ps of the age in Spanish eyes. 'He is served with much plate
and has all possible kinds of delicacies and scents, many of which he
says the Queen of England gave him. None of the gentlemen sit or cover
in his presence without first being ordered to do so. They dine and sup
to the music of violins. His galleon carries about thirty guns and a
great deal of ammunition.' This was in marked contrast to the common
Spanish practice, even on the Atlantic side. The greedy exploiters of
New Spain grudged every ton of armament and every well-trained fighting
sailor, both on account of the expense and because this form of
protection took up room they wished to fill with merchandise. The result
was, of course, that they lost more by capture than they gained by
evading the regulation about the proper armament. 'His ship is not only
of the very latest type but sheathed.' Before copper sheathing was
invented some generations later, the Teredo worm used to honeycomb
unprotected hulls in the most dangerous way. John Hawkins invented the
sheathing used by Drake: a good thick tar-and-hair sheeting clamped on
with elm.

Northwest to Coronado, then to Aguatulco, then fifteen hundred miles due
west, brought Drake about that distance west-by-south of the modern San
Francisco. Here he turned east-north-east and, giving the land a wide
berth, went on to perhaps the latitude of Vancouver Island, always
looking for the reverse way through America by the fabled Northwest
Passage. Either there was the most extraordinary June ever known in
California and Oregon, or else the narratives of those on board have all
been hopelessly confused, for freezing rain is said to have fallen on
the night of June the 3d in the latitude of 42 deg.. In 48 deg. 'there followed
most vile, thick, and stinking fogs' with still more numbing cold. The
meat froze when taken off the fire. The wet rigging turned to icicles.
Six men could hardly do the work of three. Fresh from the tropics, the
crews were unfit for going any farther. A tremendous nor'wester settled
the question, anyway; and Drake ran south to 38 deg. 30', where, in what is
now Drake's Bay, he came to anchor just north of San Francisco.

Not more than once, if ever at all, and that a generation earlier, had
Europeans been in northern California. The Indians took the Englishmen
for gods whom they knew not whether to love or fear. Drake with the
essential kindliness of most, and the magnetic power of all, great bo