Sir Francis Drake (c.1540-1596), English explorer and pirate. He was the second man to circumnavigate the globe. Drake was sponsored by Queen Elizabeth I to lead an expedition to the Pacific in 1577. He plundered Spanish vessels as he went and in three years returned to England, where he was knighted. He helped defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588. An engraving from the original painting in the collection of the Marquis of Lothian. Published in London, April 1st, 1829, by Harding and Lepard. Engraved by S. Freeman.