The Golden Hind and the Tello on the Coasts of California Author(s): Arthur Davies Source: The Geographical

Journal, Vol. 148, No. 2 (Jul., 1982), pp. 219-224 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/633773 . Accessed: 05/10/2011 14:38
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The GeographicaUournal, Vol. 148, No. 2, July 1982. pp. 219-224

THE

GOLDEN

HIND

AND THE TELLO CALIFORNIA ARTHUR DAVIES

ON

THE

COASTS

OF

For 400 years, no clear picture has existed of the movements of the Golden Hind in that sector of Drake's great voyage which passed north of Mexico to Oregon. The log and charts of the ship and Drake's own account of the circumnavigation were put away in the Tower of London for secrecy and have never come to light. Even Fletcher's account of the voyage had this California sector suppressed and the short summary paragraph substituted was unfortunately ambiguous. Richard Hakluyt confused matters by suggesting that Drake sailed far out into the Pacific to find the westerlies and then made landfall in Oregon. Map evidence existed but it was scattered and mostly unknown to historians. What was known from the sponsorship of the voyage was that Drake had orders to explore the Pacific coast from 32?to 50?N in search of a strait passing through North America which would give quick passage from England to China. In this paper, a study of two maps hitherto overlooked, that of Lok in 1582 and of Edward Wright in 1599, throws new light on a controversy which has lasted more than 100 years. It shows that Drake carefully examined all the coasts of California to Oregon and returned south to careen his ship in the great bay of San Francisco. HAS TOO often been assumed that the settlement of Virginia in 1584 was the IT beginning of the British Empire overseas. Robert H. Power (1974) has emphasized that the first territory to be claimed was California, though it was not settled. Francis Drake careened his ship in a harbour at 38?N (Pl. 11(a)) and he thought that local Indians wished to have Queen Elizabeth as their ruler. He had coasted California and Oregon and called this region Nova Albion. Time passed. During the last hundred years enthusiasts have relied on documentary sources (Hanna, 1979), always less precise than maps, to assert that Drake sailed out into the Pacific from Guatulco, at 15?N, for 680 leagues of longitude, more than 2000 sea miles. When he reached 32?N, he turned north-north-east to make landfall at 42?N, in Oregon. A recent article (Davies, 1981) has examined and refuted this. These enthusiasts, the Guild of Navigators*, argue that Drake later sailed south from Oregon to seek a suitable harbour to careen his ship, finding it in Drake's Bay or in Drake's Estero, at 38?N. Leading historians, including Samuel E. Morison (1974) and David B. Quinn (1980), have accepted this. Robert H. Power (1978) accepts the argument but considers Drake had the Golden Hind careened in the north of San Francisco Bay. To understand Drake's objective in these waters, it must be realized that there were two very different concepts of the North West Passage. The traditional one, shown on the Ortelius map of 1570, was that a seaway existed around North America where it met the Arctic and that this gave entry to the Pacific by way of what is now Bering Strait, then named Strait of Anian. But Drake was not seeking this: he was seeking a new Strait of Anian which passed out into the Pacific somewhere between 30? and 50?N. It was a new and exciting prospect. Michael Lok (1974) dedicated his map of 1582 to Sir Philip Sidney. It showed a strait from the Atlantic, at 62?N, passing west for 17 degrees of longitude, until it met a land obstruction. There it divided into a north-west passage to the Arctic and a south-west -^ Professor Emeritus Arthur Davies held the Reardon-Smith Chair of Geography at the University of Exeter from 1948-1971. This paper was presented for publication in March 1981. * The Guild of Navigators was formed in 1953 in San Francisco, with Admiral Nimitz as Chairman, to conduct studies and to propagate the view that Drake careened his ship in Drake's Bay or Drake's Estero. They include professional and business men, yachtsmen and sailors, academics and scientists. For an excellent account of the controversy, see Lost Harbour by Walter L. Hanna(1979). O016-7398/82/(X)()2-()219/$()().2()/() ? 1982 Royal Geographical Society

