[324] Figueroa in his account tells us that they rigged a jury-mast, making use of a top-mast for this purpose.
During the first week of December they experienced foul winds and thick weather: but on the 9th the wind went round to the south-south-east; and they reached the latitude of 31° on the 12th. Signs of the vicinity of land were now observed, such as sea-birds and a goose. A sailor leapt into the sea after a floating piece of a pine, and brought it on board, in order to bring fair weather. Rain fell, and enough water was collected for three days. At length the land was sighted by the watchful eye of Gallego. “It was the eve of our Lady the Virgin” . . . . . he writes . . . . . “and whilst standing at the side of the ship, I saw the land. Some of us, who despaired to see it, said that it could not be the land. Sailing through the night, two hours before the dawn we found ourselves close to two islets that lay a league from the mainland in latitude 30° north of the Equinoctial.[325]”
[325] Gallego here observes that the day before the land was sighted, the needle remained pointing north.
At length the Spaniards had reached the coast of Old California. “The mercy of God”—as Gallego writes—“had brought us safely through so many storms and privations that the soldiers had despaired of seeing it. Following along the coast, as it trended to the south-east, we entered a bay which resembles in form a pen for shoeing cattle (corral de herrar ganado). We could not see the outside point on account of its great distance. We found ourselves embayed; and it was necessary to steer west to weather this point. . . . . . We were detained three days with calms and north-west winds, as we had to beat to windward to weather this point. We named this bay la bahia de San. tome: it is in latitude 273⁄4°. At the point of this bay there are two large islets, named the Isles of Cacones.[326] We doubled the point on the 23rd of December. We beached the ship for 12 days between these islets. Having lost our boat at sea, we went ashore on a raft of casks to get water. There we made another raft of rushes and some casks, on which we carried on board 12 casks of water and many fish that we caught.”
[326] This large bay, which deeply indents the Californian peninsula, is named in the present maps the bay of Sebastian Vizcaino, after the Spaniard who surveyed this coast in 1602. Gallego’s name of San. tome, which may be a contraction for San. Bartolomeo, has, therefore, the priority of some 30 years and more. The prominent headland, which they had to double, is at present called Point Eugenio. The two large islets off this point are now called Cerros and Natividad Islands.
Having obtained timber for making another boat, they continued their voyage, as the Indians were hostile. A foul wind caused them to pass by the port of Xalosco, and they “tacked to seaward to double the Cabo de Corrientes, which is in 21°, in order to reach the port of Santiago, which is 50 leagues beyond Xalosco.”
On the 24th[327] of January, 1569, they entered the port of Santiago. The Chief-Pilot tells us in his journal that he was well acquainted with this coast and with its people: this port,[328] he says, lies six leagues from Port Natividad, and is in latitude 191⁄4°. Before they left Santiago a joyful surprise awaited them. “On the day of St. Paul’s Conversion, three days after our arrival, the ‘Almiranta’ . . . . . hove in sight. She was much in want of water and provisions; and she carried no boat which, like ourselves, she had cast over in the great storms; and her main-mast was cut away. They did not recognize the coast. It was our Lord’s good will to bring us together in this port. God knows how glad we were to see each other. In preserving us through such great tempests, our Lord had worked a miracle . . . . . They told us what had happened during the great storms: and that when they arrived, they had only one vessel (botija) of water remaining . . . . . Sama, the alguacil-mayor of the city of Mexico, came with some people of the town of Colima to see who we were, and he talked with the General.”
[327] This should be the 22nd of January, as Gallego observes subsequently that the “Almiranta” arriving on the 25th came three days after them.
[328] During his passage from the Californian to the Mexican coast, Gallego seems from some observations in his journal to have been puzzled by getting a latitude of 23° 26′ before he arrived at the extremity of the Californian Peninsula. He speaks of San Lucas as being “at the end of California in the tropics;” but this observation apparently did not clear up his doubt on the matter; and in fact on first touching the Mexican coast, the number of small bays made him think that it was still the coast of California. The latitude of Cape San Lucas, the extremity of the Californian Peninsula, is 22° 52′: it is, therefore, well within the tropics.