sit down in the centre. Barely had he obeyed when to the
shouting and dancing of the multitude, "a chain" was thrown over his
neck, "a crown" placed on his head, and "the sceptre" put in his hand.
According to Indian custom, Drake was welcomed by the ceremony of
adoption in the tribe, "the sceptre" being a peace-pipe; "the crown,"
an Indian warrior's head-dress. Far otherwise the ceremony appeared to
the romantic treasure hunters. "_In the name and to the use of Her
Most Excellent Majesty_," records the chaplain, "_he (Drake) tooke the
sceptre, crowne, and dignity of the sayd countrie into his hand;_"
though, added the pious chaplain of pirates, when he witnessed the
Indians bringing the sick to be healed by the master pirate's
touch,--"_we groane in spirit to see the power of Sathan so farre
prevails_."

[Illustration: The Crowning of Drake in California.]

To avert disaster for the sacrilege of the sacred touch of healing,
Drake added to his prayers strong lotions and good ginger plasters.
Sometime in the next five weeks, Drake travelled inland with the
Indians, and because of patriotism to his native land and the
resemblance of the white sand cliffs to that land, called the region
"New Albion." "New Albion" would be an offset to "New Spain." Drake
saw himself a second Cortes, and nailed to a tree a brass plate on
which was graven the Queen's name, the year, the free surrender of the
country to the {165} Queen, and Drake's own name; for, says the
chaplain, quite ignorant of Spanish voyages, "_the Spaniards never had
any dealing, or so much as set a foot in this country, the utmost of
their discoveries reaching only many degrees Southward of this place_."

Drake's misunderstanding of the Indian ceremony would be comical if it
were not that later historians have solemnly argued whether an act of
possession by a pirate should hold good in international law.

On the 23d of July the English pirate bade farewell to the Indians. As
he looked back from the sea, they were running along the hilltops
burning more of the fires which he thought were sacrifices.

Following the chart taken from the Spanish ship, Drake steered for the
Philippines, thence southward through the East Indies to the Indian
Ocean, and past Good Hope, back to Plymouth, where he came to anchor on
September 26, 1580. Bells were set ringing. Post went spurring to
London with word that Drake, the corsair, who had turned the Spanish
world upside d