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DRAKE ON THE COASTS OF CALIFORNIA

passage. If the latter continued its course, it would reach the Pacific at some where between 30? and 50?N. Lok's map also has 'Angli 1576' on the land where the strait divided and an indication of a camp site. No expedition is known to have made this penetration by that time but Hudson Strait (officially explored in 1610) commences at 62?N and continues west for 16 degrees of longitude, until Southampton Island divides it into a north-west and a south-west passage, the latter passing into the large water region of Hudson Bay, and presumably west to the Pacific. Historians may demur but a geographer cannot ignore the representation on this map. The mathematical chances of drawing it correctly, simply by guesswork, must be thousands against. Perhaps a fishing vessel, in an exceptional year, had found the Strait empty of ice early in the summer, as sometimes occurs. In 1577, a year later, the sponsors of Drake had high hopes of a rich reward in a quick passage for English ships to China by northern waters through North America. Their instructions to Drake to seek the Strait of Anian, between 30? and 50?N, may well have been the main purpose of his voyage, for there was no intention that he should circumnavigate the earth and scant hope of profit in future English settlements in South Chile. It would, therefore, have been sheer lunacy on the part of Drake to sail 2000 miles out into the grey empty wastes of the Pacific, for 49 days, and make land only at 42?N. Columbus was out of sight of land for only 34 days when he discovered the Bahamas. Maps reveal that Drake kept along the coasts of California and Oregon from 32? to 46?N. In his Theatrum, printed in Antwerp in 1570, Ortelius depicted the Americas. The Pacific coast extended very far to the west at 40?N, approaching Asia, but then passed due north to the Arctic at the Strait of Anian. This was based on the voyage of Cabrillo from Mexico, in 1542-43, under orders of the Viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza. Cabrillo proceeded cautiously along the coast to the Bay of Pines, which was almost certainly Monterey Bay. He estimated it was at 39?N, not 37?N, but all his latitudes were 2 degrees too high. When winter brought rough weather, he returned to Isla de Posesion, at 33?N and there he died on 3 January 1543. His successor again coasted to Monterey Bay and then sailed north-west through open sea until he reached 42?N, out at sea in storms and mist. They had one glimpse of a rock-bound coast, which Wagner (1929) considers was at Punta Arena at 39?N. Herrera gave its name as Cabo de Fortunas. Mendoza hoped that the coast of New Spain would extend north-west almost to China and it would seem that the claim to have made such enormous westering was to win favour with the Viceroy. No Spanish map is known which showed the coast north of 32?, though names, from Cabeza de Vaca, Coronado and others, found their way on to the maps of Ortelius in 1570. The Drake-Mellon map, circa 1581-1586, was the first to depict the track of the Golden Hind in these waters, albeit a deliberate fraud. It is a piece of diplomatic deception, made to baffle Spain. It shows Drake as having sailed just out of sight of land until he put in to a bay at 38?N. From there he came out and crossed the Pacific. The 1582 map of Michael Lok (1974) is the first to show that Drake coasted from 32?N to 46?N. He also showed a great inlet at 38?N, which extended north-east for more than 100 miles. The only waterway which fits this inlet is San Francisco Bay, at 38?N, with its extensions. Lok stated that these coasts, to 46?N, had been explored by the English by 1580. He depicted the coasts explored by Drake in a crude, generalized way and as trending due north. One gets the impression that it was drawn from hearsay and not from a chart. Next is the map of the Americas by F.G.S. (1974), which Hakluyt printed in 1587 as a prefix to his translation of Peter Martyr's Decades. This map is based on Spanish sources for most of Latin America but the representation of California and Oregon must have been contributed by Hakluyt. It corresponds almost exactly to the Silver Medallion map, made by Mercator in London in 1589 and to the 1589 map by Hondius, also made in London. The 1587 map shows a deep inlet, but at 36?N not 38?N and then has continuous coasts to 50?N. At 49?N is Nova Albion and a legend which states that this region had been explored by the English. The 1589 map of Hondius is based on the charts of the Golden Hind which were kept in the Tower of London. It shows generalized coasts to 42?N, as though Drake kept well out but within sight of high land. The coast is shown extending north of the Spanish

