1588.] PRETENDED VOYAGE OF MALDONADO. 83 



of their merchandise, the greater part of which consisted of articles 

 similar to those manufactured in China, such as brocades, silks, porce- 

 lain, feathers, precious stones, pearls, and gold. These people 

 seemed to be Hanseatics, who inhabit the Bay of St. Nicholas, or 

 the port of St. Michael, [Archangel, on the White Sea.] In order 

 to understand one another, we were forced to speak Latin, those of 

 our party who understood that language talking with those on board 

 the ship who were also acquainted with it. They did not seem to 

 be Catholics, but Lutherans. They said they came from a large city, 

 more than one hundred leagues from the strait ; and, though I cannot 

 exactly remember its name, I think they called it Rohr, or some 

 such name, which they said had a good harbor, and a navigable 

 river, and was subject to the great khan, as it belonged to Tartary, 

 and that, in that port, they left another ship belonging to their 

 country. We could learn no more from them, as they acted with 

 great caution, and little confidence, being afraid of our company ; 

 wherefore we parted from them, near the strait, in the North Sea, 

 and set sail towards Spain." 



The preceding extracts, from a translation of the manuscript at 

 Madrid, will suffice to show the course which the Portuguese pre- 

 tended to have taken, in 1588. The remainder of the paper is 

 devoted to descriptions of the supposed strait, and plans for its 

 occupation and defence by Spain ; nothing being said as to the 

 circumstances which induced the navigators to return to Europe by 

 the same route, instead of pursuing their course to some Spanish 

 port on the Pacific. It is needless to use any arguments to prove 

 that no such voyage could have been ever made ; as we know that 

 the only connection by water between the Atlantic and the Pacific, 

 north of America, is through the Arctic Sea and Bering's Strait, 

 which latter passage is more than sixteen leagues in width, and is sit- 

 uated near the 65th degree of latitude. It has, however, been sug- 

 gested, and it is not improbable, that, before the period when 

 Maldonado presented his memoir to the Council of the Indies, some 

 voyage, of which we have no account, may have been made in the 

 North Pacific,* as far as the entrance of the gulf called Cook's 

 Inlet, and that this entrance, situated under the 60th parallel of 

 latitude, may have been supposed, by the navigator, to be the 

 western termination of the long-sought Strait of Anian. 



The story certainly attracted considerable attention at the time 



* Article on the north-west passage, in the Quarterly, for October, 1816, above 

 mentioned. 



