64 DAHLGREN, THE DISCOVERY OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



sight of land, the ship coasts along it with the northwest, north-northwest, and north winds, which 

 generally prevail on that coast, blowing by day toward the land, and by night toward the sea again. 

 With the decrease of the latitude and the entrance into a warm climate the island of Cenizas is 

 seen, and afterward that of Cedros. Thence one sails until the cape of San Lucas is sighted, which is the 

 entrance of [the gulf of] California. From that one traverses the eighty leguas intervening to the 

 islands of Las Marias and the cape of Corrientes, which is on the other side of California in Val de 

 Vanderas, and the provinces of Chametla. Thence one passes the coast of Colima, Sacatul, Los 

 Motines, and Ciguatanejo, and enters the port of Acapulco — without having made a way-station or 

 touched land from the channel of Capul in the Filipinas throughout the voyage. The voyage 

 usually lasts five months or thereabout, but often six and even more. 



From this we learn that Morga, like many of his predecessors, expressly says that, 

 on the voyage westwards from Acapulco, no land is sighted until the southernmost of 

 the Ladrones is reached. On the voyage in the opposite direction, according to Morga, 

 some volcanoes and rocks are seen amongst the Ladrones. As the latitude is given as 

 24°, it is plain that Morga cannot mean the northernmost of these islands, but rather 

 Volcano or possibly the Bonin Islands. Unfortunately in this part of his account 

 Morga is not complete: when we come to the maps, we shall see that in these regions 

 there appear a number of islands which Morga has passed över in silence. 



East of the meridian of the Ladrones and before the coast of America is reached, 

 Morga speaks only of the two islands, Rica de Oro and Rica de Platå, situated in 38° lat., 

 but seldom seen by seafarers. Morga, however, expresses no doubt as to their existence; 

 and not long after his time they came to play an important part in the history of the 

 discovery of the Pacific Ocean, a part so important that one might well be tempted to con- 

 nect them with the most remarkable group of islands in the Pacific, namely the H awaiian 

 Archipelago. It is true that amongst the many hypotheses regarding the discovery 

 of this archipelago I have not found any concerning its identity with these "Gold and 

 Silver Islands"; it is true that it can be shown without difficulty that the legend of these 

 islands is not due to any real discovery; but the explanation of the fact that this legend 

 was kept alive so long may possibly be sought in the existence of some land that the 

 Spanish seamen had really beheld — and in that case the Hawaiian Islands are the first 

 that occur to one. As, moreover, the search for Rica de Oro and Rica de Platå was 

 undertaken not only because of their supposed wealth in precious metals but also to 

 discover a place of call for the Spanish galleons during their toilsome voyage from the 

 Philippines to New Spain, an account of the history of these islands should not be 

 regarded as lying outside the range of this work. 



