1583.] PRETENDED VOYAGE OF MALDONADO. 79 



with reference to this matter, are many original papers by Urdaneta, 

 in which he mentions a report, that some Frenchmen had sailed 

 from the Atlantic, beyond the 70th degree of north latitude, through 

 a passage opening into the Pacific, near the 50th degree, and thence 

 to China; and he recommends that measures should be taken, 

 without delay, to ascertain the truth of the report, and, if the 

 passage should be found, to establish fortifications at its mouth, in 

 order to prevent other nations from using it to the injury of 

 Spain. 



In 1574, an old pilot, named Juan Ladrillero, living at Colima, 

 in Mexico, pretended that he had, in his youth, sailed through a 

 passage, from the Atlantic, near Newfoundland, into the Pacific ; 

 and other assertions, to the same effect, were made by various other 

 individuals, either from a desire to attract notice, or with the view 

 of obtaining emolument or employment. 



The most celebrated fiction of this class is the one of which 

 Lorenzo Ferrer de Maldonado is the hero. This person, a Portu- 

 guese by birth, who had written some extravagant works on 

 geography and navigation, and pretended to have discovered a 

 magnetic needle without variation, presented to the Council of the 

 Indies, in 1609, a memoir or narrative of a voyage from Lisbon to 

 the Pacific, through seas and channels north of America, which he 

 declared that he "himself had accomplished in 1588, accompanied 

 by a petition that he should be rewarded for his services, and be 

 intrusted with the command of forces, to occupy the passage, and 

 defend its entrance against other nations. This proposition was 

 instantly rejected by the Council : but some of the papers relating 

 to it were retained ; and two manuscripts are now preserved, the 

 one in the library of the duke of Infantado, at Madrid, the other 

 in the Ambrosian library, at Milan, each purporting to be the origi- 

 nal memoir presented by Maldonado. 



These papers are each entitled " A Relation of the Discovery of the 

 Strait of Anian, made by me, Captain Lorenzo Ferrer de Maldonado, 

 in the Year 1588 ; in which is described the Course of the Navigation, 

 the Situation of the Place, and the Manner of fortifying it ; " and 

 their contents are nearly the same, except that the Milan paper 

 is, in some places, more concise than the other, from which it seems 

 to have been, in a manner, abridged. Upon the whole, there is 

 reason to believe the Madrid document to be a true copy of the 

 memoir presented by Maldonado ; though it has been pronounced, 

 by one who has examined the subject with much care, to be a 



