Furious controversy has waged over Drake on two points: Did he murder
Doughty? Did he go as far north on the west coast of America as 48
degrees? Hakluyt's account says 43 degrees; _The World Encompassed_,
by Fletcher, the chaplain, says 48 degrees, though all accounts agree
it was at 38 degrees he made harbor. I have not dealt with either
dispute, stating the bare facts, leaving each reader to draw his own
conclusions, though it seems to me a little foolish to contend that the
claim of the 48th degree was an afterthought interpolated by the writer
to stretch British possessions over a broader swath; for even two
hundred years after the issue of the Silver Map of the World, when Cook
was on this coast, so little was known of the west shores of America by
Englishmen that men were still looking out for a Gamaland, or imaginary
continent in the middle of the Pacific.
The words of the narrative bearing on America are: "We came to 42
degree of North latitude, where on the night following (June 3) we
found such alterations of heat, into extreme and nipping cold, that our
men in general did grievously complain thereof, some of them feeling
their health much impaired thereby; neither was it that this chanced in
the night alone, but the day following carried with it not only the
markes, but the stings and force of the night.
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