by Josh Lacey
John Drake waded ashore with a dozen men, carrying a few possessions. They were attacked by Indians, then captured by the Spanish. Discovering the identity of their prisoner, the Spanish marched him across the Andes to Peru. When they reached Lima, he was handed over to the Inquisition, who wanted to know everything about him and his famous cousin.
That was the last anyone heard of him. John Drake vanished. So did his journal. No one knows what happened to either of them.
He might have been killed in prison. He might have been released and allowed to board a ship heading back to Europe. Or he might have decided to stay in Peru. Perhaps he went up into the Andes, spent the night in an isolated farmhouse, and met a girl, the farmer’s daughter. There he stayed, rearing goats and chickens, and started a family. On long nights in the winter, he might have pulled his journal out of a drawer and traced the spidery black handwriting with his finger, remembering old friends, distant places, a voyage around the world.