238 JOURNAL OF GALLEGO. 



reached the parallel of 6° on the 14tlj, the needle showing no 

 declination to the north-east. On the 15th and 16tb, tbey headed 

 north-east, and on the l7th, steering north, they found themselves 

 in 8°. The surmise of Gallego proved correct. In this parallel, they 

 discovered land. 



" Two hours before dawn," as the Chief-Pilot writes, " we came 

 upon the shoals and islands of San Bartolomeo, wbich trend north- 

 west and south-east and are 15 leagues in length. The south-east 

 extremity is in 8°, and the north-west extremity lies in 8f °. There 

 are two lines of reefs with apparently channels between them. 

 There seems to be another line about half-a-league distant. At the 

 north-w^est, there are two islets, which lie one with the other east 

 and west one leagu?. The coast is steep-to ; and we did not find 

 any depth to anchor on the west side. There were many houses and 

 much people and villos in these islands. Between the islands, which 

 number more than 20, a canoe was under sail, but it made for the 

 shore. We launched the boat to go for water. They could only 

 obtain a cock of Castile, which they brought back with them. The 

 people fled, abandoning their houses. They came upon a chisel 

 made from a nail, which appears to have belonged to some ships 

 that had been there, and some pieces of rope. Tliey did not find 

 water, but the cocoa-nut palms were cut wdiich showed how the 

 inhabitants got their water.^ These Indians drink " chicha," ^ which 

 is made from some fruits like pine-apples ; and on this account there 

 is an infinite number of flies. We beat to windward for three 

 hours trying to find depth to anchor ; but the water was a thousand 

 fathoms (estados) deep. When the boat returned, we continued our 

 voyage," 



Figueroa, in his scanty account, neither gives the name nor the 

 latitude of this discovery, so that previous writers, who derived 

 their information entirely from this source, were unable to identify 

 these islands with those in the charts. However, with the materials 

 afforded to me by the journal of Gallego, I have been able, after 

 carefully following the track of the Spanish ships, to identify this 

 discovery with the MusquxHo Islands in the Ralick Chain of the 

 Mar.shall Group. Having followed their course northward from the 

 vicinity of the Gilbert Group, to which I referred above (page 237), 



^ This probably refers to cocoa-nut palms that had been cut for making "toddy," a 

 practice to be found amongst the natives of the Line Islands at the present day. 

 2 An Indian name for a drink prepared from maize. 



