KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. N:0 4. 121 



at that harbour; and finally, on 18 February, they arrived at Acapulco. Thevoyagehad 

 been the slowest during the whole period now in question: they had spent nearly seven 

 months on the open sea, and the mortality had been greater than on any other voyage: 

 24 persons, including the GeneraFs wife, died between 16 November and 16 February. 

 The return-journey — under the charge of the Piloto Segundo Tancias instead of 

 the Piloto Mayor, who had fallen sick on the outward voyage — seems, on the other hand, 

 to have been normal: they left Acapulco on 7 April 1733; sighted the island of Guam on 

 15 June; passed the Embocadero on 1 July; and arrived at Cavite on 14 July. 



1733. On 26 July two vessels sail from Cavite: the capitana "Nuestra Sehora de 

 Cobadonga", General Don Joseph Antonio Vermudes, Piloto Mayor Don Joseph 

 Goncalez Btjeno; the almiranta "Nuestra Sehora del Pilar", Almirante and Piloto 

 Mayor Don Geronimo Montero, Piloto Accompafiado Ignacio Perez de Arce. After 

 clearing the Embocadero on 25 August, the two ships sailed in company until 1 October, 

 when they were in 18° 25' N. lat., and 16° 38' long. The capitana saw the senas on 12 

 January 1734 and arrived at Acapulco on 17 February. The almiranta, af ter encountering 

 the senas on 19 January in 36° 9' N. lat., set her course as usual for Cape San Lucas. 

 On 4 February, when they were two miles distant from that place, a boat was sent ashore 

 to fetch water and refreshments; they stayed there until 10 February, and arrived at 

 Acapulco on the 21st of the same month. 



As regards the visit to Cape San Lucas we have a f airly detailed account from another 

 quarter. 1 After the Jesuits had begun to carry on missionary work with success on the 

 Californian Peninsula in the beginning of the eighteenth century, they founded several 

 settlements there, among others one, in 1730, near Cape San Lucas which received the 

 name of San José del Cabo. Its head, Father Nicolas Tamaral, received one day in 

 January 1734 through some Indians intelligence that a great ship was to be seen off the 

 coast. Soon afterwards it ran into the neighbouring harbour, Bahia de San Bernabé; 

 and from people who were sent to meet the landing party the Father learnt that it was 

 a ship from Manila under the command of Don Geronimo Montero, and that its supply 

 of water was almost exhausted, and that it had many people ill with scurvy. The Father 

 immediately sent down to the shore all he could gather together in the way of fresh 

 provisions, and told the Indians to help in carrying the water. Most of the sick were also 

 landed and, thanks to the priest's care, soon recovered their health, all except three, 

 who had to remain at the mission when the Captain, with the warmest expressions of 

 gratitude, took leave of his benefactor. Montero afterwards tried in Mexico to secure an 

 order that the galleons should always call at the mission near Cape San Lucas, but he 

 won little support for his proposal. As we shah see, he obtained a better hearing in Manila: 

 it was the f irst real result of the endeavours that had been going on for more than a century 

 to arrange a place of call for the galleons during the voyage from the Philippines to New 

 Spain. 



The return-journey, during which Geronimo Montero acted as General and Joseph 

 Goncalez Bueno as Almirante, was begun by the two ships together. They sailed from 



1 Venegas, Op. cit., II, pp. 451 et sequ. 



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