intelligible to every human heart; and they were so delighted that at
every pause they testified their pleasure.
[Illustration: A Bit of Rocky Shore.]
The business of repairing and refitting the vessel being at length
finished, the cargo re-embarked and the peaceful character of the
Indians being now so well understood that no trouble from them was
apprehended, Drake, with a number of his crew made a short excursion
inland, which being necessarily made on foot extended but a few miles,
and did not afford any wide or distant view; and the English, like the
Spaniards under Cabrillo, though within less than a day's travel of
the most spacious and magnificent bay in the world, had no idea of its
existence.
[Illustration: Marin Cows.]
When ready to sail, Drake erected, by way of monument and memorial of
his having been there and taken possession of the country, a large
post, firmly planted, upon which he caused to be nailed a plate of
brass engraven with the name of the English Queen, the day and date
of his arrival, the voluntary submission of the inhabitants to English
sovereignty, and beneath all, his own name. Fastened to the plate was
an English sixpence of recent coinage, so placed as to exhibit Her
Majesty's likeness.
All of which goes to prove that Drake supposed himself to be the
discoverer of this region, and was not aware that thirty-six years
previously the Spaniards had passed the same Coast and anticipated him.
Having found no northern passage to the Atlantic, and making up his
mind that if one existed it was too far north to be practical, Drake
returned by the route pointed out by Magellan in his circumnavigation
of the globe.
On July 23d, after many ceremonies of a religious character, and
taking an appropriate farewell of the sorrowful natives, he stood out
to sea. As his ship lessened in the distance, following the sun over
the trackless waste of waters, the Indians ran to the tops of their
hills to keep it in view as long as possible, and lighted fires, which
indicated, long after they themselves could be distinguished from the
vessel, that they were still watchful, and doubtless turning their
straining eyes toward the departing strangers.
[Illustration: Drake's Cross.]
The waves of three centuries have lapped these shores; countless storms
have swept over the promontories, and many tempests have grappled with
its cliffs since the year when Sir Francis first dropped anchor in the
Bay which ultimately bore his name.
Time has made few changes in this Ocean inlet, as man has practically
shunned it; for excepting a small cabin on the beach, no habitation
meets the eye. The schooner which touches there three times a week
to load with butter is the only keel that rides its waves, and the
aspect of the lofty white cliffs which encircle this Bay of Solitude
are unaltered since the time when, attracting the English navigator to
their shores, they received, because of their resemblance to his native
cliffs of Dover, the appellation New Albion.
It seems unjust and absurd that on the shores of this Bay, which was
the theater of Drake's actions in our State, no post, stone or monument
is placed whereon to commemorate his landing, or inform the traveler of
the history enacted there; while in Golden Gate Park on a mound which
his eyes never saw, on soil which his feet never trod, a lofty granite
cross rears its solid strength in his commemoration; an illustration of
the inconsistencies of man.
[Illustration: A Rugged Coast Line.]
[Illustration: Point Reyes.]
Point Reyes should be called the home of the meadowlark for, while
found in other parts of the County, it is on this northern point that
the larks congregate in such numbers that the air is always vibrant
with their cheerful, happy songs.
Perched on the lichen-covered fences, these large, plump,
yellow-breasted fellows are invariably heard warbling their rich,
mellow notes with untiring energy, and making, to my mind, the sweetest
and most enchanting of all music.
There is perhaps no more dangerous and uninviting extent of coast line
from Oregon to Mexico than that extending from Point Reyes northward to
the mouth of Tomales Bay.
To go ashore at any point along this line is to go to certain
destruction, and the fact of its proximity to the harbor of San
Francisco renders it doubly dangerous, as vessels have gone hard ashore
under full sail, little dreaming that danger was near and thinking that
they were heading for the Golden Gate.
Since the establishment, on the extreme point, of the lighthouse in
1870, there have been few wrecks compared with former years, while
those imperiled on the Coast receive assistance from the brave crew of
the life-saving station located on the beach.
[Illustration: Point Reyes Life-Saving Station.]
Near the close of a very murky, foggy day, in August, 1875, a sailing
vessel, the Warrior Queen, bound from Auckland, New Zealand, to San
Francisco, went ashore on the beach, about three miles north of the
Point.
