Francis Drake and the California Indians, 1579 Part 3

[25] Wagner's theory is not stated explicitly in any one place, hence specific reference is impossible. See his _Sir Francis Drake's Voyage around the World_ (San Francisco, 1926), pp. 156-158, 169.

[26] This is shown even more clearly on the Hezeta map of 1775 reproduced by Herbert E. Bolton, _Historical Memoirs of New California by Fray Francisco Palou_, 4 vols. (Berkeley, 1926), Vol. IV, facing p.

16. George C. Davidson in his _Identification_ (pp. 17-18, 34, 39) made a similar identification of the Indian village site at the Limantour Estero in Drake's Bay.

[27] Bolton, _op. cit._, n. 19. See also L. L. Loud, _Ethnogeography and Archaeology of the Wiyot Territory_, Univ. Calif. Publ. Am. Arch. and Ethn., Vol. 14, No. 3 (Berkeley, 1918), p. 243.

[28] H. R. Wagner, _Spanish Voyages to the Northwest Coast of America_, California Historical Society, Special Publication No. 4 (San Francisco, 1929), p. 158.

[29] For details see Kroeber, _Handbook_, pp. 78-79, pl. 9; and Loud, _Ethnogeography_, pp. 243, 244.

[30] Wagner, _Drake's Voyage_, pp. 157, 158.

[31] "Fray Benito de la Sierra's Account of the Hezeta Expedition to the Northwest Coast in 1775," trans. by A. J. Baker, introd. and notes by H.

R. Wagner, _California Historical Society Quarterly_, IX (1930), 218.

[32] See T. A. Rickard, "The Use of Iron and Copper by the Indians of British Columbia," _British Columbia Historical Quarterly_, III (1939), 26-27, where the Hezeta finds are expressly discussed. Rickard's opinion also differs from Wagner's.

[33] Francisco Eliza in 1793 said: "The Puerto de Trinidad is quite small; no vessel can be moored so as to turn with the wind or tide. The bottom for the most part is rock. The land consists of quite high and extended hills full of pines and oaks" (H. R. Wagner, "The Last Spanish Exploration of the Northwest Coast and the Attempt to Colonize Bodega Bay," _California Historical Society Quarterly_, X [1931], 335). For photographic views of Trinidad Bay see Thomas T. Waterman, _Yurok Geography_, Univ. Calif. Publ. Am. Arch. and Ethn., Vol. XVI, No. 5 (Berkeley, 1920), pls. 1, 16.

[34] Kroeber, _Handbook_, p. 278, inferentially concurs with this conclusion.

[35] Reprinted in _Drake's Plate of Bra.s.s_, pp. 32-46.

[36] Reprinted in _Drake's Plate of Bra.s.s_, pp. 27-30, and by Wagner in _Drake's Voyage_, pp. 274-277.

[37] Printed in Zelia Nuttall, _New Light on Drake_, Hakluyt Society, ser. 2, Vol. 34 (London, 1914), pp. 50-51.

[38] As Barrett (_Ethno-Geography_, map at end), Kroeber (_Handbook_, pp. 272-275), and C. H. Merriam ("Distribution and Cla.s.sification of the Mewan Stock in California," _American Anthropologist_, IX [1907], 338-357), show, the Coast Miwok inhabited both Bodega Bay and Drake's Bay territory. Thus the language (except for minor dialectic differentiation) and culture are undoubtedly very similar at both bays.

This makes the problem of exclusive selection somewhat difficult. The Madox vocabulary (see below, p. 282) was first presented in E. G. R.

Taylor, "Francis Drake and the Pacific: Two Fragments," _Pacific Historical Review_, I (1932), 360-369.

[39] The Fletcher-Madox vocabulary list does not resemble the Yurok words for the same items or phrases.

