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commanders, soon won the natives' confidence. But their admiration 'as
men ravished in their minds' was rather overpowering; for, after 'a kind
of most lamentable weeping and crying out,' they came forward with
various offerings for the new-found gods, prostrating themselves in
humble adoration and tearing their breasts and faces in a wild desire to
show the spirit of self-sacrifice. Drake and his men, all Protestants,
were horrified at being made what they considered idols. So kneeling
down, they prayed aloud, raising hands and eyes to Heaven, hoping
thereby to show the heathen where the true God lived. Drake then read
the Bible and all the Englishmen sang Psalms, the Indians, 'observing
the end of every pause, with one voice still cried _Oh!_ greatly
rejoicing in our exercises.' As this impromptu service ended the Indians
gave back all the presents Drake had given them and retired in attitudes
of adoration.

In three days more they returned, headed by a Medicine-man, whom the
English called the 'mace-bearer.' With the slow and stately measure of a
mystic dance this great high priest of heathen rites advanced chanting a
sort of litany. Both litany and dance were gradually taken up by tens,
by hundreds, and finally by all the thousands of the devotees, who
addressed Drake with shouts of _Hyoh!_ and invested him with a headdress
of rare plumage and a necklace of quaint beads. It was, in fact, a
native coronation without a soul to doubt the divine right of their new
king. Drake's Protestant scruples were quieted by thinking 'to what good
end God had brought this to pass, and what honour and profit it might
bring to our country in time to come. So, in the name and to the use of
her most excellent Majesty, he took the sceptre, crown, and dignity' and
proclaimed an English protectorate over the land he called New Albion.
He then set up a brass plate commemorating this proclamation, and put an
English coin in the middle so that the Indians might see Elizabeth's
portrait and armorial device.

The exaltation of the ecstatic devotees continued till the day he left.
They crowded in to be cured by the touch of his hand--those were the
times in which the sovereign was expected to cure the King's Evil by a
touch. They also expected to be cured by inhaling the divine breath of
any one among the English gods. The chief narrator adds that the gods
who pleased the Indians most, braves and squaws included, 'were commonly
the younges