34 DAHLGREN, THE DISCOVERV OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



and was to lead, in 1564, to the taking possession of these islands on behalf of the 

 Spanish Crown. 



At the very beginning of these preparations there was talk of the importance of 

 obtaining the assistance of Andres de Urdaneta for the conduct of the voyage. This 

 man had taken part in the expedition of Loaysa to the Moluccas, where he had stayed 

 about eight years, until he returned to Spain in 1536; abont the year 1540 he had once 

 more gone to Mexico, where twelve years låter he became a monk in an Augustine 

 monastery. In the course of his varying fortimes he had gained a very extensive knowledge 

 both of the lands and the seas över which it was now intended to extend the dominion of 

 Spain, and also concerning everything that had to do with navigation and shipping; the 

 King of Spain characterizes him as a skilled cosmographer (buen cosmbgrajo); and the Vice- 

 roy of Mexico, Don Luis de Velasco, says that no one possessed such great experience 

 and such deep knowledge of navigation as he had. 



After Urdaneta had been prevailed upon to leave his monastery to place this 

 experience at the disposal of the future expedition he, in 1560 and 1561, addressed several 

 letters to the King of Spain, in which he sketched a general plan for this expedition and 

 more particularly gave his opinion regarding the route which it ought to follow. It is 

 absolutely impossible, of course, that in these papers Urdaneta should have deliberately 

 concealed any part of his knowledge concerning previous voyages and discoveries — on 

 such an occasion as this the love of secrecy of which the Spaniards have so often been 

 accused would have been as unnecessary as improper; and with about the same degree 

 of certainty we can characterize it as improbable that any earlier voyage or discovery 

 should have escaped Urdaneta's notice. We find now 1 that as his predecessors he counts 

 the men known by us — Loaysa 1525, Saavedra 1527, and Villalobos 1542; and when 

 he adds to these an expedition which on the way from Peru to New Spain went astray 

 and finally was wrecked in some archipelago, we know that by this he meant the expedi- 

 tion of Hernando de Grijalva, 1537, which for the purposes of this investigation we 

 have been able to put aside, because it kept exclusively south of the Equator. 2 But 

 Urdaneta maintains a complete silence concerning any voyage in which Hawaii could 

 have been discovered. 



Still more eloquent are the evidences that can be drawn from the special instruc- 

 tions as to the course to be followed. From Acapulco, according to Urdaneta's scheme, 

 they were to steer W. and SW., till they had covered about 690 leagues and were about 

 14° 30' N. lat. Here they were to search for San Bartolomé, which island, if it were inhabited 

 and had any supply of water, ought to be made a refreshing place for future voyages. 

 After this they were to steer WSW. until they reached 13°, at which latitude they were to 

 turn due west in order not to miss the southernmost island in the Ladrones, to which 

 the distance from San Bartolomé was 330 leagues. Urdaneta adds that it was of great 

 importance to survey this island, or any other island that might possibly lie in its 

 neighbourhood, in order to be able to check the reckoning which had hitherto been 



1 "Contestaciön de Urdaneta al Rey", 28 May 1560. Colecciön de doc. ined., 2 a Ser., II, 1886, p. 111. 



2 Concerning this expedition see Arthur Wichmann, Entdeckungs-GesclricJite von Nen-Guinea, Vol. I, 

 Leiden 1909, pp. 20—22. 



