KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. NIO 4. 19 



eopy of that called the chart of the Spanish galleon. existing long before the tiine of Cook, and which 

 is referred to by all the national and foreign authors that have been consulted, such as the following: 

 — "Batavian Geography, 2nd vol. of the Geographical Atlas of William Blaeu, Amsterdam, 1663". In 

 the first map, entitled "Amerieae Nova Tabida", the neighbouring island [La Vezina], La Desgraciada, 

 and those of Los Monges, are placed towards the 21st degree of north latitude and 120° westof the 

 meridian passing through the island of Teneriffe. 



"Geograpliical Atlas of D'Anville. published in 1761, and revised and improved in 1786 by Bar- 

 bié du Bocage." In the second map, and in the hemisphere of the Mappa Mundi, the islands Des- 

 graciada, Mesa, Olloa, and Los Monges, are found in the 20th degree of north latitude, and about 17° 

 farther east than the Sandwich group, augmented by Barbié in this chart. 



James Burney, in the "Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean", 

 cites the Atlas of Ortehus, entitled "Theatrum Orbis", in which the same islands are found, and 

 placed in nearly the same position. 



•Alexander Findley's Directory for the Navigation of the Pacific Ocean, edition of 1857." 

 In the second part of this work, page 1120, the author expresses and recapitulates the ideasalready 

 brought forward respecting tliis matter by Mr. Fleurieu in his description of Marchand's voyage, 

 and by Mi'. Ellis in his voyage around Hawaii; and conceives strong suspicions that the true discov- 

 erer must have been one of the Spanish navigatörs of the 16th century, because of the iron artides 

 found by Cook in those islands, one of t hem being a fragment of a broad sword, whose existence 

 there he coidd not satisfactorily account for. 



The author most explicit in regard to these surmises is the said Fleurieu, who, on the 422nd 

 page of the first volume, says, "By taking from Captain Cook the barren honour of the first discovery 

 of the Sandwich Islands, I do not endeavour to diminish the glory he so justly merited"; and he 

 continues, on page 423, •'Lieutenant Roberts, who constructed the chart of the third voyage of the 

 English navigatör, in which are traced his three voyages round the world and towards both poles, has 

 preserved the Mesa group of the chart of the Spanish galleon, and has placed it with its centre 19° 

 east of Owhyhee, and in the parallel of the latter island. He doubtless thought that by preserving 

 the group found by the Spaniards, none would dåre dispute with the English the first discovery of 

 the Sandwich Islands. B ut Arrowsmith, in his general chart of 1790, and in his planisphere of 1794, 

 sacrificing his amour-propre to the evidence, only lays down one of the two groups. Since 1786, La 

 Pérouse, desirous of ascertaining if such islands really existed to the eastward of Sandwich, passed över 

 in the same parallel, 300 leagues from east to west, and in the whole of this expanse he found neither 

 grouj:», island, nor any sign of land; and did not doubt that the island of Owhyhee, with its arid moun- 

 tain in the form of a table, was La Mesa of the Spaniards"; and he adds, at page 425, "In the charts, 

 at the foot of this archipelago, might be written: Sandwich Islands, surveyed in 1778 by Captain 

 Cook, who named them, anciently discovered by the Spanish navigatörs". 1 



Perfectly in accord with this opinion, and strengthening it by an evident proof, is the log of the 

 corvettes "Descubierta" and "Atrevida", on their voyage from Acapulco to Manila, which manuscript is 

 preserved in this office, and apropos to this case, states, at folio 25, "With a sea so heavy from NW. 

 and N., that while the rolling of the ship increased, and with it the irksome interruption of our internal 



agrees with a manuscript map in the British Museum beariug the title: "Mapa reducido que abraza todo lo 

 descubierto de las costas occidentales de la America y las orientales de Asia" (Add. MS. 17,647 C). Don 

 Pascual de Gayangos states that this map would seem to be "executed at the beginning of the seventeenth century" 

 {Cat. of the Manuscripts in the Spanish Language in the Brit. Mus.. II, 1877, p. 314); but I have been able to 

 ascertaiu that it is far more recent than this; that it was executed after Cook's time appears from the follow- 

 ing note on the map: "Las yslas de Sandwich no parece son las mismas que descubriö Juan de Gaytån en 

 1555 y las llamö Yslas de la Mes. Nos creemos autorizados å ello, por cuanto asi se expresa en un mapa 

 antiguo manoscrito, que pasa en nuestro poder, y por que savemos que este navegante hizo grandes descubri- 

 mientos en estos mares entré los grados 9 y 20 de lat. sept.'' The discovery here too is dated 1555, but its 

 connexion with the Sandwich Islands is contradicted. 



1 As for the original wording of these quotations see p. 16 above. 



