Elizabeth Island (Cape Horn)

In some accounts of Sir Francis Drake's voyage, in September 1578 he is said to have landed on an island off the tip of South America. Called "Elizabeth Island" in Francis Fletcher's account, it has been identified with Henderson Island, Hornos Island, or Pactolus Bank.

It is not to be confused with another Elizabeth Island in the Straits of Magellan, named and claimed by Drake on August 24, 1578[1]

Further confusing the issue, the entire Tierra del Fuego archipelago was called the Elizabethides or Elizabeth Islands.

Elizabeth Island is significant as one of the first English territorial claims in the New World. It preceded Drake's claim of New Albion in 1579 and Humphrey Gilbert's claim of Newfoundland in 1583.[2] Only Martin Frobisher's claims in Baffin Island and Greenland were earlier.[3]

Reference

  1. ^ Drake, Francis; et al. (1854). The World encompassed by Sir Francis Drake. Hakluyt Society. p. 75. http://books.google.com/books?id=jWcMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA75. 
  2. ^ Sugden, John (1990). Sir Francis Drake. Barrie & Jenkins. p. 118. ISBN 0712620389. 
  3. ^ McDermott, James (2001). Martin Frobisher: Elizabethan privateer. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 190, 219. ISBN 0300083807. http://books.google.com/books?id=YeMcPYIKNYUC&pg=PA190.