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The Drake Question (Preface);

How California Stole Oregon’s History BY

GARRY D. GITZEN Author of Francis Drake in Nehalem Bay 1579 (2011) & Treasure Rocks of Neahkahnie Mountain (2012)

(July - 2015) The material presented here is a draft Preface to the author’s upcoming book: The Drake Question, How California Stole Oregon’s History. Final editing has not been completed.

The November 2011 Department of the Interior National Landmark designation of The Drakes Bay Historic

and Archeological District, Point Reyes Station, California reads: “The site is directly associated with the

earliest documented cross-cultural encounter between California Indians and Europeans, leaving the most

complete material record on the West Coast. In addition, the site contains the earliest recorded shipwreck

on the West Coast of the United States, the Spanish San Agustin.” While the Drake in California theorists

eagerly continue to claim Francis Drake’s landing site to be a little sand-filled cove along Drakes Bay, the

Landmark designation wording was in fact purposefully written in duality as to what took place at Drakes

Bay by mentioning nothing of a Drake landing. Thereby, still leaving the question unresolved by

professional historians as to which bay Drake might have landed. New research now concludes that Drake

never set foot in what we call today - California. The new points of crucial evidence which have come to

light in setting aside any California bay landing has the putative theorists scrambling to restructure their

theories filled with even more conjecture. While these pundits strive to preserve the pulpit of media

exposure they’ve held for more than a 150 years, others have chosen to fall quietly by the wayside with

those who at one time believed the earth was the center of the universe. Most scholars would now agree

that the salient points of the historic mosaic in determining Drake’s landing site (though there are many

more) are:

1. The Drake Crewmember Revered Francis Fletcher’s The World Encompassed by Francis Drake

recorded the chronology of the voyage acknowledges Francis Drake plied the coast between 38° and 48°

North latitudes. 1 Another crewmember of the famous voyage was John Drake, the 19-20-year-old cousin to

Francis Drake, was reported to have spent a great deal of time in the Golden Hind’s cabin with Captain

Drake drawing maps of the shorelines which would be recognizable for any sailor who followed. During a

subsequent voyage John Drake was captured by the Spanish and gave two depositions to the Spanish

Inquisition concerning the circumnavigation voyage of Francis Drake a few years earlier. In his 1584

deposition and another in 1587 he stated they sailed as far north as 48° N. latitude. John Drake’s

depositions were not discovered until 1914 by anthropologist Zelia Nuttall in the Mexico archives. Her

discovery of the 48° elevation was 74 years after Drake’s sailing was held steadfast to the limit of a 42° N.

latitude which was offered as proof to the ownership of the Oregon Territory, during the age of Manifest

Destiny, by the United States.

1. The World Encompassed by Francis Drake, Francis Fletcher, Preacher, London, 1628. Page 62 states 42°, page 64 states 48°,

page 64 states 38°and 38° 30’ and page 67 states 48°.

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Even in the face of this new creditable information, all of the amateur California theorists continue to limit

their Drake landing site below 43° when the new research has shown that both of the influential men of

authority initially responsible for this limiting of Drake’s latitude in the early part of the 20th century were

politically influenced. In 1840, Robert Greenhow, the librarian for the US Department of State, was

assigned the initial task to show ownership of the Oregon Territory and US Assistant Surveyor, George

Davidson, in 1863 was responsible for putting the name “Drakes Bay” at 38° N. latitude on the map.

Additionally, the earliest first-hand description written shortly after Drake returned in 1580, the

“Anonymous Narrative” also states they were at 48° N. latitude. Those who are familiar with the Drake

voyage will ask - what about the 38° Fletcher described as the landing site and in the following paragraph of

his chronology he refers to the landing being at 38° 30 minutes.2

The answer can easily be explained by the map discovered by Zelia Nuttall known as the 1582 Nicholas

Van Sype map contains a cartouche notating “Seen and Corrected by Francis Drake”. There are dotted lines

running almost the entire length of North America at the 48° and 38° latitudes with a large lettering

inscription of Nova Albion (New England) along the Pacific Northwest location. Nuttall correctly realized

that Drake’s intension was to claim all lands of North America between the 38° and 48° N. latitudes.

Nothing in the Fletcher’s chronology mentions anything to do with the latitudes between 38 and 48°,

although descriptions of the landing site and the Indians he met have now conclusively been shown to be

of the Pacific Northwest; both Greenhow and Davidson admit to omitting any consideration of Native

descriptions.3

2. Ironically, Fletcher never uses the word “bay”, he uses harbored. The definition of a harbor is defined as being protected on

three sides; which Drakes Bay is not. Drakes Bay is a long crescent shaped section of beach open to the ocean running south of

Point Reyes. This is one of the reasons for Pt. Reyes first being theorized by George Davidson and later changing his choice to

San Francisco Bay.)