[40] Wagner, _Drake's Voyage_, p. 147. B. Aginsky ("Psychopathic Trends in Culture," _Character and Personality_, VII [1939], 331-343) quotes Fletcher's description of Indian weeping and self-laceration, and calls them Pomo, a.s.serting that Drake landed in their territory and that the ceremonies given in honor of the English exemplify the "Dionysian" phase of Pomo culture.

[41] Wagner, _Spanish Voyages_, p. 158.

[42] Don Francisco Mourelle, "Journal of a Voyage in 1775 to explore the Coast of America, Northward of California ...," in _Miscellanies of the Honorable Daines Barrington_ (London, 1781), pp. 471*-534*. See also Wagner, _Drake's Voyage_, p. 158.

[43] Kroeber. _Handbook_, fig. 21.

[44] Roland B. Dixon, "The Northern Maidu," _Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History_, Vol. XVII, Pt. III (1905), fig. 19.

[45] John P. Harrington, "Tobacco among the Karuk Indians," Bureau of American Ethnology, Bull. 94 (1932), 17-18, 40.

[46] The Coast Miwok word for tobacco is _kaiyau_. For the North, Central, Eastern, and Northeastern Pomo it is _saxa_, _saka_, _sako_: for the Southern, Southwestern, and Southeastern Pomo it is _kawa_, _tom-kawa_ (Roland B. Dixon, "Words for Tobacco in American Indian Languages," _American Anthropologist_, XXIII [1921], 30).

[47] See discussion in Heizer and Elmendorf, "Francis Drake's California Anchorage."

[48] Berthold Laufer, "Introduction of Tobacco into Europe," Field Museum of Natural History Anthropological Leaflet No. 19 (1924), pp. 6 ff.

[49] _Handbook_, p. 277.

[50] Compare Fletcher's statements of the att.i.tude of the Indians with that of Cermeno, who was in Drake's Bay in 1595 and said, "... the other Indians approached in an humble manner and as if terrorized, and yielded peacefully" (Wagner, _Spanish Voyages_, p. 159).

[51] This custom is a general central Californian cultural feature. See E. M. Loeb, _Pomo Folkways_, Univ. Calif. Publ. Am. Arch. and Ethn., Vol. XIX, No. 2 (Berkeley, 1926), pp. 286, 287, 291; R. B. Dixon, "The Northern Maidu," pp. 242, 252; A. L. Kroeber, _The Patwin and their Neighbors_, Univ. Calif. Publ. Am. Arch. and Ethn., Vol. XXIX, No. 4 (Berkeley, 1932) p. 272; C. Purdy, "The Pomo Indian Baskets and Their Makers," _Overland Monthly_, XV (1901), 449. See also below, notes 56 and 57.

[52] Dixon, "The Northern Maidu," fig. 33.

[53] Fritz Krause, _Die Kultur der Kalifornischen Indianer_ (Leipzig, 1921), map 4.

[54] A rather lengthy digression must be made here since the details are involved. S. A. Barrett ("Pomo Buildings," _Holmes Anniversary Volume_, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., 1916, p. 7) states that semisubterranean, earth-covered houses were used about 1900 by men of means (chiefs, good hunters, lucky gamblers, and medicine men). This house was a small edition of the larger dance house (described by Barrett, _Ethno-Geography_, p. 10). Fletcher's description says that in the majority of houses the combined roof entrance and smoke hole was present. This qualification does not exclude the possibility that some houses had the ground-level tunnel entrance which should be expected in the area. In historic times the Pomo seem, in large part, to have given up making these permanent dwellings in favor of less permanent mat- or gra.s.s-covered houses, which were inexpensive and more convenient to erect. The same process of loss seems to have occurred among the Coast Miwok, since Dr. Kelly's informants did not remember such houses.

