CHAPTER III. 

 The Voyages of the Spanisli Gallcoiis down to 1609. 



During the period with which we have so far concerned ourselves, i. e. down to 

 the year 1565, the voyages of the Spaniards on the Pacific Ocean are pretty fully known. 

 We can with practically complete certainty assert that no expedition that has any 

 bearing on our subject, and no discovery that has any connection with it, could have 

 escaped our notice. For the following period, when the voyages were becoming more 

 and more numerous and were soon arranged as regular lines of communication, our 

 information is far less complete. The important chapter in the history of trade and 

 navigation that deals with the connection between the American colonies of Spain, on one 

 side, and, on the other, the Philippines, China and Japan, is still unwritten; and it would 

 seem to be uncertain whether the still uninvestigated contents of the Spanish archives 

 offer sufficient material for the complete illumination of the question. Especially would 

 this seem to be the case as regards the general outlines of this maritime intercourse: the 

 number of the voyages, their dates, and principal incidents. This, of course, is especially 

 to be regretted from the viewpoint of the present enquiry; for it is not until we have a 

 clear knowledge of all the circumstances connected with the matter, that the alleged 

 discovery of the Hawaiian Archipelago by the Spaniards can either be established 

 or definitely rejected. 



Despite the defectiveness of the sources, I wish to try, in the following chapters, 

 to give a summary of their scattered statements; but in doing so I put forward no 

 claim to be able to give a quite definitive solution of the problem. I believe, however, 

 that as a result of this summary there can be set forth a probable solution, which will 

 be so nearly certain that the remaining alternatives must be regarded as reduced to a 

 minimum. In any case, anyone who has the patience to follow this dry enumeration 

 of the maritime expeditions of two centuries, will probably be able to find that certain 

 limits have thereby been drawn within which the supplementary investigations of the 

 future may be restricted. 



While the activity of the Spaniards in the Philippines was directed to the conquest 

 of the islands and the consolidation of the dominion founded by the invaders, the voyages 