3. Greenhow, fn p 202 and Davidson said this about the ethnology: “Dealings with the natives are not necessary to the present

inquiry”, While George Davidson’s “Identification of Sir Francis Drake’s Anchorage on the Coast of California in the Year 1579”,

California Historical Society, (1890), page 34, wants us to believe: “There can be very little doubt that when the San Augustin was

stranded on the Farallones and wrecked [the Agustin was known by Davidson to have wrecked at Drakes Bay] her cargo landed in

the vicinity of Drake’s anchorage, in 1595, the captain, pilot and crew must have learned that Drake’s vessel had been there. [No

mention of Drake was mentioned by the Augustin crew] Only sixteen years had elapsed, and the incident was of too wonderful a

character to the uncivilized native to be soon forgotten. It was less than 24 years after Drake’s anchoring that Vizcaino sought

refuge under the eastern point of Point Reyes, and his chief pilot Balanos [Augustin crewmember], who had been with [Captain

Sebastion] Cermeno, recognized the locality. From the respect paid by the Indians to Drake, it is more than probable that at the

time of these later visits the post set up by Drake when he took possession still existed. But as his name was heartily execrated

by the Spanish, they may well have destroyed all vestiges of his visit with pardonable satisfaction…”

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If Fletcher had mentioned the actual landing site at Nehalem Bay (45° 41 minutes) or Neahkahnie

Mountain’s proof of his landing (45° 44 minutes), his intent was a claim to all previously unclaimed

Christian, primarily Spain and Portugal, lands between 38 and 48° latitude. The 38° determination for the

southern limit to Drake’s land claim was from his captured Spanish maps. All Spanish Galleon maps

returning from the Philippines reflected the 1542-3 Spaniards Cabrillo/Ferrelo voyage up the Pacific coast. 4

The standard sailing instructions was to sight the North American coast near 38° and then sail south to their

final destination of Acapulco.5 Helen Wallis, Keeper of the Maps, at the British Library research determined

the Fletcher chronology of the 38° 30 minute location was added sometime after the 1603 voyage of the

Spaniard Vizcaino who reportedly researched 38° 31 minutes in his search for the 1595 shipwreck of the

San Agustin at Drakes Bay.6

2. In 1840, Robert Greenhow, Librarian of the U.S. Department of State was assigned to determine the

ownership of the Oregon Territory. His official report said the Oregon Territory lands from 49° parallel

down to Spain’s Alta California border at 42° N. latitude were owned by United States.7 Greenhow’s

partisan assessment was that neither Francis Drake nor any of the other early explorers ever sailed above

the 43nd parallel. At the time, the ownership to the Oregon Territory was in dispute with the Hudson Bay

Company’s claim until a treaty relinquishing their claim was ratified in 1846 and signed in 1848. The treaty

ratification was instrumental of the influx of settlers along the Oregon Trail.

3. In 1850, George Davidson, Assistant U.S. Surveyor, began the first Pacific Coast U.S. Geodesic Survey.

In his report of 1886 “An Examination of Some of the Early Voyages of Discovery and Exploration on the

Northwest Coast of America, From 1539-1603” he agreed with Greenhow’s Department of State report by

saying that in 1579 Francis Drake never sailed further than 43° N. latitude along the Pacific coast. It was

Davidson’s undertaking not to rock the geopolitical boat by claiming Drake never sailed past 43° N. latitude

when Greenhow’s 1840 report Memoirs, Historical and Political, on the Northwest Coast of North America,

and the Adjacent Territories to the Congressional Oregon Territory Committee which said the ownership of

4. Wright, Ione Stuessy, Early Spanish Voyages from America to the Far East, 1527-1565, “Greater America Essays in Honor of

Herbert Eugene Bolton”, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angles, 1945, pp. 56 78). All of the essays were former

students of Professor Bolton at Berkeley. Ione Wright received her Ph.D. in 1940.

5. Scholars agree that neither Ferrelo, who took over after Cabrillo died, nor Cabrillo landed above 36° N. latitude, though most

researchers believe they sailed as far north as 42° near the California and Oregon border.

6. Wallis, Helen, The Voyage of Sir Francis Drake Mapped in Silver and Gold, By Keeper of Maps, The British Library, Published by

The Friends of the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1979.

7. Greenhow, Robert, Memoir, Historical and Political, on the Northwest Coast of North America and the Adjacent Territories,

Translator and Librarian to the Department of State, Submitted by Mr. Linn, from the Select Committee on the Oregon Territory;

and ordered to be printed, and that 2,500 additional copies be sent to the Senate, Blair and Rivers Printers, Washington, 1840.

