CALIFORNIA: Nova Albion

In 1577, commanded by Queen Elizabeth to "annoy the King of Spain in his Indies,"red-bearded little Francis Drake put out from Plymouth in the Golden Hind, entered Magellan Strait, went plundering up the west coast of the New World. Laden with Spanish treasure, he pushed north in search of an Arctic passage back to England. One day in the spring of 1579, he sailed into a "convenient and fit harborough" somewhere near the future site of San Francisco. There he received the homage of native Indians and, according to his chaplain's account, nailed...

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