Originally produced by Dutch cartographer and engraver Nicola van Sype, and perhaps published in Antwerp in 1581, La herdike enterprise faict par le Signeur Draeck D'Avoir cirquit toute la Terre is believed to be drawn from a copy of the Queen’s map, also known as the “Whitehall Map,” a large scale map that Francis Drake presented to the Queen on his return in 1580, now presumed lost. The map depicts the route of Drake's circumnavigation of the world. Who is this Francis Drake? Nicknamed “Sea Dog,” Drake was the most daring English navigator to pursue a round-the-world voyage of discovery between 1577 and 1580, which became the highlight of his career in privateer exploration.
It is said that Drake’s voyage was also a pirate expedition, backed in a secret agreement with Queen Elizabeth, which allowed him to raid Spanish shipping in the Pacific and sack ports along the coast of Chile and Peru. Drake discovered that the Tierra del Fuego, the land south of the Magellan Strait, was not part of a southern continent as commonly believed, but a group of islands, and is also credited with finding land to the north of California, which he named Nova Albion and claimed for England in 1579.
…show more content…
Descriptive text is presented in both Dutch and French on cartouches at the top-left corner and below South America, while there is a circular portrait of Drake in the South Atlantic. Specific geographic locations are identified, including St Augustine in Florida, Mexico City, and ‘Quivira’ shown in North America; Lima and Chili in South America; Tripoli, Mynne and Geneo in Africa; Jaffa, Armenia, Jerusalem, Persia, Babylon and Mecca in the Middle East; Goa in India, along with Moldova and