Before proceeding with the journal of Gallego, it is necessary for me to remark that I have relegated to an [appendix] much of that which is of interest to the geographical student. The reason is an obvious one and needs no further reference, since the narrative often takes the character of a sea-log, and the geographical and critical points involved are necessarily only of special interest.
The Governor, Lope Garcia de Castro, gave orders for the equipment of two ships of the fleet for the discovery of certain islands and a continent (tierra firme) concerning which His Catholic Majesty D. Philip II. had summoned a number of persons versed in mathematics in order to deliberate on the plan to be followed. After selecting the vessels, he nominated as General in command of the expedition his nephew, Alvaro de Mendana; as Commander of the troops (maestre de campo), Pedro de Ortega Valencia; as the Royal Ensign, D. Fernando Enriquez; and lastly, as Chief-Pilot—to quote the words of the journal—“myself, the said Hernando Gallego.”
The number of all that embarked on this voyage, including, besides the soldiers and sailors, four Franciscan friars and the servants, was a hundred. The preparations were made with such alacrity and willingness that the ships were fitted out with a dispatch that seemed scarcely credible; and on the 19th day of Nov., 1566,[204] being Wednesday, the day of St. Isabel, the two ships sailed from Callao, the port of the City of Kings, which is situated, as Gallego remarks, in 121⁄2° S. lat. Shaping their course to the south-west, they had not to allow for the variation of the compass, since the needle pointed direct to the pole; and reference is here made in the journal to the circumstance that in Spain, more particularly in the city of Seville, the needle varied one point to the north-west. Steering in the same southerly and westerly direction until the 27th of the same month, they reached the latitude of 151⁄2°, being by their reckoning 57 leagues[205] due west from the “morro de Uacaxique,” which was in the same latitude.[206] They now shaped their course west, following along the parallel of 153⁄4°, because “the Lord President had said that in the latitude of 15°, at a distance of 600 leagues from Peru, there were many rich islands.” With the wind “a long time in the south-east,” they accomplished a usual daily run of from 20 to 30 leagues. By the third of December, they were by their reckoning in the meridian of the bay of Fego,[207] which is stated by Gallego to be situated in 16° north of the equinoctial and 546 leagues due north of their position. On the 7th of the same month, the Chief-Pilot recorded his observation that the needle showed no variation from the pole and that it neither dipped nor tilted up.
[204] Vide [Note II.] of Geographical Appendix.
[205] Spanish leagues, 171⁄2 to a degree, all through the narrative.
[206] I have not been able to find this name in any maps or charts.
[207] In the maps I have examined there is no bay of this name given.
“At this time,” he writes, “I inquired of the pilots as to our position; but I only provoked their obstinacy: and we went on our voyage sailing across the ocean to discover land. We noticed the flight of the birds that passed us in the morning and evening, and whence they came, and whither they went towards the setting sun. All this was no certain guide, as some flew north and others south; and there was nothing to justify our pursuing the flying-fish which abounded in those seas.” It is right that I should here allude to the importance attached by the voyagers of this period to the flight of birds which had often guided them to the discovery of new lands. It was for this reason, it will be remembered, that Columbus swerved from his westerly course when approaching the American Continent.
Gallego soon began to lose confidence in the opinion of the Lord President, because pursuing their course along the same parallel of 153⁄4° they failed to observe any signs of land. On the 12th of December, being in the meridian of the harbour of La Navidad (a port on the Pacific coast of Mexico, in lat. 19° 12′ N., long. 104° 46′ W.), there was a consultation between Gallego and the other pilots, when their latitudes were found to agree, but the dead reckoning of the pilots was greater. At length, on the 16th of the month, it was resolved by the Chief-Pilot to leave this parallel and head more to the northward, as they were now 620 leagues rather more than less from Peru and there were no signs of their approaching land.