The Boy's Hakluyt: English Voyages of Adventure and Discovery

by Edwin M. Bacon; Richard Hakluyt

The start on the western course, directly into the Pacific, was made about the middle of April. But almost immediately, in order to get a wind, it was necessary to steer somewhat northerly instead of due west. And thus northward the ship continued to sail, “six hundred leagues at the least,” for some fifty days, or till the third of June, when she had come, as the chronicler recorded, “in 43 degrees towards the pole Arctike.” The air had now grown so cold that the voyagers, coming from a torrid climate, were “grievously pinched” by it. On the fifth of June, because of the increasing cold, and of contrary winds, they thought it best to seek the shore.

The coast they first sighted was “not mountainous but low plaine land.” It was the lower part of the present great American state of Oregon. Hakluyt’s chronicler made no mention of a stop here, but a later one (Drake’s chaplain, Fletcher) told of their dropping anchor in a “bad bay” in which there was “no abiding” for any length of time. To go farther north, under all the circumstances, was out of the question, and if Drake really had thought seriously of seeking a northern strait between the oceans, that scheme was now abandoned. Again under sail, with the wind straight from the north, they were carried southward till they had come “within 38 degrees toward the line.” And now “it pleased God” to send them “into a faire good Baye with a good winde to enter the same.” This was on the coast of our present California. Here they came comfortably to anchor, and looking about them, saw little huts close by the waterside and strange natives pressing to the shore with welcoming gestures.

So Drake discovered for the English the coast of Oregon and California. He was the first European to see the coast of Oregon and to anchor on its shores. Earlier discovery of the Californian coast was claimed for Portuguese ships in 1520 and 1542–1543; and for the Spaniards in 1542. The Spaniards first applied the name of California to an indefinite territory up the coast above Mexico. Drake named the region which he visited, “New Albion,” because of the “white bankes and cliffes” lying toward the sea, which he saw as he approached the place of his anchorage, and in remembrance of the ancient name of Britain. The situation of his “faire good Baye” was a mooted question with historical authorities till near the close of the nineteenth century. The weight of evidence appeared to point to San Francisco Bay till the exact identification of Point Reyes Head, a little north of San Francisco Bay, as Drake’s landfall. This was made in full accordance with the chroniclers’ descriptions, by Prof. George Davidson, of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, who definitely fixed the disputed port under the eastern promontory of Point Reyes Head, the haven now called Drake’s Harbor. The “bad harbor” above, on the Oregon coast, Professor Davidson identifies in an open roadstead off the mouth of the Chetko River, protected in part by Cape Ferrelo.

Drake and his companions stayed in this port for thirty-six days and had wonderful intercourse with the natives. These people greatly marvelled at the things they brought and the presents they bestowed and thought their visitors to be gods. The Englishmen pitched their tents and built a temporary fort about them near the waterside at the foot of a hill, while from its summit groups of natives gazed, wide-eyed, down upon their work. Then followed a succession of stately ceremonies.

First, the people, assembled on the hill-top, put forth one of their number as spokesman, who “wearied himself” with a long oration directed at the Englishmen mustered below. This over, the men, leaving their bows and arrows behind them, came down the hill bearing presents to the Englishmen, feathers and bags of “tobac,” assumed to have been tobacco. Meanwhile the women, remaining on the hill-top, “tormented themselves lamentably, tearing their flesh from their cheekes,” which was understood to be a sacrifice, a pagan performance that distressed the Englishmen, who expressed their disapproval of it by gestures and endeavoring to offset it with a service of prayer and scripture reading. Then the presents were delivered and this ceremony ended. Next the native king, accompanied by his chief men and a throng of his people, formally welcomed the newcomers with a great demonstration. Of this spectacle the chronicler furnished a minute description, warranted by the novelty of it and the surprising climax:

"The people that inhabited round about came downe and amongst them the King himselfe, a man of a goodly stature & comely personage, with many other tall and warlike men: before whose comming were sent two Ambassadors to our Generall to signifie that their King was comming, in doing of which message their speach was continued about halfe an houre. This ended, they by signes requested our Generall to send some thing by their hand to their King as a token that his comming might be in peace: wherein our Generall having satisfied them, they returned with glad tidings to their King, who marched to us with a princely majestie, the people crying continually after their manner, and as they drew neere unto us, so did they strive to behave themselves in their actions with comelinesse. In the forefront was a man of a goodly personage who bare a scepter or mace before the King, whereupon hanged two crownes, a lesse and a bigger, with three chaines of a marveilous length: the crownes were made of knit worke wrought artificially with fethers of divers colours; the chaines were made of a bonie substance, and few be the persons among them that are admitted to weare them: and of that number also the persons are stinted, as some ten, some twelve &c. Next unto him which bare the scepter, was the King himselfe with his Guard about his person, clad with Conie skins, & other skins; after them followed the naked common sort of people, every one having his face painted, some with white, some with blacke, and other colours, & having in their hands one thing or another for a present, not so much as their children, but they also brought their presents.

"In the meane time our Generall gathered his men together, and marched within his fenced place, making against their approaching a very warre-like shew. They being trooped together in their order, and a generall salutation being made, there was presently a generall silence. Then he that bare the scepter before the King being informed by another, whom they assigned to that office, with a manly and loftie voyce proclaymed that which the other spake to him in secrete, continuing halfe an houre: which ended and a generall Amen as it were given, the King with the whole number of men and women (the children excepted) came downe without any weapon, who descending to the foote of the hill set themselves in order. In comming towards our bulwarks and tents, the scepter-bearer began a song, observing his measures in a daunce, and that with a stately countenance, whom the King with his Guarde, and every degree of persons following, did in like manner sing and daunce, saving onely the women, who daunced and kept silence.

“The Generall permitted them to enter within our bulwarke, where they continued their song and daunce a reasonable time. When they had satisfied themselves they made signes to our Generall to sit downe, to whom the King and divers others made several orations, or rather supplications, that hee would take their province and kingdome into his own hand and become their King, making signes that they would resigne unto him their right and title of the whole land and become his subjects. In which to perswade us the better the King and the rest with one consent and with great reverence, singing a song, did set the crowne upon his head, inriched his necke with all their chains and offered unto him many other things, honouring him by the name of Hioh, adding thereunto as it seemed, a signe of triumph: which thing our Generall thought not meete to reject, because he knew not what honour and profit it might be to our Countrey. Wherefore in the name, and to the use of her Majestie he took the scepter, crowne, and dignitie of the said Countrey into his hands, wishing that the riches & treasure thereof might so conveniently be transported to the inriching of her kingdom at home, as it aboundeth in ye same.”

After these ceremonies the general and his company marched up into the country and visited the villages of the natives. They found the land fair and abounding particularly in deer, of which great herds, a thousand in a herd, they reckoned, were seen. The houses in the villages were circular in form. They were “digged about with earth,” and had “from the uttermost brimmes of the circle clefts of wood set upon their joyning close together at the top like a spire steeple.” The beds herein were of rushes strewn upon the ground. The men were almost entirely without apparel, while the women wore a single garment woven of bulrushes with a deer-skin on their shoulders.

Of the resources of the region scant report was given beyond this significant statement, which was left to be verified for nearly three centuries: “There is no part of earth heere to bee taken up wherein there is not some probable shew of gold or silver.”