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eBook Category: Alternate History
eBook Description: Drake's round-the-world-voyage in 1578 threatens to have an unexpected effect on the history of California.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Amazing, 1992
Fictionwise Release Date: January 2001

52 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [112 KB], eReader (PDB) [41 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [29 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [28 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [45 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [97 KB], hiebook (KML) [96 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [54 KB], iSilo (PDB) [24 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [31 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [58 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [44 KB]
Words: 9171
Reading time: 26-36 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

The Inland Sea, 1776

Little Gull saw the men before I did.

A fine, early summer day, I remember, two days after we returned from the shores of Great Sea, where we celebrate the coming of First Captain in the Big Canoes, swooping out of the setting sun. I was gathering duck eggs when my brother cam running to me, panting hard with excitement, abalone beads bouncing around his neck, berry basket bouncing on his back, spilling its purple fruit along the path. Five summers is not so many that a boy should remember berries and forget exciting news.

My pulse raced and I was filled with sudden hope. In spring, I had met a young man here, not Miwok but yet one of The People. His name was White Cloud. We walked together beside the irrigation ditch, and he was full of questions. Why did our canoes have sails? Why did we bother to plant crops? Why were our fields so square and neat, each with its own hedge separating it from its neighbor? How did the windmills fill the ditch with water? I laughed at his childlike ignorance. The tribes farther south on the shores of Great Sea were not as rich and wise as we, but he did not even know a well when he saw one! Yet I thought him the most beautiful man I had ever seen. My heart shivered when he touched my hand. Some day, he promised, he would come back to claim me. I believed him utterly, as only those who love believe. In that blustery spring weather, I knew White Cloud was my destiny.