and to the coast of Nicaragua. But he could not have been dismissed
at any point which would have been more convenient for himself; and
in the relation which he drew up for the viceroy of New Spain, he
makes no complaint of his treatment. It is very much to his honour,
and something to that of Drake and his men, that there is not in this
plain and evidently faithful relation the slightest expression of prejudice
or resentment against the English.



264 ENGLISH SEAMEN

" directly off to sea/' and sailed (the accounts say) 500 leagues
in longitude to get a favourable wind. On 3rd June, having
sailed in different directions 1400 leagues, without seeing
land, they had arrived in latitude 42 N. A great change in
the temperature was now felt ; the people were benumbed
with the piercing cold, which increased to that extremity on
sailing two degrees farther north, that meat, as soon as it was
removed from the fire, would presently be frozen, and the
ropes and tackling of the ship were quite stiffened. Contrary
winds forced them to run in with the land, which they then
unexpectedly descried ; for they had not supposed that
America in that latitude extended so far to the west. "They
stood toward the' shore, and anchored in an open ill-sheltered
bay. The wind was strong and in gusts ; upon any inter-
mission, there came a thick stinking fog, in which they were
enveloped, till it was dispersed by the renewed strength of
the wind. They could not remain here ; and the direction
of the wind, with the severity of the cold, not only dis-
couraged them from persisting in the attempt to go farther
north, but commanded them to the southward, whether they
would or no." So they drew back from latitude 48, to
which they had advanced, ten degrees, " in which height it
pleased God to send them into a fair and good bay, with a
good wind to enter the same ". There can be little doubt
that this bay was that which is now called Port San
Francisco.*

There were huts close to the water side. The day after
they anchored many natives showed themselves on the shore,
and a single man was sent off in a canoe. Immediately he
began to speak, though at a considerable distance from the
ship, and continued to do so as he paddled on, till having
drawn as near as he thought fit upon this first advance, he
stopped, made a long and earnest address accompanied by

* Burney, 343. Hakluyt, 440.



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 265

gesticulations not more intelligible than the harangue ; and
when he had finished, returned with great show of reverence
to the shore. Soon after he repeated the same ceremony in
the same manner ; and presently a third time, but he then
brought a bunch of feathers, resembling those of a crow,
neatly fastened together, clean and handsomely cut ; and also
a small basket made of rushes, and filled with an herb which
they called tabah : * these he tied to a short stick, and cast
them into the ship's boat. In return Drake directed some
presents to be put on a plank in the water, and pushed
towards him ; but he refused to touch them, and would
receive nothing except a hat, which being thrown from the
ship, he took up. No intercourse followed upon this cere-
mony ; both parties, however, seemed to consider that a
good understanding had been established by it, and to have
acted accordingly in good faith. The natives were not dis-
trustful, because they had only once been visited by
Europeans, thirty-seven years before, when Joam Rodrigues
Cabrillo,f a Portuguese by birth, was sent by the viceroy
of New Spain to explore that coast : he happened to be a
humane good man, as well as a skilful navigator ; and the
whole of his intercourse with the natives had been of the
most friendly kind. Drake knew not that any such earlier
discovery had been made of these parts ; but he felt the
beneficial consequences of his predecessor's conduct ; and
neither he nor his people did anything during their tarriance
to counteract the favourable impression which Cabrillo had
made.

* The author of the "famous voyage" says tobacco (Hakluyt, 441).
I have followed Admiral Burney in using the name by which the natives
called it ; but that it was tobacco I have no doubt. For the Californians,
though they had not discovered the art of preparing any fermented
liquor, used to intoxicate themselves at their feasts with the smoke of
this wild herb (Notlcia de la California, t. i., p. 79).

t Burney, i., 220-224. Herrera, Dec. 7. i. 5. c. 3, 4. Noticia dc la
California, i., 181-183.