The sky had been so overcast with fog that her officers had not been
able to take any observations for ten days and their "dead-reckoning"
showed them to be many miles at sea.
Suddenly they found themselves in the breakers going ashore on a sand
beach and by immediately casting anchor, the vessel was held from going
hard ashore, although she was later driven far upon the beach.
The men embarked in three boats and put to sea rather than try to
effect a landing in the surf, and reached San Francisco safely the
following day.
[Illustration: Plowing in October.]
When the Warrior Queen was discovered by the settlers the next morning
after she struck, there was consequently no sign of life on board,
and it became a matter of conjecture to those who had assembled on the
beach as to what had become of the crew.
It was decided to go on board and discover, if possible, something to
show the fate of the men, but the difficulty which confronted them was
how to communicate with the ship.
[Illustration: "The Warrior Queen."]
At last, Mr. Henry Claussen, a sea-faring man of much experience (who
still lives with his family on the Point), volunteered to swim out to
the vessel and take a line on board with him. He performed the daring
feat and was rewarded by finding that all books and instruments were
gone, hence he knew that the men had put to sea.
On a ranch but a short distance from the light-house the only known
relic of the wreck remains. This is none other than the Warrior Queen
herself-the figure-head of the vessel. Clad in a suit of mail, a shield
clenched tightly to her side, with head upraised in proud defiance, the
Warrior Queen seems still to send a challenge to the elements; but now
her battle is for life itself--against rain and wind and the decay of
time.
[Illustration: The Lighthouse.]
While prolific in legends and memories, history is not the only
vivifying current in Marin, and though linked inseparably with the
past, she is not a worn and decrepit matron relying on artifice solely
to revive her charms, but a young and vigorous maiden, in whom the
ambitions, powers, and possibilities are all centered but untried.
[Illustration: Cloud-Hosts.]
That a new era is awakening for this region is without doubt. Large
tracts of land formerly held intact are now being divided into building
lots, and the rapidity with which these are selling portends a rapidly
increasing population.
Various railroads are contending for rights of way, and countless
rumors are in circulation, any of which means a changed aspect for the
County.
[Illustration: Where the Waves Break.]
The Marin Terminal is constructing a route from Petaluma to Point San
Pedro, and two railroad companies have filed articles of incorporation
for the avowed purpose of making some points on Marin's shore the land
terminus for railroads from San Francisco to points in the northern
part of the State.
The recent purchase of Silva Island, in Richardson's Bay, by the
officials of the Western Pacific gives credence to a rumor that, a long
wharf being constructed from this Island, the company would institute
a terminus there.
The facilities which this County offers for a railroad center are
undeniable; while the monopolistic control of the surrounding Bay
terminals renders another railroad outlet a practical necessity, and
its adjacency to San Francisco and the excellent harbors which skirt
its shores make Marin a natural and practical center.
[Illustration: The Glory of the Dying Day.]
Without doubt the ensuing years will witness many radical changes for
this northern peninsula.
With the increase in population there is every probability that a
connection from Point San Pedro across to the Belt Line on the Contra
Costa shore will be consummated, linking the Bay counties by a boat
ride of scarce fifteen minutes.
The new coaling station which the Government will erect at California
City, a small place near Tiburon, is another enterprise in the County,
which will call for the expenditure of more than three hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. It is said that the Bureau of Equipment of the
Navy Department has already signed with a New York firm to begin on
this.
Having reached the limits of Marin's enterprises, and territory, Point
Reyes, from which westward stretches an apparent infinitude of sea,
to where the sun, now dipping on the verge of the horizon, casts its
refulgent beams, I gazed backward on Marin which lay behind me glowing
in the glory of the dying day.
The indented shore, on whose cliffs nature has hung no tapestry of
verdure, now enshrouded in the lambent haze, no longer looked as if
composed of material objects, but rather like its luminous wraith
emerging from the sea. And as the mists of evening veiled it gradually
from my view I murmured:
"There is a future as well as a past for this little County, a future
not painted in the dim tints of the fading day, but in the bright,
glorious radiance of the expectant morrow."
[Illustration]