KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. N:0 4. 69 



Europeans. 1 Kaempfer supposes that these islands were the same as those whose fancied 

 riches had, before his time, allured both Spaniards and Dutchmen into fruitless voyages 

 of discovery. 



Whether the Japanese legend can have any foundation in dim remembrances of 

 some land that had really been seen, we are not in a position to decide. A hint of such 

 a land can possibly be seen in the name Gisirna, which marks an island south-east of Japan 

 in a map of 1595 by Luiz Teixeira; 2 but on the other hand it must be aoknowledged 

 that the resemblance to Ginsima may be accidental and misleading for those who are 

 unacquainted with the language. As regards the position, this fits in best with some 

 island in the Shitchito Archipelago; but it seems to be more probable that it is a question 

 of some more distant land, e. g. the Bonin Islands, and of a chance visit there which 

 had fallen into oblivion when the Japanese again came upon these islands and ga ve them 

 a new name. 3 



If therefore we must regard as an open question the geographical significance of the 

 Japanese names, and if we cannot with certainty connect them with the Spanish legend, 

 yet it is evident, on the other hand, that this legend early took a firm hold of the Spanish 

 imagination. This is shown by the way in which Antonio de Morga speaks of it: his words 

 that Rica de Oro and Rica de Platå are but seldom seen suggest that he had no other 

 knowledge of them except the information given to him concerning their approximative 

 situation — information which he probably drew from some map existing in his time, 

 of whose trustworthiness, however, Unamunu had already expressed his doubts, well 

 founded on experience. 



Whether the results of Unamunu' s voyage were forgotten or his explorations were 

 not regarded as satisfactory, the question of the Gold and Silver Islands was again made 

 the subject of enquiry some twenty years after his time. The principal reason for this 

 seems to have been the need of discovering places where the galleons could be repaired 

 and provisioned in the voyage from the Philippines to New Spain. With this object 

 Sebastian Vizcaino, an experienced navigatör, had conducted two expeditions, in 1596 

 and 1602, for the exploration of the coast of California. During the lätt er of these voyages 

 Vizcaino had pushed further north than anyone before him, and he had investigated a 

 number af harbours, of which one in particular, situated in 37° lat. and named after the 

 Viceroy Conde de Monterey, had been found especially suitable for the galleons. No 

 settlement or colony, however, had resulted from Vizcaino's enterprise. That attention 

 was now directed to another quarter seems to have been principally due to Fernando de 

 los Rios Coronel, a man who, after having been Procurador General in Manila, had entered 



1 Kaempfer, Histoire naturelie, civile, et ecclésiastique de Vempire du Japon, T. I, La Haye, 1729, p. 60. 



2 Reproduced by Teleki (Atlas sur Geschichte der Kartographie der japanischen Inseln, Budapest 

 1909, Fig. 4) and, after a more recent engraving, by Nordenskiöld (Periphcs, Fig. 97). Even Antonio Sanches' 

 map (see Pl. I to this paper) represents an island Gesima in a somewbat different position. 



3 Before the complete isolation of Japan at the beginning of the seventeenth century the Japanese 

 carried on a extensive navigation on the surrounding oceans. It is therefore scarcely probable that the Bonin 

 Islands were uuknown to them before they were encountered, about 1675 (according to Kaempfer), by some 

 wind-driven sailors from the island of Fatsisio-sima; a visit there, in the years 1592 — 95, is in fact reported 

 by von Siebold (Geschichtl. Uebersicht, p. 44). Two hundred years låter, 1785, they are said to have been 

 well known to the Japanese, although they were still uninhabited. See Abel-Rémusat, Nouv. melanges asiati- 

 ques, T. I, Paris 1829, p. 153. 



