Francis Drake and the California Indians, 1579 Part 5

[116] A. L. Kroeber, _Culture Element Distributions, XV: Salt, Dogs, Tobacco_, Univ. Calif. Anthro. Rec., Vol. VI, No. 1 (Berkeley, 1941), pp. 6 ff., map 5.

[117] Kelly, "Coast Miwok Ethnography."

[118] Powers, _Tribes of California_, p. 200.

[119] Kelly's informant did say that "before steamers used to travel along the coast" certain occurrences in connection with this belief in the land of the dead took place. This may be a memory of an incident which once was more specifically remembered. At best, however, it is improbable that there would be any tradition of Drake's visit per se.

[120] Such incidents are not uncommon in California. Note, for example, the legendary significance of Mount Diablo to the Indian tribes of central California.

[121] I disagree with Wagner's statement (_Drake's Voyage_, p. 169): "The truth probably is that Drake stopped at two or three different places on the coast [Trinidad Bay, Bodega Bay] and the writer of the original narrative or the compilers who worked on it embodied in one description those of all the Indians he met." The part of the _World Encompa.s.sed_ account treated here has shown itself to be a h.o.m.ogeneous description, interspersed with some nave interpretation of west-central California coast Indian culture, and cannot be looked upon as a composite description. To believe otherwise would seriously distort the facts. This conclusion I submit as one of the most important results of the present inquiry.

[122] Wagner, _Drake's Voyage_, pp. 492-495, does select the Pomo as having the customs and manners described by Fletcher. In this he was inevitably guided by the more abundant Pomo data. Kroeber's selection of Drake's Bay as the site of the anchorage (_Handbook_, p. 278) rests upon the same grounds as my conclusion. Wagner (_Drake's Voyage_, p. 497, n.

10) takes issue with Kroeber and raises several objections without answering them satisfactorily.

[123] Wagner is concerned over this fact. He says (_Drake's Voyage_, p.

498, n. 24) that a reference to Drake's Estero should have been included in the narrative "since the Indian villages were almost entirely located upon it." In answer it may be observed that the Indian villages of Drake's time were situated sporadically around the sh.o.r.e of Drake's Bay as well as on the estero. One might as well ask at the same time why Fletcher did not mention Tomales Bay if Drake were at Bodega?

[124] Wagner, _Drake's Voyage_, p. 151.

[125] And, significantly, the Drake plate of bra.s.s uses the words "Nova Albion." This is independently attested by John Drake in his first declaration.

[126] See Francisco de Bolanos' explicit mention of the white cliffs in Drake's Bay as prominent landmarks (Wagner, _Drake's Voyage_, p. 498, n.

19). See also Davidson, "Identification of Sir Francis Drake's Anchorage," p. 31. Richard Madox refers to the California anchorage as "Ships Land," perhaps the name given to the place by the sailors themselves.

APPENDIX I

THE SOURCES

There are in existence at least three useful independent accounts of Sir Francis Drake's California visit in 1579. These are: (1) the _World Encompa.s.sed_ and the similar _Famous Voyage_ accounts; (2) the second deposition of John Drake, and (3) the valuable notes of Richard Madox.

_The Famous Voyage and The World Encompa.s.sed._--The _Famous Voyage_, first printed in 1589, was compiled by Richard Hakluyt from three sources--John Cooke's ma.n.u.script, the _Anonymous Narrative_, and the Francis Fletcher ma.n.u.script.[A-1] _The World Encompa.s.sed_, which probably was in ma.n.u.script form a few years after Drake's return to England, did not appear in print until 1628. The sources of this account are the Fletcher ma.n.u.script, the Edward Cliffe account, and the relations of Nuno da Silva and Lopez de Vaz.[A-2] It is obvious to any reader that the _Famous Voyage_ and _World Encompa.s.sed_ accounts of the California Indians are closely similar in wording, the chief difference between the two being that the latter account is fuller than the former.[A-3] The richer detail does not indicate literary padding, since the additional information is ethnographically sound. One gets the impression that the _Famous Voyage_ version is an abridgement of _The World Encompa.s.sed_ account itself, or perhaps its source, though if this is so in fact only the bibliographers can tell. Henry R. Wagner has carefully a.n.a.lyzed the various accounts of the Drake voyage,[A-4] and is inclined, no doubt with good reason, to treat the _World Encompa.s.sed_ version as "untrustworthy"; yet this characterization hardly holds for what it tells of the California Indians, which, within limits of interpretation, is a straightforward, detailed ethnographic record, of convincing authenticity.