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the Oregon Territory was from 49° N. latitude to 42° N. latitude.8 Davidson became influential and

successful beginning with his publication of the “Coast Pilot” which was primarily designed as a practical

guide to mariners whose ships sailed along the Pacific coast from Mexico to Canada. The acquiring of

California by the United States in 1846, the same year Davidson was hired, is what created the need to

have a survey of the entire US coast. He was employed as a U.S. surveyor until 1895.9 In his intervening

years he was appointed in 1870 Honorary Professor of Geodesy and Astronomy at the University of

California at Berkeley; traveled around the world representing the U.S. on irrigation, precision instruments

in geodesy and astronomy, was one of the founders of the Geographical Society, measured numerous

variations of latitudes, was in involved with the James Lick world’s largest telescope, appointed a full

Professorship of Geography at the University of California in 1898 and continued to receive numerous

awards and honoree degrees. Davidson, although a very capable surveyor, said that when the time came to

identify the harbor where Drake landed, which was notated by Fletcher’s 38°, Davidson named the crescent

shaped shoreline at 38° N/ latitude - “Drakes Bay”. It was Davidson who placed the name of Drakes Bay on

U.S. maps. Not because it looked anything like the 1589 map of the Dutchman Jodocus Hondius’ map of

the world, Vera Totius Expeditionis Nauticae representing the bay which Drake spent the 5 weeks in the

summer or 1579 but because Davidson said it was at the 38° latitude. In Davidson’s 1890 publication

Francis Drake on the Northwest Coast of America in the Year 1579 he wrote: “Long before I gathered all this

information… I saw the great circumnavigator anchored in Drake’s Bay. “

Today, the reasons are obviously geopolitical as to why and how Greenhow and Davidson manufactured

their 19th century theories on limiting Drake below the 42-43° N. latitude while the contemporary first hand

descriptions declare a 48° northern limit. In order to establish the U.S. claim of ownership of the Oregon

Territory, Greenhow’s report ignored crewmember Francis Fletcher’s World Encompassed 48°, 2

depositions of crewmember John Drake and the Anonymous Narrative. As a State Department employee,

Greenhow’s charter was to establish an argument of ownership of the Oregon Territory. His reasoning for

ignoring the first-hand descriptions with the nebulous statement: “There is no absolute evidence that

Drake did not discover the northwest American coast as far north as the 48th parallel; but, on the other

hand, the assertion that he did is not supported by adequate testimony, and where originally made, it is

accompanied by statements irreconcilable with the results experienced.”10

8. Davidson, George, United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Appendix No. 7 – Report for 1886, “An Examination of Some of

the Early Voyages of Discovery and Exploration on the Northwest Coast of America, From 1539-1603”, Page 156. He said: “Of

the voyage by Drake, I have collated from the “English Hero”, and the “World Encompassed, with reference to the Portus Novae

Albionis in the margin of Hondius’ map; and to this map I have reduced the Coast Survey chart of the vicinity of Drake’s Bay to

correspond in scale and in orientation, whereby I have identified his bay.”

9. Lewis, Oscar, George Davidson, Pioneer West Coast Scientist, University of California Press Berkeley, 1954.

10. Greenhow, p 204.

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4. The Plate of Brass Francis Drake erected, before leaving his Pacific coast landing site, to claim the

land for England and the Queen.11 Although the authentic plate of brass has yet to be found, in 1936 a

bogus plate was produced in Northern California. The plate was mistakenly believed authentic for forty

years by many of the most influential anthropologists, archaeologists and historians who put forth many

misguided theories; believed by the public as factual.

Why historians have resorted to theory when discussing the location of Drake’s site is, the voyage was to

be kept secret and carried a decree by the Queen of “Under Pain of Death” for releasing any information

concerning the route sailed or location of the lands Drake claimed for England. Whether Fletcher states the

harbor was at 38° or 38° 30 min., none of the theorizes surrounding the California bays or harbors are able

to hold up against any of the other comparisons Fletcher described pertaining to the landing site or Indians

met by Drake. Other than Fletcher stating that they were specifically at 48° and specifically at 38°, Fletcher

mentions nothing connected with the voyage between the latitudes of 38 and 48°.12 The California theories

cannot match up against the preponderance of contemporary 16th century ethnographic, topology, and

geography evidence amassed in favor of the Nehalem Bay. The Nehalem Bay comparisons with Fletcher’s

descriptions will be presented as well as the most important archaeological evidence ever found which

points to Drake having made a land survey on Neahkahnie Mountain by leaving numerous incised rock

markers and cairns as evidence. Nehalem Bay is where Francis Drake landed for 5 weeks in the summer

1579 to repair his treasure laden ship Golden Hind.

