All This Time The Native Women Remained On The Top Of The Hill, Where They Seemed As If Possessed, Tearing Their Hair, And Howling In A Most Savage Manner.

This is the ordinary music of their sacrifices, something of that nature being then solemnizing.

While the women above were thus serving the devil, the men below were better employed, in listening attentively to divine service, then performing in the admiral's tent These circumstances, though trivial in themselves, are important in ascertaining the first discovery of California by the English.

News of the arrival of the English having spread about the country, two ambassadors came to the admiral, to inform him that the king was coming to wait upon him, and desired to have a token of peace, and assurance of safe conduct. This being given to their satisfaction, the whole train began to move towards the admiral, in good order, and with a graceful deportment. In front came a very comely person, bearing the sceptre before the king, on which hung two crowns, and two chains of great length. The crowns were made of net-work, ingeniously interwoven with feathers of many colours, and the chains were made of bones. Next to the sceptre-bearer came the king, a very comely personage, shewing an air of majesty in all. This deportment, surrounded by a guard of tall martial-looking men, all clad in skins. Then followed the common people, who, to make the finer appearance, had painted their faces, some black, and some of other colours. All of them had their arms full of presents, even the children not excepted.

The admiral drew up all his men in line of battle, and stood ready to receive them within his fortifications. At some distance from him, the whole train of natives made a halt, all preserving the most profound silence, except the sceptre-bearer, who made a speech of half an hour. He then, from an orator, became a dancing-master, and struck up a song, being joined in both by the king, lords, and common people, who came all singing and dancing up to the fences which the admiral had thrown up. The natives then all sat down; and, after some preliminary compliments, the king made a solemn offer of his whole kingdom and its dependencies to the admiral, desiring him to assume the sovereignty, and professing himself his most loyal subject; and, that this might not seem mere empty compliment, he took off his illustrious crown of feathers from his own head, with the consent and approbation of all his nobles there present, and placing it on the head of the admiral, invested him with all the other ensigns of royalty, constituting the admiral, as far as in him lay, king of the whole country. The admiral, as her majesty's representative, accepted of this new-offered dignity in her name and behalf; as from this donation, whether made in jest or earnest, it was probable that some real advantage might redound hereafter to the English nation in these parts.

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