It is fairly certain that Francis Fletcher's "Notes" was the source of the description of California Indian manners and customs, since, as Wagner points out, the descriptions of the Patagonians and Fuegians in the first half of the Fletcher ma.n.u.script (the second half is now lost) agree very closely in wording with the descriptions of the California coast Indians.[A-5]

Of Francis Fletcher, chaplain and diarist of the Drake expedition, O. M.

Dalton says:

... it may ... be suggested that Fletcher was not such a romancer as has sometimes been supposed. There is really a large amount of information condensed in his few pages,--as much, or perhaps more, than is to be found in many chapters of later and more diffuse historians or travellers. That he should have seen strange and unprecedented occurrences in the light of his own limited knowledge and of the narrow experience of his time, was after all a psychological necessity. His narrative, like the sea-G.o.d Glaucus in Plato's Republic, is obscured by strange incrustations; nevertheless with a little patience the fict.i.tious sh.e.l.l may be removed and the solid fact discovered intact beneath it.... It is apparent that the whole pa.s.sage describing Drake's interview with the "King," on which some ridicule has been cast, is chiefly absurd because the narrator inevitably reads into the social conditions of an uncultured tribe something of the European etiquette of the day.... It was only natural that a difficulty should have been experienced by minds, not scientifically trained, in finding an appropriate terminology by which to describe unfamiliar objects.... Other instances might be quoted, but the above are sufficient to show that Fletcher described scenes that actually pa.s.sed before his eyes, while the inferences he drew from them were erroneous. It is only fair, if small things may be compared with great, that the humble chronicler of a later day should be accorded the same liberal method of interpretation which has long been granted to cla.s.sical authors.[A-6]

_John Drake's Second Declaration._--John Drake was the orphan son of Robert Drake, who was the uncle of Francis Drake. John Drake accompanied his cousin on the voyage round the world, and subsequently went along on the Edward Fenton expedition, was shipwrecked in the River Plate (1582), taken captive by the Indians, and escaped only to fall into the hands of the Spanish. John Drake was questioned by the authorities, and in his second deposition there is a brief account of the occurrences in California, 1579.[A-7]

There he [Francis Drake] landed and built huts and remained a month and a half, caulking his vessel. The victuals they found were mussels and sea-lions. During that time many Indians came there and when they saw the Englishmen they wept and scratched their faces with their nails until they drew blood, as though this were an act of homage or adoration. By signs Captain Francis told them not to do that, for the Englishmen were not G.o.d. These people were peaceful and did no harm to the English, but gave them no food. They are of the colour of the Indians here [Peru] and are comely. They carry bows and arrows and go naked. The climate is temperate, more cold than hot. To all appearance it is a very good country. Here he caulked his large ship and left the ship he had taken in Nicaragua. He departed, leaving the Indians, to all appearances, sad.[A-8]

_Richard Madox's Account of California._--In 1932, Miss E. G. R. Taylor discovered in the diary of Richard Madox, Chaplain aboard Edward Fenton's ship in 1582, some remarks on Drake's visit on the California coast in 1579.[A-9] Madox was not a member of the Drake expedition, and it is safe to a.s.sume that his notes consist of information received in conversation with some of Fenton's crew who had accompanied Drake. These could have been William Hawkins, John Drake, Thomas Hood, and Thomas Blackcollar.[A-10] Miss Taylor notes Madox's categorical statement that "Syr Frances Drake graved and bremd his ship at 48 degrees to ye north"

together with evidence from other sources, and concludes that "it would appear that Drake's anchorage must be sought in Oregon rather than in California, perhaps in Gray's Bay, or at the mouth of the Raft River."

