Circumnavigation traveling west from Europe, in 1521, Magellan reached a region of Southeast Asia (in the Malay Archipelago), which he had reached on previous voyages traveling east. Magellan thereby achieved a nearly complete personal circumnavigation of the globe for the first time in history. In 1577, Elizabeth I sent Francis Drake to start an expedition against the Spanish along the Pacific coast of the Americas. Drake set out from Plymouth, England in November 1577, aboard "Pelican", which Drake renamed "Golden Hind" mid-voyage. In September 1578, he passed through the southern tip of South America, named Drake Passage, which connects the southwestern
Sir Francis Drake, 4th Baronet Sir Francis Drake, 4th Baronet Sir Francis Henry Drake, 4th Baronet (1694–1740) was a British landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1740. Drake was the eldest surviving son of Sir Francis Drake, 3rd Baronet and his third wife. Elizabeth Pollexfen, daughter of Sir Henry Pollexfen of Nutwell Court, Devon, and was baptized on 2 March 1694. He was educated privately. Drake’s father died in January 1718 and he succeeded to the baronetcy and the heavily encumbered estate. He made a financially advantageous marriage to Anne Heathcote, daughter of Samuel Heathcote merchant of Clapton