sh water; but a tremendous backwash of surf forewarned reefs; and
the _Lady Washington_ stretched her sails for the welcome warm winds,
and tacked with all speed to the north. A few weeks later, Kendrick
was compelled to put in for Juan Fernandez to repair the _Columbia_ and
rest his scurvy-stricken crew. They were given all aid by the governor
of the island, who was afterward reprimanded by the viceroy of Chile
and degraded from office for helping these invaders of the South Seas.

Meantime the little sloop, guided by the masterful and enthusiastic
Gray, showed her heels to the sea. Soon a world of deep-sea, tropical
wonders was about the American adventurers. The slime of medusa lights
lined the long foam trail of the _Lady Washington_ each night.
Dolphins raced the ship, herd upon herd, their silver-white bodies
aglisten in the sun. Schools of spermaceti-whales to the number of
twenty at a time gambolled lazily around the prow. Stormy petrels,
{218} flying-fish, sea-lions, began to be seen as the boat passed north
of the seas bordering New Spain. Gentle winds and clear sunlight
favored the ship all June. The long, hard voyage began to be a summer
holiday on warm, silver seas. The _Lady Washington_ headed inland, or
where land should be, where Francis Drake two centuries before had
reported that he had found New Albion. On August 2, somewhere near
what is now Cape Mendocino, daylight revealed a rim of green forested
hills above the silver sea. It was New Albion, north of New Spain, the
strip of coast they had come round the world to find. Birds in myriads
on myriads screamed the joy that the crew felt over their find; but a
frothy ripple told of reefs; and the _Lady Washington_ coasted parallel
with the shore-line northward. On August 4, while the surf still broke
with too great violence for a landing, a tiny speck was seen dancing
over the waves like a bird. As the distance lessened, the speck grew
and resolved itself to a dugout, or long canoe, carved with bizarre
design stem and stern, painted gayly on the keel, carrying ten Indians,
who blew birds' down of friendship in midair, threw open their arms
without weapons, and made every sign of friendship. Captain Gray
tossed them presents over the deck rail; but the whistle of a gale
through the riggings warned to keep off the rock shore; and the sloop's
prow cut waves for the offing. All night camp-fires and columns of
smoke could be seen on shore, show