84 STORY OF THE VOYAGE OF FONTE. [1640, 



when it was put forth, and allusions are made to it by several 

 Spanish authors of the seventeenth century ; it had, however, been 

 entirely forgotten when the French geographer M. Buache, having 

 obtained a copy of the Madrid manuscript, endeavored to establish 

 the truth of the most material points, in a paper read by him before 

 the Academy of Sciences, at Paris, on the 13th of November, 

 1790. At his request, the archives of the Indies were examined, 

 in search of documents relating to the supposed voyage ; and the 

 commanders of Spanish ships, then employed in the surveying 

 the north-west coasts of America, were instructed to endeavor 

 to find the entrance of the Strait of Anian, near the 60th 

 degree of latitude. These endeavors proved vain, and the 

 name of Maldonado had again sunk into oblivion, when it was 

 again, in 1812, brought before the world by Signor Amoretti, of 

 Milan, who found, in the Ambrosian library, in that city, the man- 

 uscript already mentioned, and published a French translation of 

 it, with arguments in support of the truth of its contents. So far 

 as is known, the falsehoods of Maldonado have injured no one, 

 and they were ultimately productive of great good ; for it was 

 while engaged, by order of the Spanish government, in examining 

 the archives of the Indies respecting this pretended voyage, that 

 Navarrete found those precious documents, relating to the expedi- 

 tions of Columbus and other navigators of his day, which have thrown 

 so much light on the history of the discovery of the New World. 



Similar good effects have been produced by the story of the 

 voyage of Admiral Pedro Bartolome de Fonte, from the Pacific 

 to the Atlantic, through lakes and rivers extending across North 

 America, which may also be here mentioned, though it belongs 

 properly to a later period of the history ; as the voyage was said to 

 have been performed in 1640, and the account first appeared in a 

 periodical work entitled — Monthly Miscellany, or Memoirs of the 

 Curious — published at London, in 1708. This account is very 

 confused, and badly written, and is filled with absurdities and con- 

 tradictions, which should have prevented it from receiving credit at 

 any time since its appearance : yet, as will be shown, it was serious- 

 ly examined and defended, so recently as in the middle of the last 

 century, by eminent scientific men ; and some faith continued to 

 be attached to it for many years afterwards. So far as its details 

 can be understood, they are to the following effect : — 



Admiral Fonte sailed from Callao, near Lima, in April, 1640, 

 with four vessels, under or-ders, from the viceroy of Peru, to repair 