266 ENGLISH SEAMEN

He was not, however, unmindful of that caution which
ought always to be observed among any people whose char-
acter is not well known, and especially among savages. It
was necessary to lighten the ship in order to come at a leak
which she had sprung. She was anchored, therefore, close
to the shore, and Drake landed his men, with tents, and
such things as were necessary for foi-tifying their temporary
encampment. The natives upon perceiving this collected in
arms, and in large companies ; yet their demeanour was that
of men who had prepared themselves to resent wrong, not to
offer it ; and when signs were made to them to lay aside
their bows and arrows they did so, accepted the gifts which
were offered, and in return presented the general with
feathers, nets, and skins. They retired at evening, to all
appearance, well satisfied ; but when they had reached their
dwellings loud lamentations were distinctly heard from thence,
though the distance was not less than three parts of a mile,
and the voices of the women were distinguished, whose miser-
able shrieking rose above the deep and doleful outcries of
the men. During the two following days no one came near
the tents, and Drake is said to have fortified them by build-
ing a stone wall round. On the third day, a more numerous
assemblage than had yet been seen convened on the nearest
eminence, from whence one of their orators delivered with
violent enunciation a long speech, his words falling " so thick
one on the neck of the other, that he could hardly fetch his
breath again ". When he had ended, all the natives bowed
their heads, and sung out oh in a solemn and lengthened
tone, whereby it was supposed that they signified their
assent to all that had been said. The men then left their
bows on the ground, descended to the encampment, and
offered bunches of feathers and baskets of tobacco to the
general, which he accepted, and made them presents in
return. But the women, meantime remaining on the hill,
" tormented themselves lamentably " : they tore their cheeks



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 267

and bosoms, uttered pitiable cries, threw off their upper
garment, and holding their hands over their heads, dashed
themselves on the ground, repeating this till they were
covered with blood. The English did not behold this miser-
able sight without compassion, and Drake felt the more,
because he and his people were persuaded that the natives
took them for gods, and meant this as a religious act of pro-
pitiation. A proper sense of piety prompted him to the
wisest measure that could have been taken. He ordered all
his people to prayers, and divine service was performed with
an earnestness which the natives understood. The effect
which he had hoped for was produced, a stop was put to their
self-lacerations and other acts of violence : they " seemed to
be greatly affected at what they witnessed " ; that is, they
regarded it with awe, and at every pause in the service they
chanted out their solemn oh. When it was over, and they
rose to depart, they restored all the presents which had been
made them, and no one could be persuaded to take away
with him a single thing.*

The news having spread into the country, more natives
flocked to the place, and two heralds made the general
understand that their chief, or hioh, as he was called, was
coming to visit him, but that he desired to have some token
sent him that his coming might be in peace. They were
dismissed with what they asked for ; and forthwith the hioh,
who was " of a goodly stature and comely personage," ad-
vanced toward the fort with a princely majesty, the people
crying continually after their manner, and as they drew near
so did they strive to behave in their actions with comeli-
ness. One " of a large body and goodly aspect " led the
way, bearing a club of dark-coloured wood, to which were
fastened two coronals, " a less and a bigger, made of net-
work, and artificially wrought with feathers of many colours".

* Burney, 345-348. Hakluyt, 441.



268 ENGLISH SEAMEN

Three chains also were suspended from it, " of a marvellous
length, and made of a bony substance, * every part thereof
being very little, thin, finely burnished, with a hole pierced
through the middle, the number of links making one chain
being in a manner infinite. Few be the persons that are
admitted to wear them, and those persons are stinted in the
number, by which it seems their rank was denoted." Next
came the hioh, wearing a coronal like those which were
borne before him, and a cloak of what the English took for
rabbit skins. About 100 "tall and warlike men accompanied
him, with similar cloaks but of different skins ". Some wore
feathered coats, others had their heads " covered with a very
fine down, which grows in that country upon an herb much
like our lettuce ". All had their faces painted, each after
his own fashion. Each brought something for a present.
" The naked, common sort of people followed," every one
having his face painted, some with white, some with black,
and other colours, " and having feathers in their hair, which
they gathered up in a bunch behind. Women and children
brought up the train, each bringing a round basket or two
with bags of tobacco, broiled fish, and a root called petah, of
which meal was made, to be either baked or eaten raw.
Even the children carried each a present." +

