KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. N:0 4. 155 



tliat tliey represent the islands discovered in 1522 by Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa. 

 We ha ve already mentioned (p. 22) that this man, one of Magellan' s followers, made an 

 attempt, after the death of his chief, to sail eastwards from the Moluccas to New Spain. 

 During the voyage they discovered, in 19° or 20° lat., an island where the Spaniards were 

 attacked by a number of barbarous natives, one of whom was captured and detained on 

 board. After Espinosa had been compelled by an adverse wind to turn back, he tried 

 to make the same island; but he did not succeed in this, but came to another island situated 

 at a distance of 20 leagues from the other; it was small and dry and inhabited by only 40 

 persons. Here three sailors deserted, one of whom, Gonzalo de Vigo, was picked up by 

 Loaysa's expedition four years låter, in September 1526. As all Espinosa's papers and 

 other belongings 1 fell into the hands of the Portuguese, it is quite explicable that it was 

 they who profited cartographically by his discoveries, and that it was through them that 

 they came to the knowledge of Ortelius. 



The names to be read on Ortelius' map, however, do not occur in any narrative of 

 Espinosa' s voyage that has been preserved. Herrera, who gives the fullest account of it, 

 does not mention any of the islands by name: an account cited by Navarrete, says that the 

 island where they put in on the return-journey was called Mao; Galväo calls the island first 

 discovered Grega; while a manuscript narrative of the voyage gives to this island the name 

 of Quamgragam or Magregua. 2 Evidently these names reproduce, moreor lessfaithfully, 

 the natives' own names; but even if these were known to Espinosa, this proves nothing 

 against the view above expressed, for numerous examples can be cited of the re-naming 

 of lands by discoverers in both earlier and låter times, though they knew their native names. 

 Another possibility is that the Spanish names indicate islands in the Ladrones other than 

 those mentioned in the narratives of the voyage. These Spanish names, however, ha ve 

 not been able to keep their place on the maps side by side with the native names, espe- 

 cially as these latter had already made their appearance before the time of Ortelius. As 

 carly as on Sebastian Cabot's well-known map of the world (1544), we find the whole 

 of the Ladrone chain given fairly correctly and with names to all the islands: hence the 

 source is undoubtedly to be sought in the statements of the deserting sailor Gonzalo de 

 Vigo. Amongst these names Mahaa or Maneo can be identified with the above-named 

 Mao; while Gregua is obviously identical with Grega. Despite the fact that the identity 

 of the last-named with Agrigan (18° 48' lat.) on modern maps is indisputable, we cannot 

 from this obtain sufficient guidance for the further identification of Ortelius' islands. 

 The most probable view seems to be that Los Monges are the small rocks that are now 

 called Uraccas; La Vecina is possibly Volcan Grande (Asuncion or Assongsong on modern 

 maps), and La Desgraciada Agrigan; but nothing more can be laid down with certainty 

 than that the entire group represents the northernmost of the Ladrones. 3 



1 ''Todas las cartas e astrolabios, y cuadrantes y regimientos, y los libros que babian becho de derrotear, 

 en los cuales estaba asentada la navegacion. y las islas que babian hallado.'' Declaration by the Pilot Leon 

 Pancalde; Navarrete, Coleccion, IV, p. 383. 



2 Jean Denucé, Magellan. La question des Moluques et la premicre circumnavigation du globc, p. 

 368 (Mém. de l'Académie R. de Belgique, Cl. des lettres. Sér. 2, T. IV, Bruxelles 1908—11). 



3 La Pérouse, the first man who closely explored these islands, called the three rocks Las Uraccas by 

 the name of the Mängs. It has been supposed that this name was a perversion of the Spanish Las Mönjas, 



