JOURNAL OF GALLEGO. 243 



At length the Spaniards Lad readied the coast of Okl Cahfornia. 

 " The merc}^ of God " — as Gallego writes — " had brought us safely 

 through so many storms and privations that the soldiers had des- 

 paired of seeing it. Following along the coast, as it trended to the 

 south-east, we entered a bay which resembles in form a pen for 

 shoeing cattle {corral cle herrar ganado). We could not see the out- 

 side point on account of its great distance. We found ourselves 

 embayed ; and it was necessary to steer west to weather this point. 



We were detained three days with calms and north-west 



winds, as we had to beat to windward to weather this point. We 

 named this bay la bahia de San. tome : it is in latitude 27f°. At 

 the point of this bay there are two large islets, named the Isles of 

 Cacones.^ We doubled the point on the 23rd of December. We 

 beached the ship for 12 days between these islets. Having lost our 

 boat at sea, we went ashore on a raft of casks to get water. There 

 we made another raft of rushes and some casks, on which we carried 

 on board 12 casks of water and many fish that we caught." 



Having obtained timber for making another boat, they continued 

 their voyage, as the Indians were hostile. A foul wind caused them 

 to pass by the port of Xalosco, and they " tacked to seaward to 

 double the Cabo de Corrientes, which is in 21°, in order to reach the 

 port of Santiago, which is 50 leagues beyond Xalosco." 



On the 24th'^ of January, 1569, they entered the port of Santiago. 

 The Chief -Pilot tells us in his journal that he was well acquainted 

 with this coast and with its people : this port,^ he says, lies six 

 leagues from Port Natividad, and is in latitude 19j. Before they 

 left Santiago a joyful surprise awaited them. " On the day of St. 



^ This large bay, which deeply indents the Californian peninsula, is named in the present 

 maps the bay of Sebastian Vizcaino, after the Spaniard who surveyed this coast in 1602. 

 Gallego's name of San. tome, which may be a contraction for San. Bartolomeo, has, there- 

 fore, the priority of some 30 years and more. The prominent headland, wliich they had to 

 double, is at present called Point Eugenio. The two large islets off this point are now 

 called Cerros and Natividad Islands. 



2 This should be the 22nd of January, as Gallego observes subsequently that the 

 " Almiranta " arriving on the 2oth came three days after them. 



3 During his passage from the Californian to the Mexican coast, Gallego seems from some 

 observations in his journal to have been puzzled by getting a latitude of 23° 26' before he 

 arrived at the extremity of the Californian Peninsula. He speaks of San Lucas as being "at 

 the end of California in the tropics ; " but this observation aiijiarently did not clear up his 

 doubt on the matter ; and in fact on first touching the Mexican coast, the number of small 

 bays made him think that it was still the coast of California. The latitude of Cape San 

 Lucas, the extremity of the Californian Peninsula, is 22^52' : it is, therefore, well within 

 the tropics. 



