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Navigating through the Strait of Magellan was
dangerous. The route also involved fighting
contrary winds and the risk of encountering
Spanish warships, which were now looking
for him. Sailing west across the Pacific was
possible, but a drastic alternative.
Drake may have decided to confound his
pursuers by taking the least likely route. Like
his Spanish contemporaries, he may also
have believed in the existence of the Strait of
Anian—the legendary passage from the
northern Pacific into the Arctic Ocean. He
sailed north toward this fictitious “Northwest
Passage,” possibly hoping to avoid his pur-
suers by finding a sea route across the top of
North America that would take him from the
northeasternPacific to the Atlantic Ocean.
He is thought to have sailed as far north as
48° north latitude, in waters off the present-
day border between the United States and
Canada, before frigid winter weather con-
vinced him that a northerly passage to Eng-
land was impossible.
Driven south by the cold, Drake began
searching for a harbor where he could over-
haul his ship, which needed repairs before he
could attempt to sail across the Pacific. In June
1579 The Golden Hindanchored in a harbor
near 38° north latitude, not far from the
Golden Gate and the future site of San Fran-
cisco. The exact location of Drake’s landing
has been sought after and argued over for cen-
turies. The most common theory is that the
harbor was the lee side—the inner side pro-(^126) B Discovery of the Americas, 1492–1800
Strait of Anian =
Throughout the European exploration of North America, the desire to find an
easy sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans inspired many fanciful
theories. The Strait of Anian was one such geographical fantasy that explorers
and even some mapmakers accepted as reality for centuries.
The illusory strait was thought to connect the northwestern Pacific Ocean
with the Atlantic via a watery path across the top of North America. Early British
geographers called this route the Northwest Passage. The name Anianfirst
appeared on an obscure Spanish map in 1566, and the origin of the name and
claim remains unknown. But after famed Belgian cartographer Gerard Mercator
included “El Streto de Anian” on a 1569 map, other 16th-century mapmakers
incorporated the strait into their maps as if it existed, despite the fact that none
of them, including Mercator, had firsthand knowledge of the New World. For the
next 240 years the Strait of Anian would appear on many maps, located any-
where from northern Alaska to the coast of Washington.
The search for the Strait of Anian continued for centuries. Many seekers after
the Northwest Passage, approaching from both the Atlantic and the Pacific, lost
their lives. By the late 1800s some explorers had succeeded in navigating
through sections of the ice floes north of the Canadian mainland, and in 1906
the Norwegian Roald Amundsen made the complete passage. However, the
desire for a waterway fit for shipping between Europe and Asia effectively
ended with the opening of the human-made Panama Canal in 1914.
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