Robert F. Heizer

“ The Indians made their appearance in increasing numbers until there was a "great number both of men and women." It is clearly apparent that the natives were not simply curious, but acted, as Fletcher points out, "as men rauished in their mindes" and "their errand being rather with submission and feare to worship vs as Gods, then to haue any warre with vs as with mortall men." It would seem that the natives demonstrated clearly their fear and wonderment at the English, and it is certain that they behaved as no other natives had done in the experience of the chronicler. ”

“ A belief among the Coast Miwok [117] and some Pomo [118] tribes that the home of the dead is associated with Point Reyes should perhaps be taken into account. The belief is that this seaward projection is associated with the dead, who follow a string leading out through the surf to the land of the dead. It is barely possible that this belief, which is quite clearly of Coast Miwok origin, is a legendary reminiscence of Drake's visit which seems to have been, in part at least, interpreted by the Indians as the return of the dead. ”

“ One gets the impression that the English found much to admire in their native friends.
Drake, his gentlemen, and others of the ship's company made an expedition into the interior to see the native villages and the country round about. The houses were all of the semisubterranean, circular type discussed previously. Two animals were seen, as also herds of deer and great numbers of "conies," a name which, as used by Fletcher, seems to fit no known animal living today in this coastal area. ”

“ Euhemerism is ordinarily rather an unproductive and hazardous approach for the historian.
Recapitulation and Conclusion The results of this survey can now be weighed and a solution to the problem of the location of Drake's California anchorage suggested.
It has been shown that there is not a scrap of ethnographic evidence to suggest that Drake landed in Trinidad Bay and saw the Yurok Indians. The Hondius Portus Novae Albionis might apply equally to [Pg 278] Bodega Bay or Drake's Bay, and by itself can only rise to the level of supporting, rather than primary, evidence. ”

“ The Jodocus Hondius map, with a small inset of the Portus Novae Albionis, does resemble Trinidad Harbor, but since all admit that the Hondius "Portus" is imperfectly drawn, and only generally impressionistic, it can hardly be maintained that it resembles less the outline of Bodega Bay or Drake's Bay. Wagner points out that there was a Yurok village near the spot indicated on the Hondius map as occupied [Pg 256] by an Indian town. ”

“ The word Petah, and botanical identification, must remain in limbo until further data are at hand.
The feather-decorated baskets offer evidence, as Barrett and Kroeber have indicated, that Drake landed on the coast immediately north of San Francisco Bay. The baskets (pl. 19) are described as shaped like a deep bowl, covered with a matted down of red feathers worked into various patterns, and further embellished with pendant drops of pearl shell (Haliotis) and two or three disk beads in various places. ”

“ The burning of shell beads in memory and honor of the dead, [Pg 273] a custom which Fletcher may have described, is known for the Coast Miwok, [101] Pomo, [102] and neighboring groups. [103]
Aside from those actions of the natives which are usually associated with their attitudes toward the dead (weeping, moaning, self-laceration, use of feathered baskets, sacrifice of shell beads and feathers in the fire) , there are other evidences that the English were regarded as the returned spirits of the dead. ”

“ In the front of the procession came a man bearing the "Septer or royall mace," a black stick about four and a half feet long, to which were tied long, looped strings of shell disk beads, and two "crownes," a larger and a smaller, made of knitwork and covered with a pattern of colored feathers. Only a few men were seen to wear the disk bead necklaces ("chaines") . Fletcher observes that in proportion to the number of "chaines" a man wears, "as some ten, some twelve, some twentie, and as they exceed in number of chaines, so are they thereby knowne to be the more honorable personages." ”

“ With Wagner's statement that, if any credit can be given to the pig episode, Cermeño may have been the donor, [115] I cannot agree, mainly for the reason that Cermeño's crew were hungry and would not have given the [Pg 277] Indians any pigs if they had had them. The story of the dog is interesting since neither the Pomo nor Coast Miwok had dogs in pre-Spanish times, and the evidence indicates that dogs were introduced shortly after 1800. [116] Aside from these facts, the supposed Nicasio tradition does not have a true ring—it is not the type of story that Indians are accustomed to tell. ”

“ And as men refusing all comfort, they onely accounted themselues as cast-awayes, and those whom the gods were about to forsake: So that nothing we could say or do, was able to ease them of their so heauy a burthen, or to deliuer them from so desperate a straite, as our leauing of them did seeme to them that it would cast them into. ”

“ They are a people of a tractable, free, and louing nature, without guile or treachery; their bowes and arrowes (their only weapons, and almost all their wealth) they vse very skillfully, but yet not to do any great harme with them, being by reason of their weakenesse, more fit for children then for men, sending the arrow neither farre off, nor with any great force: and yet are the men commonly so strong of body, that that, which 2. ”

