Dolphins raced the ship, herd upon herd, their silver-white bodies
aglisten in the sun. Schools of spermaceti-whales to the number of
twenty at a time gambolled lazily around the prow. Stormy petrels,
{218} flying-fish, sea-lions, began to be seen as the boat passed north
of the seas bordering New Spain. Gentle winds and clear sunlight
favored the ship all June. The long, hard voyage began to be a summer
holiday on warm, silver seas. The _Lady Washington_ headed inland, or
where land should be, where Francis Drake two centuries before had
reported that he had found New Albion. On August 2, somewhere near
what is now Cape Mendocino, daylight revealed a rim of green forested
hills above the silver sea. It was New Albion, north of New Spain, the
strip of coast they had come round the world to find. Birds in myriads
on myriads screamed the joy that the crew felt over their find; but a
frothy ripple told of reefs; and the _Lady Washington_ coasted parallel
with the shore-line northward. On August 4, while the surf still broke
with too great violence for a landing, a tiny speck was seen dancing
over the waves like a bird.
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