellan's strait in December of 1577 had been based upon after the events: upon the course which he actually travelled, narratives written and dispositions made when he returned a national hero. The first document found, consisting of three pages, two of which are reproduced in facsimile in this article, is the draft plan of the voyage which subsequently took shape as a circumnavigation of the world. This document gives a list of the promoters of the voyage, the Lord High Admiral (the Earl of Lincoln), Leicester, Walsingham, Hatton, Sir William Winter, George Winter, John Hawkins and Francis Drake. The second document is the report made by John Winter on the 2nd of June, 1579, the day he reached England, nearly eight months after losing sight of Drake in the South Sea, the second page of which contains the plan to be followed, revealing that the ships are to go and return by Magellan's strait, that unknown shores not in the possession of and Christain Prince are to be visited, and that, if it seems to be advisable to Francis Drake, the voyage is to be extended to 30 degrees, while its duration is to be thirteen months. Drake's circumnavigation of the globe began amidst political and religious upheaval in Europe, in 1577. The voyage was so far ahead of its time that another 200 years would pass before the eighteenth-century explorers of record reached the northwest coast of North America. Drake's secret voyage, the exploration of the Pacific Northwest in hopes of finding the fabled Northwest Passage to eastern trade routes, and to establish a British colony in the New World, was hidden under a "cloak of secrecy" due to Drake's complicated relationship with Queen Elizabeth and England's precarious political situation with Spain. One of 16th-century England's most daring adventurers, Drake sailed all the way to Alaska, much farther than anyone had envisioned, thereby rewriting the history of exploration in North America. Surviving the dangers of mutiny, the lack of knowledge about wind and current, and the arduous physical challenges faced every day, Drake earns his reputation as "one of the greatest mariners that sail[ed] the seas, both as a navigator and as a commander," feared by his enemies for the "alarming scope of his success." Together with Hondius's portraits of the first two English circumnavigators, Sir Francis Drake and Sir Thomas Cavendish on one plate and a page of explanatory text. Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612), was a Dutch engraver, and cartographer. He is best known for his early maps of the New World and Europe, for re-establishing the reputation of the work of Gerard Mercator, and for his portraits of Francis Drake. He helped establish Amsterdam as the center of cartography in Europe in the 17th century.
