68 DAHLOREN, THE DISCOVERY OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



impossible that Aguirre confused some legendary notice of these islands with some 

 more reliable narrative of a visit to Loo Choo. 



Be this as it may, what is certain is that Aguirre' s narrative was regarded by his 

 contemporaries as referring to some islands far out in the ocean, and that it was connected 

 with the myth of the Gold and Silver Islands: when Francisco Gali sailed from Acapulco 

 on his voyage of 1585, he had been commissioned to explore "the mainland of Japan, 

 Islas del Armenio, and all other islands of which he had any reason to suspect the 

 existence in the South Sea, and off the coast of New Spain". 1 



These investigations were to be carried out on the return voyage from the Philippines 

 to Mexico; but the enterprise was broken off through Gali's death shortly af ter his arrival 

 at Manila in June 1585. The t ask of pursuing the plan was then entrusted to his successor 

 in the command, Pedro de Unamunu; but the latter was suspected, and with good 

 reason, of being animated by a greater interest in making private profit through 

 commercial enterprises than in making geographical discoveries. Though he had been 

 charged on penalty of death to follow his instructions exactly, he went from Manila 

 to Macao with the evident intention of employing the great sums that he and his 

 officers had with them. As this involved a breach of the recently imposed prohibition 

 of all trade between the Spanish and the Portuguese possessions, Unamunu' s ship and 

 its cargo were confiscated in Macao; and in consequence of complaints on the part of 

 the Portuguese authorities, the Governor of Manila sent a vessel to fetch him, his ship, 

 and its crew. It is not known how Unamunu succeeded in evading these measures of 

 precaution. Af ter a year's stay at Macao he sailed thence, on 12 July 1587, on the 

 voyage of which an account has been given above. 2 We have seen that he completed this 

 voyage without having succeeded in finding the islands for which he had been especially 

 instructed to search. 



Amongst these islands are now named for the first time, in addition to Islas del 

 Armenio, Rica de Oro and Rica de Platå, which were låter destined to play so great a part 

 in the history of geographical discovery. 



Concerning the derivation of these names and the origin of the traditions about 

 islands rich in gold and silver to which the names bear witness, we have no knowledge. 

 It would not seem to be improbable, however, that the traditions, as was stated at a låter 

 period, derived from populär notions current in Japan. Engelbert Kaempfer, whose 

 two years residence in Japan, 1690 — 92, we have to t hank for the first detailed description 

 of this land, tells us that, E. or ENE. of the Japanese province Osiu (37° to 39 7 2 ° lat.), 

 there lie, at a distance of at least 150 miles, two islands to which the Japanese have given 

 the gorgeous names of Kinsima, the Gold Island, and Ginsima, the Silver Island, but whose 

 position and nature they were anxious to keep secret from foreigners, and especially from 



1 Dr. Oskak Nachod, Em unentdecktes Goldland (Mittheil. der Deutschen Gesellscbaft fur Natur- und 

 Völkerkunde Ostasiens, Bd VII: 3, Tokyo 1900). — Simultaneously with that work and independently of it, I 

 had elaborated the view of the Gold and Silver Islands which is included in my book Be franska sjöfärderna 

 till Söderhafvet, pp. 191 et sequ. The relevant part of this latter work is here reproduced in a revised form, 

 supplemented from låter publications, 



2 See p. 48 above. 