DRAKE ON THE COASTS OF CALIFORNIA

221

limit, from 32?N to 42?N and then the ship continued in open sea to 46?N. At 38?N is the great inlet, extending north-east for 100 miles. This represents the great waterway from San Francisco Bay, through the bays of San Pablo and Suisun and then for nearly 90 miles along the Sacramento River, to the north. One assumes that Indians travelled such distances in canoes and passed information on to Drake's pilot. Hondius has the name Nova Albion at 46?N but the only other name is at 35?N, Tigues (Pl. 11(b)), which also appears from Ortelius onward. Hondius clearly marks the outlines of a large bay, corresponding with Monterey Bay. He also marks two deep sea gulfs, each in the shape of a letter V. They correspond in position, size and orientation with Monica Bay (which leads to Los Angeles) and with the Santa Barbara Channel. The crew of the Golden Hind saw them from the west, the seaward ends. The Hondius Broadside Map of 1595, made in Amsterdam, repeats the features ofthe 1589 map. In both of them the track of the Golden Hind is shown out at sea, always parallel to the coast and therefore in sight of land. The so-called Molyneux Map (1974), mentioned by Shakespeare in Twelfth Night, is now considered (Wallis, 1974) to have been produced in London in 1599 by Edward Wright. Hakluyt printed it as a world map in his Principall navigations 1598-1600. It was a planisphere, which copied the Molyneux terrestrial globe of 1592. That had been inscribed by Hondius, who, with Molyneux, had been collecting materials for it in London from 1589. The name, Nova Albion at 46?N, and an extent of coast with names from 32?N to 46?N shows that this part of the map had its origin in the voyage of Drake. Hondius had access to the charts of the Golden Hind in the Tower of London, and the Molyneux globe of 1592 shows that he also used the roughs of an inshore voyage made by a ship which accompanied the Golden Hind. The Molyneux globe, later transferred to the 1599 map of Wright, revealed a detailed and irregular coastline with a rich nomenclature (Pl. III). Among 27 names, only five are from Spanish sources, taken from the 1570 map of Ortelius. They had been gathered from the great inland journeys of Coronado and others and are always of Indian tribes believed to occupy regions in the west. Not one of these names comes from a Spanish voyage which went north of 32?N. The names along the coast in the Molyneux globe of 1592, surviving in the 1599 map of Wright, are Spanish in form. They were given by the Portuguese pilot of the Tello, who had served Spain for many years. Francis Drake captured a small Spanish vessel, the frigate Tello. He landed her crew and owner at Guatulco and put aboard an English crew of 14, with the Portuguese pilot, N. de Moreno. The Tello was swifter than the Golden Hind, drew less water and was handier near the coast and in shallows. Together they sailed the coasts of California and Oregon, the Tello ahead and close in. If Drake had sailed 2000 miles into the Pacific he would not have taken the Tello, which in open sea would have been a nuisance and no help whatsoever, with constant need to keep in touch. Becalmed at Guatulco, Drake seems to have used the night breeze, to move directly out to sea, 'to get a wind'. When he reached the north-east trade winds, he made north on 'a Spanish course' (Davies, 1981). He wished to avoid the peninsula of Lower California which had already been coasted and charted by Spain to 32?N, so he sailed north-west across the trades then tacked north before closing with the land at 32?N. The Hondius map shows this track, parallel to the coast and within sight ofthe high Sierras, which reached 6000 feet (c. 1828m) in places. Drake relied on the Tello from 32?N to provide detailed roughs of the coasts and for nomenclature of prominent features. The two ships kept north, in company, to the vicinity of San Francisco Bay at 38?N and then west through what is now called Drake's Bay, but when they reached the peninsula of Point Reyes, a region of persistent fog, it seems they sought safety by keeping well out to sea, for 8 days not 49, until the weather cleared and they put in to the Oregon coast at 42?N. The American Guild of Navigators considers that this was the first landfall since Guatulco but there is no warrant for it and it is contrary to every map which depicts the voyage. At 48?N, in very cold conditions on 10 June 1579, they turned south, coasted the California littoral past Cape Mendocino and careened the Golden Hind in the admirably sheltered and secluded waters in the north of San Francisco Bay. Drake had found it on the way north (Davies 1980,1981) and sketched the northern part ofthe bay

