Sir Francis Drake declared English sovereignty over the area of SF bay in 1579 and named it New Albion (New Britain, from Albion, the old Greek name for Britain).
Arrived in? Sure, mostly sailing around the coast and transitory land expeditions. So did the British in North America, on both coasts.
But as for establishing any kind of durable colonies (e.g., “California” as more than a name on a map), that came later, and well after British colonies like Virginia were established, especially in the case of Alta California.
The idea that California was some kind of established European colony earlier than British colonization of North America is what I was taking issue with.
the original post said
> pre-dates the existence of the US and British colonialism
Which is honestly not false, settlements in California formed about one century before the US independence.
Anyway, there were people living in what we call California today long before the Spanish arrived there...
Alta California was first colonized in 1769, not long before a bunch of British colonies on the other side of the continent that had been settled for quite a while broke off to form the USA; Baja was colonized from 1683. Neither predates British colonization of North America, and the colonization of Alta California only barely predates US independence.