15£4. ESTEVAN GOMEZ. 53 



account of their rich and valuable possessions in 

 the east, were the most interested in confining the 

 way to them to that, which should be as intricate and 

 difficult as possible. The two grand routes to those 

 possessions, which the two Portugueze, Vasco de 

 Gama and Magelhanes, had succeeded in disco ver- 

 ins;, were, it is true, both long and tedious, and, in 

 those early periods of navigation, not altogether free 

 from danger. That circumstance alone might not, 

 therefore, have been sufficient to excite investigation 

 on the part of Spain, if she had not witnessed other 

 nations attempting to discover a shorter way to 

 China and the Indies by the north. It would have 

 argued the extreme of indifference, if the nation 

 most interested in the speedy intercourse with the 

 Avealthy countries of the east should have heen the 

 most backward in profiting by those discoveries 

 already made, and which augured such happy 

 results. Accordingly we find that in the year 

 1524, Estevan Gomez, a supposed skilful navigator, 

 employed on the part of Spain, sailed from Corunna 

 with a view of discovering a northern passage to 

 the Molucca islands from tlie Atlantic. This 

 Gomez, as before mentioned, had sailed with 

 IVIagelhanes on his voyage of discovery into the 

 south seas. He was therefore personally acquainted 

 with the difficulties and delays of a passage by 

 that route, and capable of estimating the compa- 

 rative advantages of one round the nortliern ex- 

 tremity of America. But to what part of the coast 



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