KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. N:0 4. 39 



Concerning Urdaneta's own voyage we have accounts equally complete but couched 

 in more moderate terms. 1 He embarked on the ship "San Pedro", which, under the 

 command of Felipe de Salcedo, was to convey to Mexico the report of the success of 

 Legazpfs expedition and to request reinforcements for him. They sailed from Cebu 

 1 June 1565, and reached the open sea eight days låter. While on a north-easterly course, 

 a rock surrounded by extensive reefs like a boat at anchor was discovered: its position 

 was thought to be about 20° lat., 240 leagues ENE. of Cape Espiritu Santo. This agrees 

 very closely with the reef that Bernardo de la Torre discovered in 1543 and to which he 

 gave the name Abreojos. Probably it is from Urdaneta's voyage that it derives the name 

 of Parece Vela ("like a sail") which it retains to our own days. After reaching 39° lat., on 

 3 August, they steered due east for a whole month; until, on 18 September, in 33°45'N. 

 they discovered an island to which was given the name of La Deseada, "the longed-for", 

 quite certainly the island of San Clemente off the Californian coast. On 8 October 1565, 

 that is two months after Arellano, Salcedo and Urdaneta arrived at Acapulco. 



With this a new route was opened across the Ocean and the period of uncertain 

 fumbling was över. Anyone who made full use of the experience that had been gained as 

 regards wind and current, cauld count upon reaching his goal with a fair degree of cer- 

 tainty. But despite this, a piece of navigation which could seldom be completed in a 

 shorter time than six months was a very risky undertaking: violent storms threatened the 

 ships with destruction and of ten drove them out of their course; the difficulty of taking 

 sufficient provisions and water for the long voyage, the sudden transition from the heat 

 of the Tropics to the winter cold of the Temperate zone, and the sicknesses caused by 

 all these things, exposed the mariners to the severest sufferings; and centuries låter this 

 navigation was characterized as "the longest, most tedious, and most dangerous in all 

 the seas". 2 



1 See "Derrotero" by the pilot Rodbigo de Espinosa iu Colecciön de docum. ined., 2 a Ser., III, pp. 427 

 — 456. I have had the opportunity of coniparing and supplemcnting the statemeuts in this narrative, thanks to 

 the notes from another unpublished "Derrotero" by the pilot Estevan Rodriguez, made by Dr. Bruno Rolf in 

 Archivo de Iudias. 



2 Casimieo Diaz, Conquistas de las islas Filipinas (1718), published in Blaie and Robertsos, Tlie 

 Philippine Islands, XXXVII, p. 186. 



