hospitable soil that had been their home for over a month. Then they
went on board the ship, accompanied to the shore by the grieving
Indians, who would not be comforted when they saw their new friends
forsaking them. It was near the last of July in 1579 that Captain Drake
with his brave men began his wonderful homeward voyage.

It was a triumphant return they made in September, a year later. Crowds
flocked to see the famous ship and its gallant commander.

Some of the queen's statesmen strongly disapproved of Drake's attack
upon Spanish towns and vessels, and felt he should be arrested and tried
for piracy; but the common people cheered him wherever he went, and as a
crowning honor, in the luxurious cabin of his good ship Golden Hind, he
was visited by the great Elizabeth herself. When the banquet was over,
at the queen's command, he bent his knee before her, and this sovereign,
who, though a woman, dearly loved such courage and daring as he had
displayed, tapped him on the shoulder and bade him arise "Sir Francis
Drake."


Galli and Carmenon

In 1584 Francisco Galli, commanding a Philippine ship, returning to
Mexico by way of Japan, sighted the coast of California in latitude 37i
30'. He saw, as he reported, "a high and fair land with no snow and many
trees, and in the sea, drifts of roots, reeds, and leaves." Some of the
latter he gathered and cooked with meat for his men, who were no doubt
suffering from scurvy.

Galli wrote of the point where he first saw the coast as Cape Mendocino,