1584.

1595.

1560

to

1578.

seen by him was the western side of the largest island of King George the Third's group. This assertion is supported by no evidence; and is irreconcilable with the account given by the navigator in his letter, the genuineness of which is not denied.*

Torquemada, in his History of the Indian Monarchy, (vol. i, page 717,) mentions the voyage of a ship called the San Augustin along the western side of California, in 1595, under the command of Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeñon, who had been directed to examine the coast in search of a place suitable for the establishment of a colony and marine depot; nothing, however, is stated respecting the course of the ship, except that she was lost in the bay of San Francisco. We have accounts of two or three other visits made by Europeans to this part of America during the sixteenth century, which will be noticed hereafter.

While the commerce of the Spaniards in the Pacific was thus increasing, their Government was adopting those measures of restriction and exclusion, which were maintained with so little relaxation during the whole remaining period of its supremacy in the American continent. The great object of its policy was to secure to the monarch and people of Spain the entire and perpetual enjoyment of all the advantages which could be derived from the territories claimed by them in virtue of the Papal cession of 1493; and, with that view, it was considered absolutely necessary, not only to prevent the establishment of foreigners in any part of those territories, but also to discourage the rapid advancement of the Spanish provinces themselves in population, wealth, or other resources. Agreeably to these ideas, the settlement, and even the exploring of new countries in America, were restrained; colonies were rarely allowed to be planted near the coasts, unless they might serve for purposes of defence; and when voyages or journeys of discovery were made, the results were generally concealed by the Government. The subjects of all foreign nations were prohibited, under pain of death, from touching the section of the New World supposed to belong to Spain, or from navigating the seas in its vicinity.

Against these excluding regulations, the English, after they had thrown off their allegiance to the head of the Roman Catholic church, began first to murmur, and then to act. Their Government required from that of Spain an acknowledgment of their rights to occupy vacant portions of America, and to trade with such as were already settled; and these demands having been refused, Queen Elizabeth did not hesitate to encourage her subjects, openly as well as secretly, to violate laws which she declared to

* The only authorities with regard to Gali's voyage, cited by Navarrete, in addition to the letter from the navigator contained in Hakluyt, are two letters addressed by the Viceroy of Mexico to the King of Spain in 1585; the originals of which are preserved in the Archives of the Indies. These two letters are merely mentioned in a note. The account of the voyage given by Navarrete is, however, with the exception of the difference as to the highest degree of latitude reached by Gali, precisely the same as that contained in Hakluyt. Humboldt, as usual, copies Navarrete in all things relating to the discovery of the northwest coast. The question is of no importance at present.

be unjustifiable and inhuman. The Gulf of Mexico and the West Indian seas were, in consequence, soon haunted by bands of daring English, who, under the equivocal denominations of freetraders and freebooters, set at defiance all prohibitions with regard to commerce or territorial occupation, and frequently plundered the ships of the Spaniards, as well as the towns on their coasts. About the same time, the French Protestants began their attempts to form settlements in Florida; and the revolt in the Netherlands, which terminated in the freedom of the Dutch provinces, shortly after produced a formidable increase in the number of these irregular foes to the supremacy of Spain.

1560

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1578.

The Pacific was for some years preserved from such hostile invasions by the dread of the difficulties and dangers of the passage through the straits of Magellan; and the Spaniards began to regard as bulwarks of defence those obstacles to communication between Europe and the western side of America, which they had previously been so desirous to remove or counteract. The reports of the extent and value of the trade in the Pacific, and of the riches accumulated at various places in its vicinity, did not, however, fail in time to overcome all apprehensions on the part of the English, whose ships at length, in 1578, appeared upon 1578. that ocean, under the command of the most able and adventurous naval captain of the age. It is scarcely necessary to say that this captain was Francis Drake. As he is generally supposed to have, during the voyage here mentioned, effected important discoveries on the northwest coasts of America, it will be proper to notice his movements in that quarter of the world particularly; and to determine, if possible, how far such suppositions are based upon authentic proofs. The most material facts on the subject, as collected from the only original evidence† which has yet been made public, are the following:

1577.

Francis Drake sailed from Plymouth in December, 1577, with five small vessels, which had been procured and armed by him- Dec. 13. self and other private individuals in England, ostensibly for a voyage to Egypt, but really for a predatory cruise against the dominions and subjects of Spain. The Governments of England and Spain were then, indeed, at peace with each other; but mutual hatred, arising from causes already alluded to, prevailed between the two nations, and the principles of general law or morals were not at that period so refined as to prevent Queen Elizabeth from favoring Drake's enterprise, with the real objects of which she was doubtless well acquainted.

For some months after leaving England, Drake roved about the Atlantic, without making any prize of value; and then, having refitted his ships on the eastern coast of Patagonia, he succeeded

*The first attack made by the English on the Spaniards, in the Pacific, took place in 1575. In that year, a party of freebooters, headed by their captain, John Oxenham, crossed the isthmus of Panama, and built a vessel on the south side, in which they made several valuable prizes; they, however, at length fell into the hands of their enemies, and were a!l, with the exception of five boys, put to death at Panama. + See Appendix A to this memoir.

1578.

1578. in conducting three of them safely through the dreaded straits of Sept. 5. Magellan, into the Pacific. Scarcely, however, was this accom

plished, ere the little squadron was dispersed by a storm; and the chief of the expedition was left with only a schooner of a hundred tons burden, and about sixty men, to prosecute his enterprise against the power and wealth of the Spaniards on the western side of America.

