KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. N:0 4. ]31 



Acapulco, in Mexico, which is the eastern port for the South Sea and for navigations from New 

 Spain to the Philippines, is in 16 7, degrees of latitude. If , in voyaging from Acapulco to the Philippines, 

 the ships proceed in a straight line from the rising towards the setting sun, they will arrive at Baler, 

 a village in the northern part of the further coast of Manila Island, which is in the same latitude as 

 Acapulco. But usually, as soon as they set sail from Acapulco, they descend to the llth or lOth parallel 

 in order to find the winds with which they can navigate; then they again go northward and follow 

 their former course to a point 500 leagues from Manila, and 100 leagues from the Ladrone Islands — 

 among which they pass, in a latitude of 15 degrees. Thence they sail again to lower latitudes, descending 

 to barely 13 1 j i degrees — 011 which line is the Embocadero of San Bernardino, 100 leagues from Manila. 

 Thence the voyage is made between the same island of Manila and other islands which lie on the left, 

 to the port of Cabite, which is two leagues from Manila. Ordinarily this voyage is made in three months, 

 although the return trip is usually much longer — sometimes requiring more than seven months; 

 while in this year 1662, it last ed eight months. r 



The sailing directions quoted above deal solely with the voyage from Acapulco to 

 Manila, and with regard to the supposed knowledge of the Hawaiian Islands they confirm 

 what we have said several times. As regards the voyage in the opposite direction we have 

 some information through Father Diego de Bobadilla, who, in a paper written about 

 the middle of the seventeenth century, says expressly that the galleon, from the time it 

 left the Philippines until it was approaching the coast of New Spain, sighted no land with 

 the possible exception of the northernmost islands in the Ladrones. 1 



Amongst the literature of this kind may be reckoned a hitherto unpublished 

 manuscript, which is to be found in transcript in the British Museum. 2 Its title runs: 

 "TMscursos Maritimos, y alivio de fatigas, entré dos Marineros nombrados Juan Trosco 3 y 

 Pedro Bastardo estando de Guardia en el Navio Santiago surto en este Puerto de Ca vite." 

 The author, whose name is not given, states his intention of having his paper printed, but 

 this does not appear to have taken place. As regards the time when it was produced, we 

 can draw conclusions from the dedication to Don Diego de Salcedo, who was Governor 

 of the Philippines during the years 1663 — 68. 4 



In the form of a conversation between two sailors on night-watch on board a galleon 

 lying at anchor in the port of Ca vite, several proposals are discussed as to the best way of 

 arranging the Philippine navigation and freeing it from the dangers to which the ships 

 bad been exposed in the preceding period. The author says that lie "does not base his 

 discussions on fine-spun theories in astronomy but on the practical teachings of experience, 

 as this could be regarded as a f aithf ul mother of success, while the former was wont to be 

 an infallible pledge of disasters and shipwrecks". The conversation principally centres 

 on a proposal which seems to have been then much discussed, viz. to exchange Ca vite as 

 the port of departure and arrival for the galleons for the harbours of Lampon and Mauban 

 on the east coast of Luzon. By this means the difficult passage through the Embocadero 

 would be avoided and several other advantages would be gained. But the author, repre- 



1 "Relation des isles Philipines faite par un religieux qui y a demeuré 18 ans" (p. 8); published by 

 Thevenot in Belation de divers voyagcs curieux, P. II, Paris 1666. Cf. Bl. & Rob. LIII, p. 117. 



2 Add. MS. 17625, f. 74 v°— 82. 



3 This is possibly a clerical error in the title: in the text he is called Trofeo. 



1 Fernandez Duro, who quotes the title of this manuscript, dates it about 1665. Armada Ezpaflola, 

 IV, p. 428 note. 