11. Fletcher, Reverend Francis, The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake. London, 1628, p 80. The Anonymous Narrative of

1584 states that a plate of “lead” was used and not a plate of brass. Lead was used for various ship repairs and would have been

the metal of choice for any plaques.

12. It appears Fletcher is the originator of the word Nehalem, a biblical term for the children of the following angels Naholum.

Local lore has previously believed that “Ne” is based on the Salish Language which means a place; reason for Tillamook county

Salish Indian names of Neahkahnie, Netarts, and Nestucca. However, there are many more names without the “Ne” and if it was

Salish then there should be many more Ne prefixes. Those Tillamook county locations with the Ne prefixes are within the

geographical area that could have conceivably had contact with the Drake party of 1579.

Timeline

1542-3 Spanish voyage of Cabrillo/Ferelo reaches 42-43° N. latitude but does not

land.

1579 - June First European. Englishman Drake, to come in contact at Nehalem Bay, OR at

45° 41’ N. latitude.

1595 - November First European, Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeno’s San Augustin shipwreck, to

come in contact at Drakes Bay, CA 38° N. latitude.

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1775 San Carlos becomes the first Europeans to sail into the San Francisco Bay

37° 56’ N. latitude.

1840 Robert Greenhow’s U.S State Department report Memoir, Historical and

Political, on the Northwest Coast of North America limiting Drake to 43° North

latitude.

1846 The Oregon Territory Treaty between Great Britain and U.S. is ratified.

1850 The first Pacific Coast U.S. Geodetic Survey is started.

1858 George Davidson, Assistant U.S. Geodetic Surveyor, identifies San Francisco

Bay as Drake’s landing site.

1889 George Davidson, former Asst. U.S. Geological Surveyor, identifies eastern

promontory of Point Reyes Head as a Drake landing site.

1894 The 57 foot Prayer Book Cross erected in Golden Gate Park as a memorial of

the service held on the shore of Drake’s bay on Saint John Baptist’s Day,

June 24, Anno Domini 1579

1918 Sir Francis Drake Association of California is formed.

1936 Plate of Brass is found near San Francisco Bay

1949 Drake Navigators Guild of California is formed.

1954 Governor Goodwin J. Knight by Executive Proclamation proclaims, “June 17,

1953, as in California” and claims “plate of brass as one of the treasures of

California history,” while thanking the Navigators Guild for their research and

education.

1971 Key moment to reclaiming Oregon’s Stolen History occurred when M. Wayne

Jensen, Jr., an anthropology student and Donald Viles, a former commercial

fisherman, followed the clues to the incised stone markers and cairns

arranged in a pattern over the face of Neahkahnie Mountain, Oregon and

theorized the markers were the remains of a land survey made by Francis

Drake.

1973 – September 17 State of California establishes the Sir Francis Drake Commission to promote

Drake in California each year from 1975-1980.

1973 - April First denial of an official registration landmark in naming a Drake

landing site.

1974 Guild travels to Cape Arago to initiate Drake landing story.

1975 Drake Navigators Guild dedicates plaque at Coos Bay Visitor Center to Drake

anchoring at Cape Arago, Oregon.

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1977- July Bancroft Library determines Plate of Brass a fake and an academic practical

joke hoax.

1977- August Bronze plaque initiated by the Drake Navigators Guild dedicated by the

Oregon Historical Society and Oregon State Parks in commemoration of a

Francis Drake anchorage at Cape Arago’s South Cove.

1978 - October California Historical Resources Commission denied registration of an

official State of California Drake landmark for the 2nd time.

1979 - March Third denial for an official registration of a landing site.

1979 - June Sir Francis Drake & the Famous Voyage 1577-1580, an International

Conference honoring the 400th Anniversary of Drake’s Sojourn in California.

Two brass plaques dedicated to Drake at Drakes Bay and Golden Gate

sponsored by Sir Francis Drake Commission State of California.

1982 Reclaiming Oregon’s history with North America's Hidden Legacy at Neah-

Kah-Nie Mountain 1579, by Don M. Viles, published by Hidden Heritage

Series.

2008 Reclaiming Oregon’s history with Francis Drake in Nehalem Bay 1579, Setting

the Historical Record Straight, by Garry Gitzen, Isnik Publishing.

2011 - November National Park Service wrongly designates Drakes Bay a National Landmark in

recognition of the “first Englishman” to come in contact.

Garry Gitzen

Wheeler, Oregon 2015

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