The prayer which Drake uttered when first he gazed on the Pacific did not remain long unanswered; for the great captain was one of those self-helpful men which the Almighty seldom fails to assist. On the 15th of November 1577 he set out upon the famous expedition which was to place him in the foremost rank of navigators. On September 6th, in the following year, he cleared the strait of Magellan, and was the first to carry the English flag into the ocean beyond. After capturing a large amount of treasure between the coast of Peru and the bay of Panamá, he sailed as far north as the forty-third parallel, expecting to find a passage eastward to the Atlantic.[XXIII‑21] Thence returning he arrived at Plymouth by way of the Cape of Good Hope, after a voyage of nearly three years, on the 26th of September 1580.[XXIII‑22] His flag-ship the _Pelican_ was taken to Deptford, and on board the bark in which he had compassed the world[XXIII‑23] this stout-hearted mariner, who had begun life as a prentice boy on a small trading vessel, feasted his royal mistress, and bowed the knee while one of the greatest of England's sovereigns bestowed on him the title of Sir Francis Drake. * * * * * On the breaking-out of hostilities between England and Spain in 1585 Elizabeth determined to strike a blow at the Spanish possessions in the New World, while yet Philip was but contemplating the great enterprise which three years later terminated in a disaster that has no parallel in the annals of naval warfare. On September 12, 1585, a fleet of twenty-five ships with a number of pinnaces set sail from Plymouth, having on board two thousand three hundred men, among them Frobisher and other captains of armada fame, and as commander Sir Francis Drake.