82 PKETENDED VOYAGE OF MALDONADO, [1588. 



to mark any particular points, on account of our distance from 

 the land ; and we can, therefore, only affirm that it is inhabited, 

 nearly to the entrance of the strait, as we saw smoke rising up in 

 many places. This country, according to the charts, must belong to 

 Tartary, or Cathaia, [China ;] and at the distance of a few leagues 

 from the coast must be the famed city of Cambalu, the metropolis 

 of Tartary. Finally, having followed the direction of this coast, 

 we found ourselves at the entrance of the same strait of Anian, 

 which, fifteen days before, we had passed through to the open sea ; 

 this we knew to be the South Sea, where are situated Japan, 

 China, the Moluccas, India, New Guinea, and the land discovered 

 by Captain Q,uiros, with all the coast of New Spain and Peru. * * 



" The Strait of Anian is fifteen leagues in length, and can 

 easily be passed with a tide lasting six hours ; for those tides 

 are very rapid. There are, in this length, six turns, and two 

 entrances, which lie north and south ; that is, bear from each other 

 north and south. The entrance on the north side (through which 

 we passed) is less than half a quarter of a league in width, and 

 on each side are ridges of high rocks ; but the rock on the side of 

 Asia is higher and steeper than the other, and hangs over, so that 

 nothing falling from the top can reach its base. The entrance into 

 the South Sea, near the harbor, is more than a quarter of a league 

 in width, and thence the passage runs in an oblique direction, 

 increasing the distance between the two coasts. In the middle of 

 the strait, at the termination of the third turn, is a great rock, and 

 an islet, formed by a rugged rock, three estadias [about one 

 thousand one hundred feet] in height, more or less ; its form is 

 round, and its diameter may be two hundred paces ; its distance 

 from the land of Asia is very little ; but the sea, on that side, is 

 full of shoals and reefs, and can only be navigated by boats. The 

 distance between this islet and the continent of America is less 

 than a quarter of a league in width ; and, although its channel is so 

 deep that two or even three ships might sail abreast through it, two 

 bastions might be built on the banks with little trouble, which 

 would contract the channel to within the reach of a musket shot. 



" In the harbor in which our ship anchored, at the entrance of 

 the strait, on the south side, we lay from the beginning of April to 

 the middle of June, when a large vessel, of eight hundred tons' 

 burden, came there from the South Sea, in order to pass the strait. 

 Upon this, we put ourselves on our guard ; but, having come to an 

 understanding with her, I found them willing to give us some 



