Receiving back our man, and returning the Portuguese pledge, we went afterwards to the island of St. Sebastian, where we took fish.  At this place the Portuguese would have betrayed us, had not a Brasilian slave informed us by signs, that they were coming in canoes to take us, as it actually fell out:  For, next morning, they came on in twelve or fourteen canoes, some of these having forty men; but being on our guard they retired.  That same night, two of our men carried away our boat, deserting to the Portuguese.  Leaving this place, we had sight of Cape St Augustine in lat. 8 deg.  S. We afterwards had sight of the isle of Fernando Noronha, within three degrees of the equator.  We crossed the line on the 13th of April, and got sight of the north star on the 19th of that month.

From the 1st to the 5th of May, we sailed about 100 leagues through the Sea of Weeds, under the tropic of Cancer.  Holding our course from thence to the N.E. till we were in lat. 47 deg.  N. we changed our course on the 22nd May to E.N.E.  The 29th of May we had soundings in seventy fathoms on white ooze, being then in lat. 51 deg.  N. The 30th of May we got sight of St Ives on the north coast of Cornwall, and arrived on the 2nd of June at Ilfracomb, in Devonshire.

CHAPTER III.

VOYAGE OF SIR THOMAS CANDISH ROUND THE WORLD, IN 1586—­1588.[44]

INTRODUCTION.

It was the constant policy, during the reign of queen Elizabeth, to encourage, as much as possible, the flame of public spirit in private individuals, by shewing the utmost readiness on all occasions to honour all who performed any remarkable service to their country, though sparing of such marks of favour on other occasions.  By this wise conduct, and by her frequent public discourses on the glory resulting from an active life, she excited many of the young nobility, and gentlemen of easy fortunes, to hazard their persons and estates in the public service, exciting a desire of fame even among the wealthy, and by this means uniting the rich, who desired to purchase honour, and the indigent, who sought to procure the means of living, in the same pursuits.  It thus happened in her reign, that such men were of most use to their country, as are scarcely of any utility in other reigns; for, merit being then the only recommendation at court, those were most forward to expose themselves in generous undertakings, who would at any other time have thought themselves excused from such dangers and fatigues.

[Footnote 44:  Hakluyt, IV. 816.  Harris, Col.  I. 23.  Callender, Voy.  I. 424.  The earliest account of this voyage, according to the Bibliotheque Universelle des Voyages, I. 113, appears to have been published in Dutch at Amsterdam, in folio, in 1598.  But must assuredly have been a translation from the English.—­E.]