222

DRAKE ON THE COASTS OF CALIFORNIA

in his Portus Novae Albionis. Hondius, in his maps of 1589 and 1595, shows the Golden Hind as entering this bay. He had problems of scale in showing a circumnavigation of the earth and wisely settled for a continuous line off shore for the track of the ship. Since it is always parallel to the coast, the Golden Hind must always have been in sight of it, able to come in if a wide opening suggested a new Strait of Anian. Identification of coastal features requires U.S.A. 1:250 000 maps. Whereas the Golden Hind kept seaward of Monica Bay and the Santa Barbara Channel, the Tello moved east and followed the great curve of the coast from Los Angeles to Point Conception. Five names appear which were on the 1570 map of Ortelius: C. del engano (Cape of error) originally located by Cabrillo at 28?N in Lower California, misplaced by Ortelius; Tiguez, (an Indian tribe); Cicuik (also an Indian tribe); Sierra Nevada (Snow Mountains); and Quivira (an Indian tribe). Moreno's names begin with B. Hermosa (or Beautiful Bay). It is intended for the great curve of Los Angeles bay but the name is placed far to the east to avoid confusion with the coast at the north of the Gulf of California. Then comes R. de S. Laurent which is clearly the Santa Clara River; B. Hermosa again is the lovely Santa Barbara coast; Point Conception is clearly shown but not named. Then come C. del engano and C. blanco (White Cape); Tiguez is an Indian tribe; Playa means a beach; Cicuik is an Indian tribe; and then another C. blanco. Sierra Nevada is followed by C. frio, which means 'cold Cape' (see Pl. III). From 36l/2?N to 37V^?N is a large bay, corresponding in size and position with Monterey Bay. In the north of this bay, examined with a micro-reader from the microfilm of the 1599 map, the sea seems to extend inland as a kind of lagoon. Today this is the Watsonville swamp or slough. On the south side is R. Hermosa (beautiful river) and further north R. Tibauda, which could mean warm river, for tibieza means warm. If this is so, it suggests that the ships put in here and landed men to fill water casks, finding they much preferred the river on the south side. Then comes a puzzle: it appears to be Tierra de prun Sarl but this has no meaning. Immediately north is Tierra de los piscadores (land of fishers). The coastal outline is identical in these two regions and one can suggest that a repetition is involved, which will be discussed later. These names on the microfilm of the 1599 map were identified using a micro-reader with special lens. They can be seen, for the most part, in Pl. III, reproduced from the map in the Hakluyt volume of 1599 in the possession of the Royal Geographical Society. C. Poir would seem to be C. Pear, though it is not clear why the French word should appear and not the Spanish, pera. Maybe Hondius slipped up in a tired moment when he was preparing the Molyneux globe. The bay de S . . . presented a greater problem (Fig. 1). By using an additional circular hand lens, rotated slowly about a horizontal axis, the word became clear. This was repeated six times and each time it was draco, the Spanish name for Francis Drake. He relished it, for it meant a dragon and he took pride in the fear with which Spaniards held him. On Plate III, however, the words seems to be b. de Suan, which has no meaning. It is difficult to explain this. The two lines from the loxodrome which split the word draco have survived 400 years in different ways. No two offprints from this copper plate engraved in 1599 were likely to be identical: excess of ink in some parts of the map, Fig. 1. Sketch map of the Bay of Senor Draco'. It is clear that the Tello, on the deficiency in others. Moreover, 400 years have way north, did not enter San Francisco passed, or nearly so. One volume and map may Bay. With a crew ofonly 15, she could be have been at the bottom of a pile in a damp attic. the 1599 swamped by Indian attack. On The other in a warm and overdry aristocratic map the Tello rough showed the Golden In the microfilm version these two lines Gate and a section of the great bay. The library. have been completely broken up at draco. Golden Hind could beat off any Indian causing initial confusion but finally allowing the and went in to explore, about 28 attack reader to see draco through the debris. In Plate Mav 1579.

