194 JOURNAL OF GALLEGO. 



tion will not have been unprofitable, if I have been successful in 

 placing before my readers a clear and connected account of bow tlie 

 Isles of Solomon were discovered, lost, and found. 



THE JOURNAL OF GALLEGO. 



We find in the prologue, with which Gallego commences his 

 account of this voyage, an explanation not only of the principal 

 object of the expedition, but also of the motive which led the 

 Spanish navigator to draw up his narrative. It was for the pro- 

 pagation of the Christian faith amongst the peoples of the unknown 

 islands of the West that this expedition was dispatched from the 

 shores of Peru ; and it was to guide the missionary to the field of 

 his labour that the chief pilot drew up his relation of the voyage. 



" I understand it to be incumbent " — thus Gallego writes — " on 

 the men who follow the nautical profession, and have had the good 

 fortune, in some degree, to take precedence of their fellows, to give 

 an account of their success. And there are many reasons why it is 

 necessary that from tlie ignorant these things should not be con- 

 cealed. But for me. Christian piety affords the principal induce- 

 ment ; and especially since it moved the mind of that most Christian 

 and most Catholic monarch, Don Philip, to write to his Governor, 

 the most illustrious Lope Garcia de Castro, that he .'-hould convert 

 everv infidel to Christ. Imbued with this feeling, I have made it 

 my first object, by means of this relation and of the additions made 

 by me to the sea-chart, to enable the missionaries, who are to guide 

 the infidels into the vineyard of th.e Lord, to know where these 

 places will be found and to learn how to navigate these seas exposed 

 to the fury of the winds, and how all dangers and enemies may be 

 avoided. This is my design, unless I am otherwise convinced. Let 

 the curious accept this brief discourse. It is from fear that its 

 author has not wished to print it. This is my object : such is my 

 desire. Receive, reader, this token of esteem, and be steadfast in 

 God. Farewell ! " 



Before proceeding with the journal of Gallego, it is necessary for 

 me to remark that I have relegated to an appendix much of that 

 which is of interest to the geographical student. The reason is an 

 obvious one and needs no further reference, since the narrative often 

 takes the cha>racter of a sea-log, and the geographical and critical 

 points involved are necessarily only of special interest 