Archaeological sites in the Point Reyes-Drake's Bay region show numerous circular depressions which are clearly the remains of such houses. A further indication of their presence at an earlier time can be gained from "linguistic archaeology." The Sierra (Interior) Miwok use the word _kotca_ for the earth-covered, underground house with combined roof entrance and smoke hole (S. A. Barrett and E. W. Gifford, "Miwok Material Culture," _Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee_, Vol. II, No. 4 [1933], p. 198). The same word for house (i.e., dwelling) is present among the Coast Miwok (Barrett, _Ethno-Geography_, word no. 64, p. 71), who once had a similar house, as is shown by archaeological remains, but abandoned it in ethnographic times. It is not unreasonable on these grounds to a.s.sume the presence in Coast Miwok territory of the type of house described by Fletcher.

[55] Wagner, "The Last Spanish Exploration of the Northwest Coast and the Attempt to Colonize Bodega Bay," _California Historical Society Quarterly_, X (1931), 331.

[56] Bolton, _Historical Memoirs of New California by Fray Francisco Palou_, Vol. IV, p. 48.

[57] I. T. Kelly, "Coast Miwok Ethnography." (MS).

[58] Wagner, _Spanish Voyages_, p. 158. J. Broughton, in his _Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean ... in the Years 1795 ... 1798_ (London, 1804), said that the Drake's Bay Indian men whom he saw were naked, but that the women were clothed "in some degree."

[59] "Menzies' California Journal," ed. by Alice Eastwood, _California Historical Society Quarterly_, II (1924), 302-303.

[60] Wagner, "The Last Spanish Exploration," p. 331.

[61] James Colnett, _The Journal of Captain James Colnett aboard the "Argonaut" from April 26, 1789 to November 3, 1791_, ed. by F. N. Howay, Champlain Society, Publ. No. 26 (Toronto, 1940), p. 175.

[62] Wagner, _Spanish Voyages_, p. 159.

[63] Exact doc.u.mentation is impossible here, but such an explanation would fit the facts, and the custom of sending a messenger to announce a visit was a feature of the whole area (Loeb, _Pomo Folkways_, p. 49).

[64] See E. W. Gifford and A. L. Kroeber. _Culture Element Distributions, IV: Pomo_, Univ. Calif. Publ. Am. Arch. and Ethn., Vol.

x.x.xVII, No. 4 (Berkeley, 1937), elements nos. 805-807, p. 154.

[65] Barrett, _Ethno-Geography_, p. 415.

[66] Kelly, "Coast Miwok Ethnography."

[67] Stephen Powers, _Tribes of California_ (Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., 1877), pp. 165, 169, 170, 181; Loeb, _Pomo Folkways_, pp. 286, 287; Barrett, "Pomo Buildings," p. 11. See also above, p. 261, n. 42. I can see no possible relations.h.i.+p between the clear account by Fletcher of self-laceration and Wagner's discussion of tattooing (_Drake's Voyage_, p. 494, n. 49). As the comparative notes cited clearly show, the tearing of the flesh by the California Indians is no "story" which needs an involved, roundabout, and improbable explanation.

[68] For the Coast Miwok and Pomo words for "sing" see Barrett, _Ethno-Geography_, word no. 265, pp. 67, 79. The Pomo words are totally unlike _Gnaah_ or _koya_. See also Heizer and Elmendorf, "Francis Drake's California Anchorage," pp. 214, 216. There is a logical possibility of a copying error in _Gnaah_ from Fletcher's ma.n.u.script notes. If it had originally been written _Guaah_ or _Gyaah_, it would be very close indeed to _koya_.

[69] E. M. Loeb, _The Western Kuksu Cult_, Univ. Calif. Publ. Am. Arch.

and Ethn., Vol. x.x.xIII, No. 1 (Berkeley, 1932), p. 49, and _Pomo Folkways_, p. 192; S. A. Barrett, _Ceremonies of the Pomo Indians_, Univ. Calif. Publ. Am. Arch, and Ethn., Vol. XII, No. 10 (Berkeley, 1917), p. 402, and "Pomo Buildings," p. 11.

[70] Barrett, _Ceremonies_, p. 403.

[71] Gifford and Kroeber, _Culture Element Distributions, IV: Pomo_, pp.