Drake, seeing so numerous a body of natives, drew up his
men within the " fenced place, making against their approach
a very warlike show ". The Californians, " being trooped

* A marginal note in Hakluyt says, " These are like chains of Esurnoy
in Canada and Hochelage," that is, strings of wampum. Langsdorff
says, that the Indians at this place still retain the art of making the
pieces of which these strings are composed with marvellous exactness,
all of the same size, and boring them without an iron instrument. They
are cut from the shell of a kind of mussel, which he did not see. One
of them is represented in the plates to the German edition of Langsdorffs
work (Rcise um die Welt, ii., 143).

t Burney, 348-350. Hakluyt, 441.



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 269

together in their order/' first made a general salutation,
which was followed by a general silence. The club bearer
then pronounced with a loud and manly voice, after the
dictation of one who stood close to him, an oration which
seemed to the English to continue half an hour, and at its
conclusion the whole train chanted that long oh, which was
interpreted to signify amen, so be it ! Men and women then
descended the hill (leaving the children), and advanced in
order towards the camp ; their demonstrations were so peace-
ful that Drake allowed them to enter ; the club or sceptre
bearer (as he is dignified by the relater) " began a song,
observing his measures in a dance, and that with a stately
countenance ; the hioh with his guard, and every degree of
persons following, did in like manner sing and dance, but the
women only danced and kept silence ". When they were
within the camp, they continued their song and dance a
reasonable time. Then, in the words of the earliest account,
" they made signs to our general to sit down, to whom the
king and divers others made several orations, or rather
supplications, that he would take their province and kingdom
into his hand and become their king, making signs that they
would resign unto him their right and title of the whole land,
and become his subjects. In which to persuade us the better,
the king and the rest with one consent, and with great
reverence, joyfully singing a song, did set the crown upon
his head, enriched his neck with all their chains, and offered
unto him many other things, honouring him by the name of
hioh, * adding thereunto, as it seemed, a sign of triumph ;
which thing our general thought not meet to reject, because

* " These honours," says Admiral Burney, " paid to a stranger, have
more than a shade of resemblance to the custom which has been found
among so many Indian nations, of exchanging names with those whose
alliance or friendship they desire. The general, to have manifested an
equal return of consideration, might have decorated his visitor with some
ornament, and have saluted him by the name of Drake " (p. 350).



270 ENGLISH SEAMEN

he knew not what honour and profit it might be to our
country. Wherefore, in the name and to the use of her
majesty, he took the sceptre,* crown, and dignity of the said
country in his hands ; wishing that the riches and treasure
thereof might so conveniently be transported to the enrich-
ing of her kingdom at home, as it aboundeth in the same." f
The natives accompanied this act of surrender with a song
and dance of triumph, "because (says another relater) they
were not only visited of gods (for so they still judged us to
be), but the great and chief god was now become their god,
their king and patron, and themselves the only happy and
blessed people in all the world ". J

That the natives meant to make a surrender of their
country by these ceremonies is what none but men pre-
possessed with notions which were common to all Europeans
in that age could have supposed ; but that they regarded
the English as beings, if not of superior nature, yet of such
superior knowledge and power, that it was necessary to
propitiate them by circumstances approaching to idolatry,
must be inferred from the scene which immediately ensued.
"The common sort of people, leaving the king and his guard
with our general, scattered themselves together with their
sacrifices among our people, taking a diligent view of every
person ; and such as pleased their fancy (which were the
youngest), they, enclosing them about, offered their sacrifices
unto them with lamentable weeping, scratching, and tearing

* The invariable custom adopted by Europeans, of claiming and taking
formal possession of every new land they meet with (whether it is in-
habited or uninhabited never entering into the consideration), no doubt
disposed Drake to credit, if it is true that he did credit it, that these
people, simply, and for no cause, value received, or other consideration,
made a voluntary gift of themselves and their country to him, a perfect
stranger (Burney, 354).

t Hakluyt, 441.

J World Encompassed, 76.