DRAKE ON THE COASTS OF CALIFORNIA

223

III one can suggest that excess ink has splayed out the two lines, so that one completely conceals the vertical of the letter 'd' and the other breaks up the final 'co'. Readers must form their own opinions. It is of interest, perhaps, that when Jonathan Swift published Gullivefs Travels in 1726, he included a map known to have been based on the Wright map of 1599. It has the name, on the sea, at the correct latitude of San Francisco Bay, 'Port of Sn. Francis Drake' (Port of Senor Francis Drake). What is not in any doubt, however, is that the Bay on the Wright map is the modern San Francisco Bay. To continue: R. Bravo is powerful river; the next name is C. de Erdidsco?most improbable! Then comes Tierra de jusanl which could mean 'land which projects'. R. Grande is a large river and this seems to be in the position of what is now known as Drake's Estero. The peninsula of Point Reyes is marked but not named. North of this, the names were given from north to south as the Golden Hind returned to careen in San Francisco Bay. North of Point Reyes peninsula is C. de S. Michael, then Mare Hermosa (lovely sea). This is followed by B. de las pinas (bay of pines) and then Quivira, the name of an Indian tribe taken from the Ortelius map. Last is Cabo Mendocino, which on a modern map is at 40?N and is the most westerly part of USA proper. Here, on an English globe of 1592, and later on the Wright map of 1599, is the record of a voyage which coasted California from Los Angeles to Cape Mendocino and which marked all the prominent features, rivers and bays. It ends at Cape Mendocino whereas Drake went as far north as 48?N. This simply means that Molyneux, and Hondius who inscribed the globe, had no access to the roughs of the pilot north of Cape Mendocino. Precisely the same absence of accurate coastal outline is to be seen on the Hondius map of 1589. The roughs, together with the charts of the Golden Hind, were locked away in the Tower of London in 1580. When Spanish power was shattered in the defeat of her Armada in 1588, a triumphant England released some of her maritime achievements, but not in the region north of 42?N. No Spanish voyage ever hugged the coast of California. Spain did not discover the great bay of San Francisco until 1769 and then by land, not by sea. Spanish ships returning from the Philippines from 1580 on, went north to 40?N to cross the Pacific, but at 300 miles west of Mendocino, they found that winds were more often from north-west. To shorten the voyage they changed course and made landfall in Lower California, from where they kept south to Acapulco. In 1595 Cermeno was ordered to keep north so as to 'rediscover' Cape Mendocino. This was the first time a Spanish vessel ever saw the Cape. It is beyond question that the coasts and names on the Molyneux globe came from the roughs made on the Tello, by its Portuguese pilot Moreno. Drake gave the name Nova Albion after nearly six weeks in the bay of San Francisco. It does not appear on the globe or map of 1599. It is evident that Drake confiscated the roughs when they entered the bay and that Moreno had no opportunity to link them into a finished chart. Yet the name C. do Mendocino first appeared, together with Baya dos pinas on the World Map of Ortelius of 1589, reproduced as a copper plate and prefixed by Hakluyt to his Principall navigations of that year. The coastal outlines are quite inaccurate, identical with the Ortelius map of 1570 and the only change is these two names: Mendocino at 53?N, and Bay of Pines at 40?N. It could mean that Hakluyt had located the Tello roughs by 1589 but this is unlikely, for why then only two names and' an erroneous coastline? Truth is often stranger than fiction. The Golden Hind was overcrowded (the Tello probably broken up for huts and firewood) because it took on seamen from sister ships that were lost. It is known that 14 or so men either deserted or volunteered to stay behind in the San Francisco Bay region, rather than face a crossing of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans where del Cano's crew in the Victoria in 1522 was reduced to 19 men. They may have married with Indian maids. Moreno, however, soon started off to walk south to Mexico and reached there in 1583. He reported the discoveries and named the last two names which he could remember, Cabo Mendocino and Baya dos Pinos. This information filtered through by 1589 to Ortelius, in Spanish Flanders, and he included it in the 1589 map. The name 'Mendocino' can best be translated as 'little beggar'. It is a low reef extending two miles (c. 3 km) into the sea. One can well believe that English sailors on the Tello, familiar with the towering

