1673 Engraving of Francis Drake Receiving a Feather Crown in New Albion
DESCRIPTION
An engraved scene of Francis Drake receiving a feather crown in New Albion appears in this excerpted leaf from the California chapter of the 1673 German edition of Arnoldus Montanus's account of the Americas.
In the center of the scene, a man in a tall feathered headdress, seen from behind in mid-step, sets a towering crown of feathers on the head of a European (presumably Francis Drake) in a long buttoned coat who stands with his hands on his hips. At left, a crowd kneels and sits on the ground, some with arms flung upward and others clutching at their faces. Behind them, a few Europeans gather around a tall post hung with a square board bearing two coats of arms on either side of a round disc. At right, ranks of soldiers with muskets and pikes stand beneath a banner, while a long column of spearmen winds down a hill at far left past a cluster of huts.
The scene appears to show Francis Drake's reception in 1579 on the coast the text names New Albion, during his voyage around the world. The reverse tells how Drake, driven back by the bitter cold beyond the forty-second degree, anchored in a good harbor where the people lived along the shore. On their second visit, the men laid down their bows and brought gifts to Drake's tents while the women stayed on the hill above and tore at their cheeks so wildly that Drake took it for a sacrifice and knelt with his men to pray. Their king then arrived with more than twelve thousand followers, led by a man carrying a scepter hung with a large and a small crown of plaited feathers. After long speeches and dancing until all were out of breath, the king is said to have asked Drake to accept his kingdom and set the crown on his head which the Englishman accepted in the name of Queen Elizabeth. The text below tells how before sailing Drake had a stout post driven into the ground and nailed to it a square silver plate bearing the date of his arrival and the name and arms of the queen, along with a half shilling bearing her portrait. Inland, the English are said to have found deer by the thousands and thickets full of conies with feet like moles, tails like rats, and a pouch at each side for storing food. The text explains the name New Albion either by the white cliffs against which the sea broke or by England's ancient name of Albion, and claims that no Spaniard had ever explored California so far north. It then turns to what it calls the mighty island of California, stretching five hundred miles from Cape San Lucas to Cape Mendocino.
Arnoldus Montanus (ca. 1625–1683), a Dutch minister and schoolmaster, compiled De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld from earlier chronicles and travel accounts without ever crossing the Atlantic. The Amsterdam publisher Jacob van Meurs issued it in 1671 with a wealth of engravings. John Ogilby's English adaptation followed the same year, and Die Unbekante Neue Welt, the German edition attributed to Olfert Dapper, followed in 1673. Its illustrations were drawn by artists who had mostly never seen the Americas either. They mix reported detail with European invention, and they shaped how a generation of European readers pictured the New World.
CONDITION
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