KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. N:0 4. 101 



and Lotfs Wife, which the charts of that period had placed far too much to the east. On 

 30 September, Gemelli remarks that they thought they had reached the latitude, near 

 32°, where a certain imaginary island, called Rica de Oro, was situated, "although it was 

 certain that nobody had ever seen it"; and on 3 October, in 34° 7' lat., they caught a little 

 bird, like a canary-bird, that had settled on the ship. This event, says Gemelli, gave the 

 pilots and the passengers occasion to speculate on the question whence the little bird 

 had come; and they agreed that it had undoubtedly come from Rica de Platå, which was 

 situated 30 leagnes further south. The pilots supposed that Rica de Oro and Rica de Platå 

 and other islands in their neighbourhood were the islands of Solomon; "but for my part", 

 adds Gemelli, "I t hink that they exist solely in the imagination, inasmuch as during the 

 whole time that this navigation has been carried on, no one has ever yet beheld them". 

 At the command of the Spanish King they had sought for them in vain; and among such 

 unsuccessful endeavours are mentioned Mendaha's voyage in 1595, and the plan that 

 Andres de Medina vainly sought to carry out in 1663. 1 Despite the fact that they had so 

 little behef in the exist ence of these islands, the course was altered on the following day, 

 4 October, from NE. to E., so that they should not unawares strike on Rica de Platå. 



During the rest of the voyage nothing worthy of mention is recorded except the 

 severe sufferings the crew had to endure in consequence of storms, sickness, hunger and 

 thirst, — and the sight, now and then, of pieces of driftwood and birds, which gave birth 

 to the surmise that land was near. On 20 October, in 36° 37' lat., they saw a döve which 

 was believed to have come from the island Dona Maria Laxara, "called after a Spanish 

 woman of that name who had cast herself into the sea at this place". On this island, 

 situated in 31° lat., it is said that such döves — ■ which, however, are declared to be not 

 ordinary land-pigeons, but sea-pigeons with feet like those of ducks — occur in such 

 multitudes that they darken the air. 



The highest latitude, 39° 38', was observed on 19 November; but probably this 

 observation is 2 or 3 degrees too high, to judge by the errors in Gemelli' s latitude-figures 

 for known places on the coast of California. It was not until 3 December that they met 

 the senas, which they had by this time given up the hope of encountering; and on the 

 14th of the same month they at length saw land — the island of Santa Gatalina, situated 

 in 36° lat., 12 leagues from the mainland. It was said to be the largest of five small 

 islands and to be inhabited by wild Indians. It is evident that this was one of the Santa 

 Barbara Islands, but probably it was not the present Santa Catalina, but rather San 

 Clemente, to which the description that it was long in shape also applies. If this be so, 

 the latitude-figures were not less than 3° too high. During the voyage along the Cali- 

 fornian coast they further saw I sia de Cenizas (San Martin Island) and I sia de Cedros, 

 while Guadalwpe, "which the galleons usually make for", was left far out in the sea to 

 starboard. Finally, they cast anchor at Acapulco on 20 January 1697. (Gemelli Carreri, 

 Voyage du tour du Monde, V, Paris 1727, pp. 254—75, 285—312, 397—419, 432—44.) 



The "Nuestra Sehora del Rosario", on her way from Acapulco, arrives at the Em- 

 bocadero on 1 August 1696, but, out of fear of that dangerous passage, they land at Puerto 



See above, page 89. 



