PORTUGUESE AND SPANIARDS 77 



would bring to light many islands rich in gold, pearls, pre- 

 cious stones and spices, together with many other unknown 

 and choice productions ; and the same has been affirmed 

 by persons versed in learning and skilled in cosmography." 



He made ports on the Pacific coast of Mexico, built ships, and of the 

 and sent them to explore, to conquer and to settle. " It 

 will be the greatest achievement," he wrote, " and the one 

 that will redound more to the service of Your Majesty than 

 anything since the discovery of the Indies." " To these 

 ships I attach an importance I cannot express ; for I 

 consider it certain that by means of them Your Majesty will 

 become lord of more realms and states than there exists 

 any knowledge of, and I believe nothing will be wanting 

 to make Your Majesty monarch of the world." 



In 1527 Saavedra sailed West from Mexico ; Saavedra, the Saavedra's 

 man after Cortes's own heart, who had planned a Panama ^helflce 

 Canal, so that the Spaniards might sail on a straight line Islands, 

 from the Canaries to the Moluccas. He was commissioned I527- 

 to succour a Spanish expedition, which two years before 

 had sailed through the Straits of Magellan under Loaysa 

 and Del Cano, the circumnavigator, to assert Spain's claims 

 in the Far East. They had been destroyed by storms, and 

 by disease, and by the horrible longness of the voyage across 

 the Pacific. The leaders Loaysa and Del Cano had died, 

 and forty others, and the survivors, " one hundred and five 

 of us," had reached the Moluccas at last,, to find the Portu- 

 guese in possession. Saavedra arrived and helped in the 

 fight, but with no good effect ; and, in the end, news came 

 that the Moluccas x had been sold by our King to Portugal, 

 and we, the miserable seventeen survivors, had to ask the 

 Governor of Portuguese India to ship us home, which 

 eventually he did, stealing however our charts ! " 



But meanwhile, Saavedra, finding nothing good to be done Discovery of 

 in the Moluccas, had sailed for Mexico (1528). He came to ^y^eiTeT 

 the coast of a great land, two hundred leagues East of the (1526), and 

 Moluccas, which two years before had been sighted by a (i 52 8). 

 Portuguese seaman named Meneses ; " a large island," 

 says the writer of our narrative, "well peopled by a black 

 race with woolly hair, who go naked." Saavedra coasted 



