Francisco Gali, a Spanish commander, returning to Acapulco from China in 1583, tried the experiment of steering northward to about 38°, when he turned west and sighted the American coast in that latitude. At this point he steered south, and showed the practicability of following this circuitous route with less time than was required to buffet the easterly trades by a direct eastern passage. His experiment established one other fact, namely, the great width of water separating the two continents in those upper latitudes; for he had found it to be 1200 leagues across instead of there being a narrow strait, as the theorizing geographers had supposed. Gali seems also to have shown that the distance south from Cape Mendocino to the point of the California peninsula was not more than half as great as the maps had made it. His voyage was a significant source of enlightenment to the cartographers.
Eastern coast of North America.
1579. The English on the coast.
To return to the eastern coasts, an English vessel under Simon Ferdinando spent a short season in 1579 somewhere about the Gulf of Maine, and was followed the next year by another under John Walker, and in 1593 by still a third under Richard Strong.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert.
For eighty years England might have rested her claim to North America on the discoveries of the Cabots; but Queen Elizabeth first gave prominence to these pretensions when she granted to Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1578 the right to make a settlement somewhere in these more northerly regions. Gilbert's first voyage accomplished nothing, and there was an interdict to prevent a second, since England might have use for daring seamen nearer home. "First," says Robert Hues, "Sir Humphrey Gilbert, with great courage and forces, attempted to make discovery of those parts of America which were yet unknown to the Spaniards; but the success was not answerable." The effort was not renewed till 1583, when Gilbert took possession of Newfoundland and attempted to make settlements farther south; but disaster followed him, and his ship foundered off the Azores on his return voyage.
GILBERT'S MAP, 1576.