A Passage to the Queen
The North West Passage
The importance of the North West Passage cannot be overstated in relation to Drake’s Famous Voyage. It was the reason why Drake’s voyage was shrouded in mystery from start to finish. The Pope had divided ownership of the entire world between the two Catholic super-powers, Spain and Portugal, shortly after Columbus discovered the New World. Effectively, Spain controlled the Atlantic and Portugal the Pacific. Protestant England was struggling to emerge as an international power, and was looking to establish both independent trade with Asia and overseas dominions. There were believed to be navigable sea routes to the north of both the Europe/Asia and North American land masses, known as the North East Passage and the North West Passage respectively. Both would be harsh, cold environments, but had the advantage of not attracting the interest of Spain or Portugal. Also, compared to the existing alternatives of reaching Asia via the Magellan Strait or by rounding South Africa, the two Northern routes would be considerably shorter, perhaps one third of the distance. This can be seen on the world map shown below and published by Abraham Ortelius in 1570, seven years before Drake set off on his voyage, even though nobody had ever actually explored either Passage. The depiction of the American west coast is also very poor, projecting much too far west. Drake undoubtedly carried a copy of this map.
In the years immediately before Drake set off, Martin Frobisher had conducted two of his three voyages to find and explore the North West Passage from its eastern end. He had claimed to have found the entrance to the Passage, but said that he could not explore it because it was full of icebergs, even though it was summer. Frobisher arrived back from his second voyage shortly before Drake left, and Drake would almost certainly have been given this information before he set sail.
A group of people from Devon, led by Sir Richard Grenville, had proposed sailing through the Magellan Strait and north through the Pacific to explore the North West Passage from its western end. The Queen actually issued a license to this group, but then withdrew it, supposedly because she thought Grenville might attack the Spanish settlements in South America and Mexico.
Instead, Drake was almost certainly given the task, as a secret but prime objective of his voyage. That is why the voyage was shrouded in mystery from start to finish. At first, Drake told people that he was going to Alexandria, in Egypt. Then a set of false instructions were issued that told him to go through the Magellan Strait and explore the Pacific Coast of South America as far as 30° S, lower than known Spanish settlements, before returning to England the way he had gone. These instructions (extract) were found in the 1920s by Professor EGR Taylor, in the same, charred volume of papers that Bob Ward later found the second, 3-page hand-written account of Drake’s voyage. These instructions were designed to distance the Queen from Drake in the event that he was caught while plundering Spanish property, which was the second secret but prime objective of his voyage. Drake's real plan was to plunder the Spanish shipping and settlements in the Pacific, and then to search for, and return to England through, the North West Passage. It was only when he failed to find and explore the Passage that he had to complete his circumnavigation, leaving behind the small Spanish ship and a crew of about 25 people to resume the search after wintering on the Oregon coast.
However, Drake seems to have thought he had found at least the start of the Passage. Within weeks of arriving home, he was trying to finance a return voyage to the Pacific, offering investors seven pounds for every one invested, and saying that “he will be able to make the round journey in one year, as he has found a very short way.” We know this through a note that the Spanish Ambassador in London sent to his King. After he got home, the official veil of secrecy surrounding the voyage continued. His charts, maps and logs were confiscated by the Queen and never seen again, his crew were sworn to secrecy under pain of death, and for almost ten years, no accounts of the voyage were published. Then came Hakluyt’s falsified account, in 1589. We can now examine what Drake thought he had found, and where he went.
Drake’s Letter to the Queen
Could the Royal plot described in this document, which included falsification of the “official” account of what was perhaps the greatest ever English voyage, really have taken place? The best answer comes from the pen of Drake himself. On January 1st, 1592, twelve years after the voyage, he sent a letter to the Queen:
"Madam," he wrote, "seeing divers have diversely reported and written of these voyages and actions which I have attempted and made .... whereby many untruths have been published, and the certain truth concealed, as I have thought it necessary myself .... so I have accounted it to present this discourse to Your Majesty .... being the first fruits of your servant's pen .... that posterity be not deprived .... and our present age, at least, may be silenced, and your servant's labour not seem altogether lost, not only in travel by sea and land, but also in writing the report thereof, a work to him no less troublesome ...."
This strange letter, in which Drake acknowledges what we have just demonstrated, that lies had been published about his exploits, and the truth concealed with his knowledge and approval, confirms that the Royal plot did exist. The letter was a plea for the veil of secrecy to be lifted, so that Drake could set the record straight, and to be given credit for what he believed to be the most important discovery of his time. The Queen clearly denied his request, for no such account appeared.
The letter came to light in 1626, thirty years after Drake’s death. Drake's nephew and namesake published an account of his uncle’s voyage to the West Indies in the years 1572 and 1573. Entitled “Sir Francis Drake Revived: Calling upon this Dull or Effeminate Age, to follow his Noble Steps for Gold & Silver.” The title page said that it taken from the reports of Christopher Ceely, Ellis Hixon, and others, by Philip Nichols, Preacher. The account contains a covering letter from the later Drake to King Charles I, followed by his illustrious uncle’s letter to the Queen.
Now there was absolutely nothing in this account of the West Indies voyage to merit Drake’s comments about many untruths being published and the truth withheld. The letter was not written to cover the account of just this voyage. Two years after publishing this account, the nephew issued The World Encompassed, covering Drake’s famous voyage around the world. The compiler was not named, but the account was said to be based on the notes of Francis Fletcher, Drake's chaplain on the voyage.
When Richard Hakluyt came to compile the 1589 Version of “Principal Navigations”, he wrote in the introductory address to “the favourable Reader” a note about the absence of an account of Drake’s famous voyage. He said that “I must confess to have taken more than ordinary pains, meaning to have inserted it in this work: but being of late (contrary to my expectations) seriously dealt withall, not to anticipate or prevent another man's pains and charge in drawing all the services of that worthy Knight into one volume, I have yielded unto those my friends which pressed me in the matter, referring the farther knowledge of his proceedings, to those intended discourses.”
So somebody else was compiling a collection of all Drake’s voyages. It was probably Philip Nichols, who compiled “Sir Francis Drake Revived” and was Drake’s chaplain on his final voyage, to the West Indies in 1595-1596. The letter to the Queen was probably written to accompany either that omnibus account, or the World Encompassed account. Nobody is named as the compiler of this latter account, and maybe it was Drake himself, unlikely though that may seem at first. In any case, the Queen clearly rejected Drake’s request to set the record straight, and more than thirty years later, the nephew found the letter and associated it with the wrong account. We are pleased to finally correct at least part of the record, and give Drake credit for the discovery of Canada, with perhaps more to come as further evidence is collected.