KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. N:0 4. 25 



leagues NW. by W. in order to searcli for land which some of the crew asserted they bad 

 sighted. As no land could be discerned, the westward course was resumed. On 12 De- 

 cember a solar observation was made, which showed that they were in 11° 2' N. lat.; 

 and two days låter, in the night between 14 and 15 December, the squadron was scattered 

 in consequence of foul weather: on Saavedra's own ship sail was shortened, because of 

 which the other vessels gained on him, and the following day they were out of sight. 1 

 Saavedra continued his westward course in order to search for the Ladrones; and on 29 

 December he reached an island which the pilot assured him was the same as that on which 

 the natives had stolen a boat from Magellan, from which it appears that they were on 

 Guam. Af ter a short stay here Saavedra sailed further towards the west in order to 

 make the island of Bimian, where he hoped to meet his vanished followers: on the way 

 he discovered a group of islands to which he ga ve the name Los Reyes because during his 

 stay there fell the feast of the Three Kings (6 January 1528). Saavedra's further for- 

 tunes lie outside the field of this investigation: it need only be added that in 1528 and 

 1529 he made two fruitless attempts to sail back to New Spain. Both times he followed 

 the coast of New Guinea eastwards and then steered towards the north; between the Line 

 and 11° N. lat. he encountered some groups of islands, of which one received the name 

 of Los Pintados, the other Los Jardines, which are undoubtedly to be identified with 

 islands among the eastern Carolines and the Marshall Archipelago. 2 Without finding any 

 land further towards the north, Saavedra had to turn back on his first voyage in 14° N. 

 lat.; during his second voyage the ship seems, after his death, to ha ve reached 31° N., 

 where the constant north-east wind this time also compelled a return to the Moluccas. 3 



From this summary it unmistakably appears that Saavedra himself cannot make 

 any claims to be regarded as the discoverer of the Hawaiian Islands. We ha ve now to 

 see whether there is any probability in the view that this discovery was made by one 

 of his followers. 



The two vessels which parted from him on the night before 15 December 1527 were 

 under the command of Luis de Cardenas and Pedro de Fuentes. An addition of the 

 distance-figures in the log-book shows that, on the day mentioned, they thought they 

 had sailed 1226 leagues from the west coast of America; and the statement about 1150 

 leagues in one of the other original accounts of the voyage does not greatly differ from 

 this. If to the distance reckoned by Saavedra we add the 373 leagues he further covered 

 before he reached Guam, we come to an estimate of about 1600 leagues for the distance 

 between New Spain and the Mariannes. The separation should thus have taken place 

 when they had covered about three-quarters of the real distance — the time taken for 



1 Vicente de Nåpoles, in one of his accounts, gives a detailed clescription of the events: it appears 

 from this that the steersman on Saavedra's vessel in a heavy squall caused the vessel to broach to (in Spanish 

 tornar de lura, "to catch an owl"), so that the sails were taken aback and the ship threatened to capsize. 

 At last they managed to shorten sail, hut during these manoeuvres the other vessels were carried forward by 

 the strong wind at such a speed that they soon passed out of sight and the light signals made from the flagship 

 remained unanswered. The editor of this account, in consequence of a clerical error in his original (Inga instead 

 of lura), has not correctly understood the meaning (Col. de doc. ined., V, p. 72). 



2 See Meinicke, op. cit , II, p. 435. 



3 The previously cited log-book breaks off on 1 October 1528. On the continuation of the voyage and 

 Saavedra's second attempt to return, see Herrera, Dec. IV, pp. 61 and 108; Galväo, pp. 176 — 179. 



K. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl. Band 57. N:o i. 4 



