1595.] CONFIRMATION OF FUCa's ACCOUNT. 89 



degrees of latitude, he entered a broad inlet of sea, in which he 

 sailed for twenty days, and found the land trending north-west, and 

 north-east, and north, and east, and south-east, and that, in this 

 course, he passed numerous islands. Now, the fact is, that, between 

 the 48th and 49th degrees, a broad inlet of sea does extend from 

 the Pacific, eastward, apparently penetrating the American conti- 

 nent to the distance of more than one hundred miles, after which 

 it turns north-westward, and, continuing in that direction about 

 two hundred and fifty miles farther, it again joins the Pacific Ocean. 

 The differences as to the position and course of the inlet, between 

 the two descriptions here compared, are few and slight, and are 

 certainly all within the limits of supposable error on the part of the 

 Greek, especially considering his advanced age, and the circum- 

 stance that he spoke only from recollection ; while, on the other 

 hand, the coincidences are too strong to be attributable only to 

 chance. The pilot, indeed, asserts that through this inlet he sailed 

 to the Atlantic, but he does not pretend that he reached any known 

 coast, or previously-determined point of that ocean ; so that he is 

 liable only to the charge of having made an erroneous estimate of 

 the extent and value of his discovery, which he might well have 

 done, without any intention to deceive, as the breadth of the North 

 American continent was then unknown. 



Some false reports, such as those above mentioned, respecting 

 the discovery of a northern passage between the two oceans, and 

 the existence of rich nations in its vicinity, together with a desire 

 to lessen the dangers of the navigation along the western side of 

 California, by providing the ships in the Philippine trade with proper 

 descriptions of the coasts, induced King Philip II. of Spain, in 

 1595, to order that measures should be taken for a complete survey 

 of it.* There were, also, other reasons for examining that part of 



* " His majesty knew that the viceroys of Mexico had endeavored to discover a 

 northern passage; and he had found, among his father's papers, a declaration of 

 certain strangers, to the effect that they had been driven, by violent winds, from the 

 codfish coast, [about Newfoundland,] on the Atlantic, to the South Sea, through the 

 Strait of Anian, which is beyond Cape Mendocino, and had, on their way, seen a 

 rich and populous city, well fortified, and inhabited by a numerous and civilized 

 nation, who had treated them well ; as also many other things worthy to be seen and 

 known. His majesty had also been informed that ships, sailing from China to Mex- 

 ico, ran great risks, particularly near Cape Mendocino, where the storms are most 

 violent, and that it would be advantageous to have that coast surveyed thence to 

 Acapulco, so that the ships, mostly belonging to his majesty, should find places for 

 relief and refreshment when needed." Whereupon, his majesty ordered the count 

 de Monterey, viceroy of Mexico, to have those coasts surveyed, at his own expense, 

 with all care and diligence, &c. — Torquemada, vol. i. p. 693. 



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