KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. NIO 4. 77 



With these two unsuccessful attempts the Dutch ceased to search for the Gold and 

 Silver Islands; nor did the seamen of other nations feel tempted to go in quest of their 

 supposed treasures. 



This did not mean, however, that these islands had played out their part in the 

 history of geography: they still retained their place on the maps, or at least on some of 

 them. From the seventeenth century, however, \ve know only two such, namely that by 

 Antonio Sanches dated 1641; and another Portuguese map of about the same date (in 

 the Bibliothéque Nationale in Paris). 1 Other such maps are mentioned, however; and 

 as to Rica de Oro and Rica de Platå, after being long ignored in the literature of navigation, 

 again make their appearence in the narrative of a voyage by the Italian Gemelli Carreri 

 in 1696;- it can scarcely be doubted that it was through the charts used on the galleon 

 that his attention had been directed to these islands. As he denies absolutely his belief 

 in their existence, one must assume that it is only as any example of current sailors' yarns 

 that he cites a story of a galleon which, on its way from Manila to New Spain, had been 

 driven by storms to an island where they had provided themselves with fresh sand to 

 replace that which had been blown away by the wind from the fireplace; and when, after 

 arriving at Acapulco, they were poking about in this sand, they had there found a lump 

 of gold which had been melted out of the sand by the heat. 3 



Not even sailors seem to have put much faith in such stories. Far from feeling any 

 temptation to try to ascertain their veracity by searching for the mysterious islands, 

 they rather regarded them as a danger to navigation, which they ought, if possible, to 

 try to avoid. Gemelli Carreri himself says that the galleon on which he was travelling 

 altered his course so as not to strike unawares on Rica de Platå, when they believed 

 themselves to be in its vicinity; and a similar line of action is repeatedly mentioned in 

 the voyages of the galleons during the eighteenth century. 4 Evidently it was solely the 

 appearance of the islands on the charts that ga ve occasion to these manoeuvres; and 

 this is confirmed by the charts themselves, and also by the sailing directions. 



The first printed maps on which appear Rica de Oro and Rica de Platå are two 

 by the eminent geographer Guillaume Delisle, viz. his Hémisphére Oriental (drawn 

 in 1720, printed in 1724) and his Carte cVAsie dressée pour Vusage du Roi (June 1723). 5 

 Amongst the material which Delisle used for these maps there were also hand-drawn 

 Spanish charts; and upon all such charts that we know from the eighteenth century 

 these islands are found; they are also mentioned in the Pilot Cabrera Bueno's manual 

 for the navigation in the Pacific (1734). We shall return to these charts and sailing 

 directions: it was undoubtedly their testimony that led the Spanish government to set on 

 foot for the last time an inquiry about the existence of the islands and to take a decision 

 which definitely expelled them from the history of Spanish discovery. 



1 For the former see Pl. I to this paper; the latter is reproduced hy Teleki, op. cd., Tab. V, 1. 



2 See p. 100 below. 



:i The story is evidently taken from lielation des Isles Philippines par Hieronimo de Banuelos (ef. 

 note 2 on p. 72 above). 



4 As shown by the accounts of these voyages summarized in Chapter VII, Rica de Oro or Kica de 

 Platå or both are mentioned in the logs for the years 1701, 1703, 1722, 1731, 1732, 1734, and 1710. 



5 See Fig. 20 and 22 below. 