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 271

the flesh from their faces with their nails, whereof issued
abundance of blood. But we used signs to them of disliking
this, and stayed their hands from force, and directed them
upwards to the living God, whom only they ought to wor-
ship." Such, too, as had sores, craved help of the strangers,
as of persons who assuredly they thought could heal them.
Whereupon, the writer says, " we gave them lotions, plasters,
and ointments, agreeing to the state of their griefs, beseech-
ing God to cure their diseases. Every third day they brought
their sacrifices unto us, until they understood our meaning
that we had no pleasure in them. Yet they could not be
long absent from us, but daily frequented our company to
the hour of our departure, which departure seemed so griev-
ous unto them, that their joy was turned into sorrow. They
entreated us that, being absent, we would remember them,
and by stealth provided a sacrifice, which we misliked."*

The Californians were in a ruder state than many of the
North American nations. The people whom Drake saw
were a burrowing tribe : their houses or dens were circular,
roofed with timber, the centre forming a kind of spire, t near
which " an opening that resembled the scuttle of a ship
served the double purpose of door and chimney ". They
were not so far advanced as to use the hammock ; but slept,
like our British ancestors, upon rushes, around a central fire.
Most of the men were nearly naked ; the women wore a
loose garment round the waist, made of bulrushes, " combed
after the manner of hemp " : over the shoulders they had a
deer skin. Deer were very numerous : in an excursion
which Drake made to some of their villages in the interior,
he saw herds of a thousand in a company, " being most large

* Hakluyt, 442.

t " Their houses," says the old relation, " are digged round about with
earth, and have from the uttermost brims of the circle clefts of wood set
upon them, joining close together at the top like a spire steeple, which
by reason of that closeness are very warm " (p. 441).



272 ENGLISH SEAMEN

and fat of body ". " The whole country was like a warren
of a strange kind of conies, their bodies in bigness as be
the Barbary conies, their heads as the heads of ours, the
feet of a wunt (or mole), and the tail of a rat, being of great
length ; under her chin on either side a bag, into the which
she gathered her meat, when she hath filled her belly abroad."
The skins of these creatures were much esteemed, " for their
king's coat was made of them ". Drake named the country
New Albion, " in respect of the white banks and cliffs which
lie towards the sea," and also for old England's sake. He
set up a monument of the queen's "right and title to the
same, namely, a plate nailed upon a fair great post, where-
upon was engraven her majesty's name, the day and year of
our arrival there, with the free giving up of the province and
people into her majesty's hands, together with her highness's
picture and arms in a piece of sixpence of current English
money under the plate, where under was also written the
name of our general ". Nova California is still named New
Albion in English maps ; but no consequences, either evil or
good, have resulted from the possession thus confidently
taken.* That part of the Americas has even to this time
escaped from all the evils of conquest, and the attempts that
have been made to civilise it have been in the spirit of that
religion which was proclaimed with the announcement of
peace on earth, good will towards men. The Jesuits, who
were as beneficially employed in America as they were
mischievously in Europe, established missions there, in which,

* " It seemeth that the Spaniards hitherto had never been in this part
of the country, neither did they ever discover the land by many degrees
to the southwards of this place " (Hakluyt, 442). The English knew
nothing at that time of Cabrillo's voyage, nor indeed of anything that
the Spaniards had done in that direction. They too were dreaming of
Eldorados, and thought there was " no part of the earth here to be
taken up wherein there is not some special likelihood of gold or silver "
(Ibid.).



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 273

though they attempted, and consequently effected, less than
in Paraguay and among the Chaquitos, they reclaimed very
many hordes from a savage life, and reduced them to a state
of contented pupilage, in which their bodily wants were
amply provided for. Upon the abolition of that order the
Franciscans were substituted for them in these parts, and the
Californian missions appear to have been the only ones that
were not either utterly ruined or miserably deteriorated by
the change.

