234 JOURNAL OF GALLEGO. 



Anna. On the Tuesday evening, having shortened sail, we had 

 reached the islands of Santa Catalina and Santa Anna, which lay 

 three leagues to the north-north-west. Looking around we did not 

 see any more land, and here a strong south-east wind overtook us ; 

 and we shaped our course to the north-east-by-east." 



In this manner the Spaniards left behind them the Isles of Salo- 

 mon after a sojourn of six months in these islands ; and, perhaps, a 

 few reflections on their discoveries in this group, and on their deal- 

 ings with the inhabitants, may be here apposite. They seem ta 

 have landed on, and to have taken formal possession of, almost every 

 island of any size from Isabel eastward ; they named all the large 

 islands in the group with the exception of Bougainville ; and the 

 majority of the smaller islands also received their names. In the 

 Geographical Appendix, I have given a list of the islands named by 

 the Spaniards, which do not at present bear the names given, them 

 by their original discoverers.^ It would be a graceful compliment to 

 the memory of the gallant Gallego, who was the central figure of 

 this expedition, if, after the lapse of more than three centuries, the 

 Spanish names should be associated with these islands in the Ad- 

 miralty charts. The reason why such islands as Choiseul, Contra- 

 riety, Les Trois Soeurs, and the He du Golfe (Ugi), at present bear 

 the names given to them by the French navigators, Bougainville and 

 Surville, rather more than a century ago, is to be found, not in any 

 intended act of injustice to the Spanish discoverers, but in the cir- 

 cumstance that the imperfect account of Figueroa,^ wliich omits 

 many of the discoveries made in the brigantine, has been the only 

 source of information available in the construction of the Admiralty 

 charts. Those who have written most on the history of geographical 

 discovery in these regions, Pingre, Dalrymple, Buache, and Fleurieu 

 a century ago, and Burney in the early part of the present century, 

 had only the account of Figueroa at their disposal.^ The Journal 

 of Hernan Gallego, the existence of which was doubted, would have 

 been invaluable to them ; and although a non-professional writer, I 

 may be pardoned when I express my admiration at the manner in 



1 Vide Note X. ^^ 



9 Translated in great part from the original in the works of Pingr^, Dalrymple, Fleurieu, 

 and Burney. (Hechos de Don G. H. de Mendoza : par Dr. C. S. de Figueroa.) 



spingre's " Metnoire sur le choix et I'etat des lieux du le passage de Venus du 3 Juin, 

 1769;" Dalrymple's "Historical Collection of Voyages;" Fleurieu's " Decouvertes des 

 Francois ou 17G8 and, 1769 dans le sud-est de la Nouvelle Guinee " (also Eng. edit.); Burney 's 

 " Chronological History of Voyages and Discoveries." &c. 