December. Notwithstanding these disheartening occurrences, Drake did not hesitate to proceed to the parts of the coast occupied by the Spaniards, whom he found unprepared to resist him either on land or on sea. He accordingly plundered their towns and ships with little difficulty; and so deep and lasting was the impression produced by his achievements, that, for more than a century afterwards, his name was never pronounced in those countries without exciting feelings of horror and detestation.

1579.

At length, in the spring of 1579, having completed his visitaApril. tion of the American coast by the plunder of the town of Guatulco, near Acapulco in Mexico, Drake considered it most prudent to direct his course towards England; and, fearing that he might be intercepted by the Spaniards if he should attempt to repass the straits of Magellan, he determined to cross the Pacific to the East Indies, and thence to continue his voyage around the Cape of Good Hope, to his country. With this view, he left Guatulco on the 16th of April; but, instead of proceeding directly westward, which would have been his true line of navigation, he, for some reason not clearly shown in the accounts of his expedition, sailed towards the north, and on the 2d of June following had reached the 42d parallel of latitude. There his men began to suffer from cold; and his farther progress appeared to be difficult, if not impossible, on account of the violence and constancy of the northwest winds. Under these circumstances, (whether from accident or intentionally is not certain,) he fell in with the American coast, and anchored near it. The place, however, proving insecure, he quitted it without landing, and sailed along the shore to the south, until he found a safe and commodious harbor about the 38th degree of latitude, in which he remained with his vessel from the 17th of June to the 23d of July.

June 17

to

This period was spent by the English in repairing their vessel, July 23. and making other arrangements for the long voyage in prospect. The natives of the surrounding country, who came in crowds to the shore of the harbor, at first exhibited signs of hostile intentions. They were, however, soon conciliated by the kind and forbearing conduct of the strangers; and their respect for Drake increased to such an extent, that, when they saw him about to depart, they earnestly entreated him to remain among them as their king. The naval hero, though not disposed to undertake in person the duties of sovereignty over a tribe of naked savages, nevertheless "thought meet not to reject the crown; because he knew not what honor and profit it might bring to his own country. Wherefore, in the name and to the use of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, he took the sceptre, crown, and dignity of the country into his hands; wishing that the riches and treasure thereof might

so conveniently be transported for the enriching of her kingdom 1579. at home." The investiture accordingly took place with due ceremony; Drake bestowing upon the country thus legitimately added to the English dominions the name of New Albion, and erecting on the shore of the bay a monument with an inscription commemorative of the transfer.

The preparations for continuing the voyage having been completed, Drake quitted his new made fellow-subjects, to their great regret, on the 23d of July, and, steering directly across the Pa- July 23. cific, reached the vicinity of the Philippine Islands in sixty-eight Sept. 30. days; thence he pursued his course through the Indian seas, and around the southern extremity of Africa into the Atlantic, and arrived in England, with his booty undiminished, on the 25th of 1580. September, 1580.

I

With regard to the harbor on the northwest coast of America, in which the English repaired their vessel, nothing can be learned from the original accounts of their expedition, except that it was situated between the 38th and the 39th parallels of latitude; and that a group of small islands was found in the ocean, at a short distance from its mouth: whence we are led to conclude that it was either the Bay of San Francisco, or another bay a few miles farther north, now called Port Bodega, to each of which this description applies. As to the extent of the portion of that coast seen by Drake, the accounts are at variance. In the earliest and apparently the most authentic relations and notices of his voyage, the 43d degree of latitude is given as the northern limit of his course in the Pacific; while in others, of later date, and more questionable authority, it is maintained that he examined the whole shore of the continent from the 48th parallel to the 38th. Burney, in his History of Discoveries in the Pacific, (vol. i, page 356,) has devoted several pages to the subject. He there pronounces that "the part of the American coast discovered by Drake is to be reckoned as beginning immediately north of Cape Mendocino, and extending to the 48th degree of north latitude" and this opinion has been since almost universally adopted. There are, however, strong reasons for rejecting the decision of Burney, whose review of the evidences in this, as in all cases in which his countrymen were concerned, is entirely ex parte. An exposition of these reasons would require more space than could be with propriety allotted to it in the body of this history; it has therefore been consigned to the Appendix, [A,] and the conclusion only will be here presented, which is: that in all probability, the English under Drake, in 1579, saw no part of the west coast of America north of the 43d degree of latitude, to which parallel it had been discovered by Cabrillo and Ferrelo, in 1543.

Sept. 25.

The success of Drake's enterprise encouraged other English 1580. adventurers to attempt similar expeditions through the Strait of Magellan; and it likewise served to stimulate the navigators of that nation, in their efforts to discover northern passages of communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Of their predatory excursions, none appear to have been attended with success, except that of the celebrated Thomas Cavendish, or Can

1587. dish, who, during his circumnavigation of the globe, rendered his name almost as terrible to the Spaniards as that of Drake, by his ravages on the western coasts of America. In this voyage, Candish lay for some time near Cape San Lucas, the southernNov. 15. most point of California, and there captured the Santa Anna, a Spanish ship, richly laden, on her way from Manilla to Acapulco, which he set on fire after plundering her and landing her crew on the coast. The miserable persons, thus abandoned in a desert country, must soon have perished, had not the hull of their vessel, after the extinction of the fire by the waves, been driven on shore in their vicinity; this carcass they contrived to repair, so as to render it sea-worthy, and, embarking in it, they succeeded in reaching a Mexican port. Among them was Juan de Fuca, Greek pilot, of whose subsequent discoveries on the northwest coast of America an account will be given in the next following chapter.

a