104 DAHLGREN. THE DISCOVERY OF THE HAWATIAN ISLANDS. 



The original sources which alone could have given decisive answers to the questions 

 here put forward — that is, the log-books of the Manila galleons — seem unf ortunately 

 to be no longer in existence. Dr. Bruno Rolf has informed me that he has sought for 

 them in vain in the Indian Archives at Seville: possibly they remained at Manila and were 

 there destroyed. 



We are better informed concerning these voyages during the first half of thé 

 eighteenth century. In the British Museum there is a manuscript containing an off icially 

 authenticated summary of the reports that the commanders of the galleons handed in after 

 the completion of their voyages. 1 The author was Pedro de Anttoquia, "escribano receptor 

 de los del numero de la Real Audiencia y Chancilleria de estas yslas Philipinas". The period 

 embraced by this resumé is the years 1699 — 1740. No reason is given why there are gaps 

 for several years: for one year I have been able to ascertain that this lacuna is due to the 

 fact that the galleon that sailed in that year vanished leaving no trace, and therefore no 

 official investigation (residencia) concerning the voyage could be held. For the period 

 1712 — 24 there is information only concerning the years 1714, 1717, and 1722; but we 

 do not know whether the galleon-traffic was then interrupted or whether the silence of 

 the manuscript is due to the mislaying of the relevant documents. Nor am I able to 

 state the reason for the official form in which the document appears. It was issued in 

 the presence of witnesses at Manila on 22 November 1742, and the signatures are attested 

 by three public notaries. 



However, the manuscript gives us a fairly complete picture of the navigation of 

 the galleons, as that had developed in the course of time. While the notes from the 

 previous age chief ly dwell on shipwrecks and disasters of all kinds - — it is, as we have seen, 

 a very sad story they have to reläte - - from the year 1699 we have an account of what 

 we may call the normal course of the galleon-traffic. Disasters are not even now lacking, 

 but they are comparatively few in number: which to no slight extent must be ascribed 

 to increased experience and better seamanship on the part of the commanders of the 

 ships. Owing to experience or to legal enactments the route seems to have been so 

 closely defined that only slight variations between different voyages occur. 



The manuscript is prefaced by a table showing, for the different voyages, the 

 number of days taken for the whole voyage from Manila to Acapulco, and for special 

 sections of the journey, in which the principal stress is laid on the point of time at which the 

 f loating sea-weed, the senas, appeared; there is also given, in separate columns, the latitude 

 in which these senas were first met with in different years; and finally another column 

 shows the number of deaths on board, information which is missing, however, for a 

 number of voyages. 



From this table we learn that the voyage from Manila to Acapulco, if we strike an 

 average for the twenty-six voyages of which we have complete information, lasted 188 

 days. Individual voyages demanded as much as 226 days; and the number of deaths 



1 This manuscript, of which I have received a photograph through the the kindness of the authorities, 

 has the following title: "Testimonio relativo de treinta diarios de la navegacion hecha por diferentes navios de 

 la carera de Philipinas para Nueva Espana con nota de las senales que vieron en las latitudes y longitudes 

 por do navegaron, y de las cosas que se ofrecieron sobre necessidades, danos y guerra, con insercion de algunas 

 juntas"; 22(i pp. in-fol. Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 19293. 



