Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/38



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his duty,  as  minister  of  God  and  son  of  Adam,  to  go abroad  on  this  earth,  and  kill  and  steal  to  the  full limit of  his  capabilities;  and  who  felt  it  likewise  his duty "to  register  the  true  and  whole  history  of  that his  voyage,  with  as  great  indifferency  of  afiection  as  a history  doth  require,  and  with  the  plain  evidence  of truth," — this  right  rare  and  thrice  worthy  gentleman, as he  would  say  of  his  captain,  saw  strange  things  in California ;  that  is  to  say,  things  strange  to  those  who know California,  but  credible  enough  three  hundred years ago  to  those  who  were  never  nearer  to  the  spot than its  antipode. In July  of  1579,  the  pirate,  as  his preacher says,  was  met  by  peculiar  and  nipping  colds. The natives,  he  affirms,  "vsed  to  come  shivering  to vs  in  their  warme  furres,  crowding  close  together, body  to  body,  to  receiue  heate  one  of  another." Oh! "how vnhandsome  and  deformed  appeared  the  face  of the  earth  it  selfe ! "  Birds  dared  not  leave  their  nests after the  first  egg  was  laid  until  all  were  hatched; but nature  had  favored  these  poor  fowl,  so  that  they might not  die  in  the  operation. The causes  of  these phenomena he  next  explains  on  scientific  principles. Because Asia  and  America  are  here  so  near  together, and by  reason  of  the  high  mountains  and  the  like, "hence comes  the  generall  squalidnesse  and  barren- nesse  of  the  countrie;  hence  comes  it  that,  in  the middest  of  their  summer  the  snow  hardly  departeth euen  from  their  very  doores,  but  is  neuer  taken  away from  their  hils  at  all ;  hence  come  those  thicke  mists and  most  stinking  fogges." Inland the  country  was better. "Infinite was  the  company  of  very  large  and fat  Deere,  which  there  we  sawe  by  thousands  .  . , besides  a  multitude  of  a  strange  kind  of  Conies  .  .  . his  tayle  like  the  tayle  of  a  Rat." The savages  were exceedingly edified  by  the  words  of  the  preacher,  by his  psalm-singing,  and  his  reading  of  the  scriptures  ; so much  so,  that  when  the  gentle  pirates  took  their leave, "with  sighes  and  sorrowings,  with  heauy  hearts and  grieued  minds,  they  powred  out  wofuU  complaints