“ Anthropological.—Wagner's major work on Drake bears abundant evidence that this historian, at least, is cognizant of the value of the ethnographic check method. However, he has not utilized all available documentary or ethnographic data to the fullest extent—a procedure of the utmost importance. ”

“ After a time the Indians quieted down and began to show to the English "their griefes and diseases which they carried about with them, some of them hauing old aches, some shruncke sinewes, some old soares and canckred vlcers, some wounds more lately receiued, and the like, in most lamentable manner crauing helpe and cure thereof from vs: making signes that if we did but blowe vpon their griefes, or but touched the diseased places, they would be whole." The English applied various unguents to the affected places, continuing the treatment as the natives resorted to the camp from time to time. ”

“ The crownes were made of knitworke, wrought vpon most curiously with feathers of diuers colours, very artificially placed, and of a formall fashion: The chaines seemed of a bony substance: every linke or part thereof being very little, thinne, most finely burnished, with a hole pierced through the middest. The number of linkes going to make one chaine, is in a manner infinite: but of such estimation it is amongst them, that few be the persons that are admitted to weare the same: and euen they to whom its lawfull to vse them, yet are stinted what number they shall vse ”

“ Their long hair was gathered behind into a bunch in which were stuck plumes of feathers, but in the front were only single feathers which looked "like hornes." Every Indian had his face painted in black or white or other colors, and every man brought some sort of gift. The procession was brought up behind by the women and children. Each woman carried against her breast a round basket or so, filled with a number of articles such as bags of Tobah; a root called Petah, which was made into meal and either baked into bread or eaten raw ”

“ Their men for the most part goe naked, the women take a kinde of bulrushes, and kembing it after the manner of hempe, make themselues thereof a loose [Pg 285] garment, which being knitte about their middles, hanges downe about their hippes, and so affordes to them a couering of that, which nature teaches should be hidden: about their shoulders, they weare also the skin of a deere, with the haire vpon it. They are very obedient to their husbands, and exceeding ready in all seruices: yet of themselues offring to do nothing, without the consents, or being called of the men. ”

“ This supposition is enhanced by the fact that The Famous Voyage mentions the herb by the name "tabacco," a word already known in England before Drake started on his voyage around the world. [48] It may be concluded that Fletcher's word "Tobah" or "Tabah" comes from the English word "tabacco," "tobacco," "tabaco," and is not a California [Pg 262] Indian word. In this conclusion I am in agreement with Professor Kroeber. [49]
June 18-21.—There is no mention of Indians between the 18th and the 21st of June. ”

“ The influx of people [Pg 260] on the 23d probably means that they were drawn from relatively near-by Coast Miwok villages—from near Olema, or from both shores of Tomales Bay. But even larger crowds of natives came on the 26th, and among them were the Hioh and his retinue. The group arriving on the 26th probably came from some distance. If this crowd gathered at Drake's Bay, they could well have been recruited from Bodega Bay, and possibly included a number of Southern Pomo neighbors. ”

“ The ceremonial number of the adjoining Pomo is four. [97] The Coast Miwok ceremonial number was probably four, though there is no direct evidence to support this supposition. The Indian bow is spoken of as weak and "more fit for children than for men," a remark to be expected from the English, who were even then employing the famous longbow. The English were impressed with the strength of the natives, but, for Indians accustomed to transporting everything on their backs, their feats of strength seem not surprising. ”

“ The bulrush or tule-fiber clothing is attested for [Pg 264] Bodega Bay [56] and Drake's Bay, [57] but it is also found generally throughout central California. Men were generally naked in California, so Fletcher does not note here a distinctive cultural trait. The wearing of deerskin capes by the women is not strictly substantiated by the observations of later explorers, although Cermeño (1595) said that the women in Drake's Bay "covered their private parts with straw and skins of animals." ”

“ The repeated mention by Fletcher of the use of feathers indicates clearly that their ceremonial use was highly developed at this period. The single feathers resembling "horns" are an ethnographic feature of the costume of the ghost dancer among the Pomo, [82] and although there is no documentary evidence that the Coast Miwok wore feathers in such a manner, it seems likely, in view of the very close correspondence between Pomo and Coast Miwok ceremonial features, that they did so. The practice of painting the body is an almost invariable feature of Coast Miwok [83] and Pomo [84] ceremonies. ”

“ To the intent therefore, that this peace which they themselues so willingly sought, might without any cause of breach thereof, on our part giuen, be continued; and that wee might with more safety and expedition, end our businesses in quiet; our Generall with all his company, vsed all meanes possible, gently to intreate them, bestowing vpon each of them liberally, good and necessary things to couer their nakednesse, withall signifying vnto them, we were no Gods but men, and had neede of such things to couer our owne shame ”