Miss Taylor had hoped to get a clue from the Madox vocabulary, but was unsuccessful. Henry Wagner has answered Miss Taylor's Oregon claim effectively,[A-11] and the identification of the Madox vocabulary as Coast Miwok is further proof that the statement "at 48 degrees" is an error. The log raft depicted by Madox and discussed by Miss Taylor and Mr. Wagner is a typical Peruvian sailing raft, as reference to S. K.

Lothrop's detailed paper will demonstrate;[A-12] it has no relation whatsoever to California.

The relevant portion of Madox's account is as follows:

In ships land wh is ye back syde of Labradore and as Mr. Haul [Christopher Hall] supposeth nye thereunto Syr Frances Drake graved and bremd his ship at 48 degrees to ye north. Ye people ar for feature color apparel diet and holo speach lyke to those of Labradore and is thowght kyngles for they crowned Syr Frances Drake. Ther language is thus.

_Cheepe_ bread _Huchee kecharoh_ sit downe _Nocharo mu_ tuch me not _Hioghe_ a king

Ther song when they worship G.o.d is thus--one dauncing first wh his handes up, and al ye rest after lyke ye prest and people _Hodeli oh heigh oh heigh ho hodali oh_

Yt is thowght yt they of Labradore [do] worship ye son and ye moon but [whether they] do of calphurnia I kno not....[A-13]

FOOTNOTES:

[A-1] Henry R. Wagner, _Sir Francis Drake's Voyage around the World_ (San Francisco, 1926), p. 241.

[A-2] _Ibid._, pp. 287, 289.

[A-3] _The World Encompa.s.sed_ account of Drake in California is reprinted in Appendix II, below. It is printed in full in Volume XVI of the Hakluyt Society publications (ed. W. S. Vaux; London, 1854). The _Famous Voyage_ is easily accessible in _Drake's Plate of Bra.s.s_, California Historical Society, Special Publication No. 13 (San Francisco, 1937), pp. 27-30.

[A-4] Wagner, _Drake's Voyage_, pp. 229 ff., n. 1.

[A-5] _Ibid._, pp. 61, 147, 245, 290.

[A-6] O. M. Dalton, "Notes on an Ethnographical Collection ... Formed during the Voyage of Captain Vancouver, 1790-1795," _Internationale Archiv fur Ethnographie_, Vol. X. (Leiden, 1897), p. 235. A. L. Kroeber says, "The pa.s.sage is a somewhat prolix mixture of narration and depiction...." (_Handbook of the Indians of California_, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bull. 78 [Washington, D. C., 1925], pp. 275-276).

[A-7] For details see Zelia Nuttall, _New Light on Drake_, Hakluyt Society, ser. 2, Vol. 34 (London, 1914), pp. 18-23. See also Wagner, _Drake's Voyage_, pp. 328-334.

[A-8] Nuttall, _New Light on Drake_, pp. 50-51.

[A-9] For details see E. G. R. Taylor, "Francis Drake and the Pacific: Two Fragments," _Pacific Historical Review_, I (1932), 360-369.

[A-10] For details see _ibid._, pp. 363-365; Henry R. Wagner, "George Davidson, Geographer of the Northwest Coast," _California Historical Society Quarterly_, XI (1932), 309-311; and Nuttall, _New Light on Drake_, pp. 19-20.

[A-11] Wagner, "George Davidson," pp. 310-311.

[A-12] S. K. Lothrop, "Aboriginal Navigation off the West Coast of South America," _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, LXII (1932), 235-238, figs. 9_a_, 9_b_, 10.

[A-13] Reprinted from Taylor, _loc. cit._, p. 369.

APPENDIX II

EXTRACT FROM "THE WORLD ENCOMPa.s.sED BY SIR FRANCIS DRAKE"

London: Printed for Nicholas Bovrne, 1628. "Carefully collected out of the Notes of Master Francis Fletcher _Preacher in this employment, and diuers others his followers in the same_."