SPANISH SEAMEN IN THE NEW WORLD 649 



There was some trade on the Pacific from the earliest days of 

 the conquest, between Mexico and Peru, but it was restricted to 

 an annual galleon, and during some periods, prohibited altogether. 

 The annual supply ships from San Bias to Alta California were 

 not for commercial purposes. Both routes were insignificant in 

 comparison to the Manila-Acapulco line. 



The voyage to Manila ordinarily required from seventy-five 

 to ninety days, but the return to Acapulco usually took from 

 seven to nine months, owing to the necessity of sailing northward 

 beyond the belt of trade winds into the westerlies. 91 America 

 was approached in the latitude of Cape Mendocino; then the 

 galleons turned southward, and sailed along the California coast 

 down to Acapulco. By a renowned traveler who made the 

 voyage to Mexico in 1697, it was characterized as 



the longest, and most dreadful of any in the world; as well because of 

 the vast ocean to be cross'd, being almost the one half of the terraque- 

 ous globe, with the wind always a-head; as for the terrible tempests 

 that happen there, one upon the back of another, and for the desperate 

 diseases that seize people, in seven or eight months lying at sea, some 

 times near the line, sometimes cold, sometimes temperate, and some- 

 times hot, which is enough to destroy a man of steel, much more flesh 

 and blood, which at sea had but indifferent food. 92 



The crews which manned the galleons were composed chiefly 

 of Spaniards and Filipinos (Indians, as they were called). The 

 Spaniards were the sailors, or mariners, corresponding to what 

 we know as able seamen. The Indians were rated as common 

 seamen, corresponding to a lower rating such as our ordinary 

 seamen. Spaniards, too, sometimes sailed as common seamen, 

 but their wage was very much higher than Indian seamen of the 

 same rating. 93 The difference in wage, however, was not based 

 upon difference of ability, for the seamanship of the natives was 



91 Ibid., Blair and Robertson, I. 65. 



92 Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Cared, A voyage round the world. Translation 

 in Churchill, supra, IV . 1-658. See p . 453 . 



93 Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, Reformacion de suelos y raciones, 

 September 4, 1635. Translation in Blair and Robertson, XXVI. 198-215. See 

 p. 206. 



