46 DAHLGREN, THE DISCOVERY OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



SE. for 150 leagues in order to double the Pescadores Banks and the beginning of Loo-Choo, which is 

 called Formosa, and I did this in accordance with the advice and instruction of a pilot from Chincheo 

 [Chang-Chow]. These islands lie in about 22°, and the depth is 30 fat horns; and although I did not 

 see the islands, I determined from the altitude of the sun and the soundings that I had doubled them. 



Af ter passing the island of Formosa I sailed E by N., and in this direction I sailed 260 leagues. 

 The pilot from Chincheo told me that these islands [Loo-Choo] are innumerable and that they have 

 many good harbours; they are inhabited by people who have painted faces and bodies like the 

 Bisayas people in the Philippines; they are dressed in the same way as those; and on the islands there 

 is gold, and the natives travel to China and Japan in small vessels laden with gilded leather and gold- 

 dust. He said that he knew this because he had been there nine times: which I believe because I had 

 found him trustworthy in everything that he had told me. The easternmost and northernmost of these 

 islands is situated in 29°. 



Beyond the Lequios Islands are situated the Japanese Islands which are 135 leagues in length 

 and the most easterly is situated at 32 degrees. In order to pass these islands I steered E by N. the 

 mentioned 135 leagues, and, according to the information which the man from Chincheo gave, I should 

 find after having travelled 700 leagues 1 from here four islands not far from one another, which he said 

 he knew because he had seen in Japan some small, broad-shouldered men with big hair-rolls on their 

 heads; the artides they brought with them to be sold were gold in powder and cotton stuff and salted 

 fish like tunny; and they said that they came from some islands situated to the east of Japan. From 

 his account I understood that they were situated in a certain rhumb; he called them Armenicäo, and 

 I found them not far from the place which the Chinese pilot had indicated. He also assured me that 

 in all the Japanese islands there are good harbours, and that the country is very rich in all sorts of 

 commodities, that the people are very intelligent, and that they have a great deal of silver, which they 

 take out of the great mines that are to be found there. 



After sailing in the said direction E by N., and having covered 300 leagues eastward from Japan, I 

 came across a heavy swell, which came from N. and NW., an extensive open ocean, which however did not 

 stop our progress and which did not become calm or go down, whatever wind was blowing; and I found 

 the same to be the case always until I had sailed more than 700 leagues. When I found myself at a 

 distance of 200 leagues from the coast of New Spain, this sea ceased, which seemed to me to be a sign 

 that it was the strait that goes between the mainland of New Spain and Asia Minor(!) and Tartary. 

 During these 700 leagues I also saw a geat number of whales, tunny, mackerel, and bonites, fishes 

 which usually haunt straits and currents, where they spawn: from which I concluded that it was a 

 strait. 



When I steered so as to approach the coast of New Spain, I sighted it in 37 1 / i °. It is a high 

 land, covered with trees and without snow. At a distance of 4 leagues from land I found great 

 bunches of roots and leaves and canes and a number of seals, which made me believe that there must 

 be many rivers and good harbours on the whole of this coast as far as the port of Acapulco. 



From here I steered SE by S. and SE by E., according as I found the wind, as far as Cape San 

 Lucas, which lies at the mouth of the Gulf of California, in 22° lat. and 50 [500?] leagues from Cape 

 Mendocino. On this stretch of 500 leagues along the coast there are many islands, which, though 

 small, would seem to possess many good harbours. They are the following: Ilha de Santo Agostino 

 in 30 3 / 4 degrees, Ilha de Cedros in 28 x / 4 degrees, the island and banks of San Martin in 23 degrees, 

 and all these lands are inhabited, and in my opinion good, as I saw fire by night and smoke by day. 



From Cape San Lucas to the opposite side south-east-wards from California I steered 80 leagues 

 SE. to Cape Corrientes, which lies in 19 3 / 4 degrees; and on this part of the way I saw in the north, at a 

 distance of one league, three islands which are called Las tres Marias, situated in the same direction, 

 4 leagues from one another, and each of them was 2 l / a leagues [long?]. Here I found a strong current 

 towards the south-east throughout the whole distance of 80 leagues from California. 



70 leagues according to Linschoten. 



