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[email protected] © Maggs Bros Ltd 2020 A HANDSOME PORTRAIT OF THE PIRATE-EXPLORER 1 BOISSARD (Robert). Sir Francis Drake. Engraving, with etching, measuring 186 by 126mm. Trimmed to plate mark, and on the right margin just inside, a small hole repaired just touching the ‘c’ of Frauncis in the legend. Inlaid into a paper mount. Nd. but after 1590. £2,250 Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596) was the first English circumnavigator, and only the second after Magellan. His voyage extended British maritime power into the Pacific for the first time, threatened the Spanish empire in America to its heart, opened a new age in British seamanship, and made Drake a rich man. Sailing from Plymouth in December 1577, the expedition reached Patagonia in June 1578, weathered a near mutiny, and saw the second ship, the Elizabeth, turn back during the stormy passage through the Straits of Magellan. Drake sailed on alone in the Golden Hind, raiding Spanish commerce along the Pacific coast of the Americas, and culminated his piracy with the seizure of a major treasure galleon. This exploit allowed him to pay a 4600% dividend to his backers on returning to England. In 1579 he explored northward up the California coast, discovered San Francisco Bay, and went as far north as Vancouver. He then crossed the Pacific, took on a cargo of spices in the East Indies, and went home by the Cape of Good Hope, arriving back at Plymouth in September 1580.