FRANCIS DRAKE AND
THE CALIFORNIA
INDIANS, 1579

BY
ROBERT F. HEIZER

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BERKELEY AND LOS ANGELES
1947

University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology
Editors (Los Angeles): Ralph L. Beals, Franklin Fearing, Harry Hoijer

Volume 42, No. 3, pp. 251-302, plates 18-21, 1 figure in text, 2 illus.
Submitted by editors February 27, 1946
Issued March 20, 1947
Price, cloth, $2.00; paper, $1.25

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS

FRANCIS DRAKE AND THE CALIFORNIA
INDIANS, 1579

ROBERT F. HEIZER

For nearly a century, historians, geographers, and anthropologists have attempted to solve the problem of locating Francis Drake's anchorage in California, but the opinion of no one investigator has been universally accepted. Indeed, it seems likely that the problem will forever remain insoluble in detail, although it may well be reduced to the possibility that one of two bays, either Drake's or Bodega, was the scene of Drake's stay in California.

Historically and ethnographically, Drake's California visit is exceedingly important. He was the first Englishman to see and describe the Indians of Upper California, and the third Caucasian to mention them. The account of the voyage given in The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake (London, 1628) (of uncertain authorship but usually attributed to Francis Fletcher) gives the earliest detailed description of California Indian life, including such particulars of native culture as ceremonial behavior and linguistic terms. This account is reproduced in Appendix II, below.

Historians and geographers have long since stated their reasons and qualifications for presenting certain conclusions about the location of Drake's anchorage, but anthropologists have never insisted vigorously enough that their contribution might be the most decisive of all in solving the problem. If it can be shown that the Indian language and culture described in the accounts of Drake's voyage to California are clearly those of one or another of the coastal Indian tribes, there will then be definite and unequivocal reasons for believing that in 1579 Drake landed on a part of the California coast inhabited by that tribe. Preliminary attempts at this type of solution have already been made, first by the greatest authority on the California Indians, Professor A. L. Kroeber,[1] and more recently by William W. Elmendorf and myself.[2]

In order to establish the background for the present study, it will be advisable to recapitulate the various opinions and claims. They may be listed under the headings: geographical, historical, and anthropological.

Geographical.—George C. Davidson, eminent and versatile scientist, first approached the problem of the location of Drake's California anchorage in 1858.[3] In the following years, as his familiarity with literary and cartographical sources expanded, he published other works,[4] and in 1908[5] he made his final statement. Davidson first thought that Drake's landfall had been in San Francisco Bay, but after more careful study he concluded that Drake's Bay was the anchorage (see pl. 20). Davidson's views have been carefully and critically reviewed by Henry R. Wagner