OF LATITUDE.

JULES VERNE.

On the subject of authorities we may be permitted to present one of the most astonishing statements concerning Drake that has come within our ken. It is found in "The Exploration of the World. Famous Travels and Travellers" * * * by Jules Verne. One volume, 8vo., illus. New York 1879.

In the preface he gives credit to "M. Gabriel Marcel, attached to the Bibliothèque Nationale", for all possible accuracy in this work of four hundred and thirty-two pages.

The history of Drake's exploits are very brief. Drake does nothing after the capture of the Cacafuego except to decide upon the route for his return home: first by way of the Strait of Magellan; second, through the South Sea and around the Cape of Good Hope; third, "he "could sail up the coast of China and return by the Frozen Sea and "the North Cape" to the Atlantic; page 366. And he continues with this remarkable statement that Drake "therefore put out to "Sea, reached the 38° of north latitude,* and landed on the shore of "the Bay of San Francisco, which had been discovered three years "previously by Bodega. It was now the month of June, the tem"perature was very low, and the ground covered with snow. * * * "Drake did not advance farther north, and gave up his project of "returning by the Frozen Sea"; around Siberia and the North Cape as shown in a previous paragraph, and not around America by Hudson Bay and the Labrador coast.

It is amazing how many errors may be crowded in so few lines.

THE GOLDEN HINDE AND THE GOLDEN GATE. There is one authority in the Drake's Bay discussion who ends her poetic vision of his presence on this coast, that seems to have been based on the force of alliteration.

"Through the Golden Gate at the dawn of day,

"The good Sir Francis sailed away,

"In the Golden Hind from the Golden bay."

We refrain from mentioning her name because she has written some charming verse, but we submit that something more than sentiment is necessary to solve the problem.

*He probably accepted the latitude assigned to Drake by Samuel Johnson, 1741.

This investigation has developed several points of geographic and historic interest.

We can not refrain from expressing our admiration for the performance of the Golden Hinde, nor for the daring which carried her without a consort around the world.

We learn that no navigator has studied the probable course of the Golden Hinde from Guatulco to her northern limit; or who has given particular attention to the characteristics of the currents, winds, and weather through that part of the Pacific Ocean at that season of the year.

No one has challenged the meagre and erroneous descriptions of the physical features of the coast from the northern landfall southward to Drakes Bay.

We find no reference to the insufficient instrumental means and methods which Drake and all navigators of that period possessed for determining their geographic positions at sea.* Under such conditions the sentiment of the investigator has been apt to govern his judgment; or he has assumed the accuracy of the few determinations of position as if they had been made with modern instruments, and reduced by rigorous methods.

Bias had its influence upon the legal writer for the higher latitude when the United States presented claims for Pacific coast territory north of latitude forty-two degrees.

In the question of Drakes Bay or San Francisco Bay as the resort of the Golden Hinde, much has been written, but little or no examination has been made.

Among the many authorities who have written upon that subject we recall no one who was personally familiar with the details of Point Reyes Head, and with the advantages of Drakes Bay as a harbor of refuge in any weather. We have shown our acquaintance and experience with that anchorage since 1852; and the discussion of the subject in our "Identification" paper of 1890, has not been traversed.

And finally, for the highest latitude reached by the Golden Hinde

*The only mention of any instrument on the Golden Hinde is the remark of one of the narrators: "in the time of this incredible storme, the 15 of September, the moone was ecclipsed "in Aries and darkened about three points for the space of two glasses": World Encompassed page 83. This doubtless referred to the sand glass that ran one hour, and yet kept in stock by dealers.

we declare, with the older authorities, for the position of the Golden Hinde at sea in latitude forty-two or forty-three; and that Drake made the landfall about the latitude of forty-two. We place the first anchorage for his vessel at Chetko Cove in latitude 42° 03'.

We declare for the second anchorage under the eastern promontory of Point Reyes Head, in latitude 38° 00', where only the white cliffs faced his ship.

February 14th, 1906.
October 9th, 1907.

February 29th, 1908.

GEORGE DAVIDSON.

APPENDIX.

What may have been the final judgment of Mr. Justin Winsor about the San Francisco Bay anchorage, we do not know. Upon the receipt of our Identification paper he addressed to us the following letter:

"I am greatly obliged to you for a copy of your Identification of "Drake's Anchorage, which I have just looked through with interest, "and shall shortly read more carefully. Your opportunities have "been great and you ought to have settled the question. I feel that "I shall think you have.

"PROF. DAVIDSON.

"Very truly

[Signed] "JUSTIN WINSOR.

"I am very busy preparing for a year's absence in Europe, and "may not go over at once your tract with the attention which it "deserves."

Mr. Winsor returned to the United States in the fall of 1891; and died in 1897.

We believe that Dr. Hale still believes that the Golden Hinde anchored in San Francisco Bay. Some years since when he visited San Francisco we were prepared to accede to his request made through a friend that we should let him put his foot on the spot where Drake landed in his true anchorage.