VOYAGE OF CABRILLO. 295 



follows that the coast was examined with a considerable degree of minuteness, and a 

 fair percentage of the anchorages made are described with sufficient accuracy, even 

 when considered without reference to the distances and latitudes given, to enable them 

 to be identified. Examples are Cape St. Lucas, Puerto de San Pedro [MagdalenaBay], 

 Isle of Zedros [Cerros Island], Isla de Juan Rodriguez, or de Posesion [San Miguel], 

 Oabo de Galera [Point Conception], and others. 



While perhaps of itself of no special importance that each and every point visited 

 by the Spaniards should be determined, the certain identification of a sufficient number 

 -of these to enable a proper check of latitudes and distances to be established was all- 

 important, since only in this way could the most northerly point reached by the discov- 

 erers be ascertained. 



That the latitudes designated throughout the narrative were erroneous to a greater 

 or less degree has been well known, but no systematic attempt appears to have been 

 made to ascertain the amount of error and apply the corrections. Burney prefaces his 

 resume of Herrera's account of Cabrillo's voyage with the statement that they — i. e., the 

 " material parts of Cabrillo's navigation " — " afford no other than a general agreement with 

 the present charts," seeming thus to imply the futility of any attempt to closely follow 

 him. It is probable that had Burney's acquaintance with the coast described by Cabrillo 

 been more intimate, his attempt to trace the route and follow the distances given would 

 have met with greater success, and the above statement have been correspondingly modi- 

 fied. However, when giving the probable identity of the island of Santa Cruz and 

 Cape Mendocino, he notes a probable discrepancy in the reckoning of about two degrees 

 in excess. This result it is found necessary to reduce by about half a degree. 



Upon applying the latitudes laid down in the diary to such points as could be 

 fixed beyond reasonable doubt, it was found that after leaving Cape St. Lucas, for which 

 the nearly correct parallel of 23 degrees was given, an error of about three-quarters of 

 a degree at once crept into the results. Thus the Point of Trinidad (Cape Tosco), the 

 first anchorage after rounding the cape, is placed in 25 degrees instead of, as correct, 

 about 24^. This error was found to increase at a tolerably regular rate until near Point 

 Concepcion, and to the northward the discrepancy reached its limits of a full degree and 

 a half. 



It was occasionally found necessary to make considerable allowances in the dis- 

 tances given between the various ports and islands touched at, as well, too, in the 

 dimensions of several of the latter, which are too large. It is quite possible, however, 

 so for as the latter are concerned, that certain of them have decreased in size very mate- 

 rially since the date of the narrative, and that in this way the statements made are to 

 be reconciled with the present state of things. In support of this supposition, as 

 Lieut. Commander Taylor informs me, it is a well-known fact that at least one islet, 

 the existence of which was attested by its presence on an Admiralty chart of less than 

 fifty years ago, has been entirely swept away by wind and wave, its former site being 

 now indicated only by a corresponding shoal. 



It is to be remarked, too, that very great precision in respect to distances was 

 hardly to be expected, and, indeed, was evidently not intended by the Spaniards, since 

 the statements in leagues are frequently qualified by the term " about." Assuming, how- 

 ever, the league to represent three nautical miles, it will be found necessary to make in 

 most cases nothing more than a reasonable allowance for errors, while not infrequently 