After remaining five weeks in port Drake took his departure,
and as long as the ship continued in sight, the natives kept
fires on the tops of the hills. The design of seeking for a
passage by the north of America was, with general consent,
given up, seeing that the northern summer was so far ad-
vanced, and that the wind was then blowing from the north-
west ; and it was determined to follow the example of Mag-
ellan, and steer for the Moluccas. After taking " good store
of seals and birds " from the Farellones, which are near the
entrance of Port St. Francisco, they sailed sixty-eight days
without seeing land, and then fell in with some inhabited
islands, which, from the conduct of the natives, they named
the Island of Thieves, another remarkable coincidence with
the circumstances of Magellan's voyage. These people began
by fair trading : then took the English articles and would
make no return ; and, lastly, when the English refused to
deal any more with such customers, attacked the ships with
stones, wherewith they had come well provided. A great
gun was fired over their heads : it frightened them away ;
but when they found that they were not hurt, they returned
more audaciously to the unprovoked attack, and "could not
be got rid of till they were made to feel smart as well as
terror ". There is little doubt that these were the Pelew
Islands. Drake was not clear of them till 3rd of October.
On the 16th he made the Philippines, and on 3rd of No-
vember had sight of the Moluccas, and steered for Tidore,

18



274 ENGLISH SEAMEN

where it was his intention to anchor ; but a boat came off
from the Island Motir, and Portuguese enough was spoken
by those who came in it to make him understand that the
Portuguese had been driven out from Ternate, and had taken
up their quarters in Tidore, and to invite him to change his
destination and go to Ternate, when they understood that he
was not a friend to the Portuguese. Thither, accordingly, he
went ; and sending a velvet cloak as a present to the king,
requested to be furnished with provisions, and to trade for
spices. *

The king, who had already been told " what good things
he might receive by traffic," prepared forthwith to visit the
ship. He sent before him " four great and large canoes, in
every one whereof were certain of his greatest states that
were about him, attired in white lawn of cloth of Calicut,
having over their heads from the one end of the canoe to the
other a covering of thin perfumed mats, borne up with a
frame made of reeds for the same use, under which every one
did sit in his order, according to his dignity, to keep him
from the heat of the sun ; divers of whom being of good age
and gravity did make an ancient and fatherly show. There
were also divers young and comely men attired in white, as
were the others. The rest were soldiers, which stood in
comely order, round about on both sides ; without whom sat
the rowers in certain galleries, which being three on a side
all along the canoes did lie off from the side thereof three or
four yards, one being orderly builded lower than another, in
every of which galleries were the number of fourscore rowers.
These canoes were furnished with warlike munition, every
man, for the most part, having his sword and target, with his
dagger, besides other weapons, as lances, calivers, darts,
bows and arrows ; also every canoe had a small cast base (or
cannon) mounted at the least one full yard upon a stock set

* Burney, 356-358. Hakluyt, 739.



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 275

upright. Thus coming near tlic ship in order they rowed
about it, one after another, and passing by, did their homage*
with great solemnity, the great personages beginning with
great gravity, and fatherly countenance, signifying that the
king had sent them to conduct the ship into a better road."
The king soon arrived, and was received with a salute of
great guns, with trumpets sounding, and such politic display
of state and strength as Drake knew it was advisable to ex-
hibit. He and his suite were "passing well contented with
the presents which were made them ; and taking his leave,
as the ship anchored, he promised to repeat his visit the next
day, and said that provisions should be supplied ".t

That same night provisions were sent, consisting of rice,
fowls, " unperfect and liquid sugar," sugar canes, " a fruit
which they call figo," cloves, and " meal, which they call
sagu, made of the tops of certain trees, tasting in the mouth
like sour curds, but melting like sugar, whereof they make
certain cakes, which may be kept the space of ten years, and
yet then good to be eaten ". But instead of repeating his
visit, as he had promised, the king sent his brother on the
morrow to invite the general ashore, and remain on board as
hostage for his safe return. The breach of promise made
Drake "mislike" this invitation, and his whole company
utterly refused to let him accept it. Not, however, to ex-
press any suspicion, that should it prove needless might justly
give offence, he sent some of his officers with presents in his
stead. They were received in great state, in a large and fair