Drake was the first Englishman who passed the Straits of Magellan, or who sailed under English colours in the Pacific Ocean. But independent of these strong claims to national celebrity, there are many circumstances in his voyage more intrinsically meritorious, and which demand, in a peculiar degree, the attention of the historian. It is remarkable that he should attempt, with so weak a fleet, to achieve a navigation long since abandoned by the Spaniards on account of its extreme difficulty and danger. He arrived in the tempestuous regions of the Magellanic Straits in the winter season, and yet he effected his passage through them in the short space of seventeen days; a much less time than was found necessary by any of those who preceded him, or even who followed him in that course.

It is likewise to be observed, that he advanced much farther towards the south than any of the Spanish discoverers. There is little room to doubt that he actually described the headland afterwards named Cape Horn. Had he himself written the narrative of his expedition, many proofs would unquestionably remain to us of a sagacious and penetrating spirit, which cannot be supplied from the vague and discordant narratives of his historians. He conjectured that the land to the south of the Straits of Magellan was broken land, or a cluster of islands; an observation repeated by subsequent voyagers, and which modern researches have gone near to verify.

The zeal and ability exerted by Frobisher in the cause of north-western discovery was foiled, as we have seen, by the vain pursuit of the precious metals. The ill success of the recent voyages restored speculation to its legitimate pursuit; and it was now resolved to despatch an expedition of which discovery should be the sole object.

The merchants of London, being satisfied “of the likelihood of the discovery of the north-west passage” fitted out two small barks, the one of fifty, the other of thirty-five tons, which they entrusted to the command of John Davis, an expert and courageous seaman. He sailed from Dartmouth on the 7th of June, 1585, and by the middle of July was on the western side of Greenland, where the coast presented such a bleak and gloomy aspect, that Davis gave it the name of the Land of Desolation. Here he found a great quantity of drift-wood, and picked up a tree sixty feet in length. From this coast he stood to the north-west, where he saw land in latitude 64° 15′; the air being temperate, and the sea free from ice. This proved to be a group of islands among which were numerous good harbours. To that in which Davis cast anchor he gave the name of Gilbert's Sound, in honour of his patron, Mr. Adrian Gilbert, the brother of the unfortunate sir Humphrey.

The history of commerce is intimately connected with that of geography; for the wants and desires of mankind, which require the agency of the merchant, are the most uniform and efficient incentives to the correspondence of nations. The traffic carried on between distant countries in early times, the commodities of use or luxury imported or sent abroad, are often much more easily detected than the extent of geographical knowledge possessed by either of the parties. In a scientific age the acquaintance with the earth 's surface possesses an interest independent of its practical advantages; but in the early stages of society the different regions of the globe attracted attention chiefly as they promised to yield a quick harvest of wealth and treasure. The most important commerce in ancient times was that carried on with India; and it is that also which has been most frequently mentioned in the course of the preceding pages. If all the authentic circumstances of that great trade be minutely traced backward, they will be found rich in results calculated to elucidate the progress of discovery in the East, and may lend even some light to assisteus in investigating the more dubious intercourse of western nations.

Pliny informs us, that in his time the navigation to India was only in its infancy; and a comparison of all the accounts remaining to us respecting the commerce of the ancients with the East leads to the conclusion, that before the discovery of the monsoons by Hippalus the direct trade with India was wholly in the hands of the Arabians.

Policy, commerce, and religion, —those three great incentives to all bold enterprises, —continued during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to direct the eyes of Europeans towards the centre of Asia. The victories of Tamerlane, who checked for a moment the formidable progress of the Ottoman Turks, fixed the attention and the hopes of the Christian world. The caravan routes over Asia appear to have been much more frequented in those ages than is commonly supposed. The new channels of commerce through Egypt, and afterwards by the Cape of Good Hope, caused those routes to be gradually abandoned, and at last to be almost forgotten. A brief account of the course usually pursued by the merchants is preserved to us in the Itinerary of Francisco Balducci Pegoletti, an Italian merchant who travelled in Asia in 1335. The only portion of his work which has a direct connection with the history of geography is the chapter entitled “A Guide for the Route from Tana to Cathay with Merchandise, and back again.”

But, towards the East, a discovery was made in the age of Pliny, by an obscure individual, of far greater importance to geography and commerce than the temporary routes laid open into barbarous countries by the hardihood and ambition of the Roman generals. The regularity of the monsoons, or periodical winds, which, in the seas between Africa and India blow during one half of the year from the south-west, and during the other from the south-east, with little deviation, could not have long escaped the attention of the Arabian navigators. No advantage, however, was taken of this striking phenomenon; for among an uncultivated people time operates slowly in maturing the details of partial experience into acknowledged principles. The Greeks, however, soon learned to estimate its importance. We have seen that the voyage of Eudoxus to India originated in the circumstance of an Indian vessel being driven upon the coast of Africa by the prevalence of the easterly monsoon: Eudoxus himself, on his return to Egypt, was forced too far to the west by the same wind. Jambolo, on the other hand, was said to have been carried by the westerly monsoon from Africa to Ceylon; and again in the reign of the emperor Claudius, a freed-man of Annius Plocamus, employed in collecting the revenues of Arabia, was driven in like manner to the same island.