Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/112

 86 THE TOURIST'S CALIFORNIA greet more of the friendly natives. Continues the log : " While wintering in this Isla de Posesion (now the Island of San Miguel) on the third of January, 1543, departed from this present life Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo . . . from a fall which he had on the same island ... by which he broke an arm near the shoulder." His body was prob- ably buried on the sand-swept island at what is known as Cuyler's Harbour. Little thought Cabrillo that of the new land brought by him under the Spanish flag, his dust was to become a part! It is a lamentable com- mentary upon California's loyalty that his deeds are but sparsely commemorated. Only San Diego of all the State celebrates officially the date of his arrival in her bay, September 28, 1542. The discoverer's companions continued to ex- plore the coast as far north as the present bound- ary between California and Oregon before re- turning to Mexico. A generation later came the Golden Hind bearing Sir Francis Drake, and scoured these waters for Spanish galleons laden with treasure. Off Point Reyes, north of San Francisco, he anchored. The chalk cliffs reminded him of Britain, and forty- one years before that other New England was named by the Pilgrims, the intrepid pirate-warrior called this western land Nouva Albion. Though he took possession of it for Queen Elizabeth, she