AMERICAN AND ENGLISH ADVENTURERS ON THE WEST COAST OF AMERICA--FRANCIS DRAKE IN CALIFORNIA--COOK, FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA TO ALASKA--LEDYARD, THE FORERUNNER OF LEWIS AND CLARK--GRAY, THE DISCOVERER OF THE COLUMBIA--VANCOUVER, THE LAST OF THE WEST COAST NAVIGATORS {133} CHAPTER VI 1562-1595 FRANCIS DRAKE IN CALIFORNIA How the Sea Rover was attacked and ruined as a Boy on the Spanish Main off Mexico--His Revenge in sacking Spanish Treasure Houses and crossing Panama--The Richest Man in England, he sails to the Forbidden Sea, scuttles all the Spanish Ports up the West Coast of South America and takes Possession of New Albion (California) for England If a region were discovered where gold was valued less than cartloads of clay, and ropes of pearls could be obtained in barter for strings of glass beads, the modern mind would have some idea of the frenzy that prevailed in Spain after the discovery of America by Columbus. Native temples were found in Chile, in Peru, in Central America, in Mexico, where gold literally lined the walls, silver paved the floors, and handfuls of pearls were as thoughtlessly thrown in the laps of the conquerors as shells might be tossed at a modern clam-bake. Within half a century from the time Spain first learned of America, Cortes not only penetrated Mexico, but sent his corsairs up the west coast of the {134} continent. Pizarro conquered Peru. Spanish ships plied a trade rich beyond dreams of avarice between the gold realms of Peru and the spice islands of the Philippines. The chivalry of the Spanish nobility suddenly became a chivalry of the high seas. Religious zeal burned to a flame against those gold-lined pagan temples. It was easy to believe that the transfer of wedges of pure gold from heathen hands to Spain was a veritable despoiling of the devil's treasure boxes, glorious in the sight of God. The trackless sea became the path to fortune. Balboa had deeper motives than loyalty, when, in 1513, on his march across Panama and discovery of the Pacific, he rushed mid-deep into the water, shouting out in swelling words that he took possession of earth, air, and water for Spain "for all time, past, present, or to come, without contradiction, . . . north and south, with all the seas from the Pole Arctic to the Pole Antarctic, . . . both now, and as long as the world endures, until the final day of judgment." [1]