224

DRAKE ON THE COASTS OF CALIFORNIA

ramparts of Land's End, thought that this was 'a little beggar of a cape'. Father Antonio's attempt in 1602 (Wagner, 1929) to explain the origin of the name was guesswork without foundation. Latitudes There are difficulties. Whereas the bay of Monterey, on the 1599 map, is correctly positioned at 37?N, the bay of San Francisco (bay of Senor Drake) is at 40?N, not 38?N. Cabo Mendocino is at 43?N not 40?N. To the south the errors are in the opposite direction. The Santa Clara River is at 34?N, but on this map is at 32?N, and Point Conception is shown at 31?N when its true latitude is 34?N. Those places to the north of Monterey are 2 or 3 degrees too far north, while those to the south are 2 to 3 degrees too far south. Moreno had no motive for such eccentricity, so the errors must have crept in when Hondius attempted to fit the three roughs together. The first error was probably scale. Moreno's roughs were on a larger scale than Hondius realized. When the central rough was correctly sited at the Bay of Monterey its northern part was about one degree too far north and its southern one degree too far south. The next error is the problem of joining two roughs, for the second must maintain correct orientation with the first one. Moreno had his own solution. When commencing a new rough he transferred the last section of the coast on to the new sheet. To join roughs, he had only to match the overlaps and iock on'. Hondius joined the ends of the roughs, so that we see two C. Blanco in the south and two Tierras in the north, with San Francisco Bay and Pt. Reyes at 40?N, not 38?N. Moreno's roughs had large dots on each cape and bay and on prominent features. This was to facilitate transfer from roughs to a completed chart. He would place each rough over the parchment (or paper) of the chart and prick through the positions of the dots. Then he would ink them in on the chart and draw the coastal outlines which linked them. The combined errors made the entire coast much too long, when compared with the Hondius map of 1589. Set out at 333? true north, the real trend of the coast as on the Hondius map, it would have reached to 52?N. Hondius tilted it westward, to 303? true north and so brought the northern limit to 45?N. The record of Drake's voyage along the coast of California and Oregon in the summer of 1579 has been there for those with eyes to see since 1599, together with his entry to San Francisco Bay. For nearly 400 years it has been overlooked by scholars wedded to words and chary of maps.

References Davies, A. 1980 Drake at San Francisco. Geog. Mag. 53, 10: 690-92. Davies, A. 1981 Drake and California. Pacific Discovery 34, 6: 14-24. F.G.S. Map (1587) 1974 Reproduction in The Hakluyt Handbook. Vol. I p. 58. Ed. D. B. Quinn. London: The Hakluyt Society. Hanna, W. L. 1979 Lost Harbour. Los Angeles: University of California Press. Hondius, J. Map. RGS Collection. Lok, Michael 1974 Reproduction of Polar Map of North America (1582). In The Hakluyt Handbook Vol. I p. 56. Ed. D. B. Quinn. London: The Hakluyt Society. Morison, S. E. 1974 The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages. New York: Oxford University Press. Power, R. H. 1974 Francis Drake and San Francisco Bay. Los Angeles: University of California Press. Power, R. H. 1978 A Study of two Historic Maps. San Rafael, California: Paragraphics. Quinn, D. B. 1980 Drake's circumnavigation: a review. Harte lecture, given at University of Exeter. (In the press) Wagner, H. R. 1929 Spanish voyages to the north-west coast of America. San Francisco: California Historical Society. Wallis, H. 1974 Edward Wright and the 1599 world map. In The Hakluyt Handbook Vol. I pp 69-73. Ed D. B. Quinn. London: The Hakluyt Society. Wright-Molyneux Map (1599) 1974 Reproduction in The Hakluyt Handbook Vol. I, pp 62-63. Ed. D. B. Quinn. London: The Hakluyt Society.

PLATE II

a& /?;*?,.:^L\

?tr?h?it m mtntihujfcrifcifsMmk i %**,&rp>'rw*kxKt&n: (a) Drake's sketch of the harbour where the Golden Hind was careened

(b) The California coastfrom 20? to 50?N., enlargedfrom the Hondius map ofl589 (by courtesy of the RGS)

PLATE III

The California-Oregon Section of the Wright-Molyneux map of 1599