5^ DISCOVERIES OF 1524. 



enterprize, that some of the ablest, the most learned, 

 and most respectable men of the times, not only 

 lent their countenance and support to expeditions 

 fitted out for the discovery of new lands, but 

 strove eagerly, in their own persons, to share in the 

 glory and the danger of every daring adventure. 



In point of time, however, there is one solitary 

 voyage on record, though the particulars of it are 

 so little known as almost to induce a suspicion 

 whether any such voyage was ever performed, 

 which takes precedence of any foreign voyage on 

 the part of English navigators ; it is that of a 

 Spaniard, or rather perhaps, judging from the name, 

 of a Portugueze, for the discovery of a northern 

 passage to the Moluccas ; and still more probably a 

 Portugueze, from the circumstance of his having 

 accompanied Magelhanes on his voyage into the 

 south seas round the southern extremity of the 

 continent of America. The following vague ac- 

 count is all that can now be collected of Esteyan 

 or Steven Gomez. 



ESTEVAN GOMEZ. 1524. 



The attempts which had been made by John 

 and Sebastian Cabota on the part of England, by 

 Cortereal on that of Portup-al, and by Aubert or 

 Hubert, who was sent out by the French, to pro- 

 secute discoveries in the north, very naturally 

 alarmed the jealousy of the Spaniards, who, on 



