naked, save a piece of matting about their middle-tall, robust, and swarthy, with long hair and rough beards. They had large canoes, and were armed with cane lances. When Saavedra, after a run of little more than two months, reached the Moluccas, he was immediately attacked by the Portuguese, but supported by his countrymen, the residue of Loyasa's fleet, who had now built a brigantine. Having completed his cargo, he sailed for New Spain on the 3d June, 1528 -an eastward voyage that for a series of years baffled the most skilful navigators. Land was reached, which the Spaniards named Isla del Oro, in the belief that it abounded in gold. There is, however, reason to conclude that it was Papua, afterward called New Guinea, from the resemblance between the natives and the negroes on the coast of Africa. They were black, with short crisped hair, and had the features of that distinctive race of Polynesia, since termed Oceanic negroes, who are found in many of those groups which are seattered throughout the vast Pacific, sometimes mixed with the other great family by which these islands are peopled, but generally apart. Saavedra, finding the wind unfavourable, was obliged to return to the Moluccas; nor was his second attempt to reach New Spain, in the following year, more fortunate. In this voyage he once more touched at Papua. When formerly there he had made three captives, two of whom, on again seeing the beloved shores of their native land, plunged into the sea while the ship was yet distant; but the third, who was more tractable, and had by this time been baptized, remained as envoy from his new friends to his ancient countrymen, and to establish an amicable traffic. When the vessel neared the beach, he also left her, in order to swim ashore but, without being allowed to land, he was assailed and murdered, as an outcast and renegade, in presence of his Christian patrons. A group of small islands (part of the Carolines) in 70 north, were, from the circumstance of the natives being tattooed or painted, named Los Pintados. To the northeast of this cluster, several low ones, well peopled, were discovered, and named Los Buenos Jardines.* At this place Saavedra dropped anchor, and the inhabitants drew

;

*Nous reconnoissons dans les premieres [Los Pintados] une portion des îles Ralik, et dans les secondes [Los Buenos Jardines] l'extrémité nord des Radak, groupe exploré long-temps après [1816-17] par le capitaine russe Kotzebue."-Freycinet, tome ii., p. 76.

near the shore, waving a flag. A number of men came on board, accompanied by a female, who touched each of the Spaniards in succession, and was from that circumstance supposed to be a sorceress brought for the purpose of discovering what kind of beings they were. Both sexes were light-complexioned and tattooed. The women were beautiful, with agreeable features and long black hair, and wore dresse of fine matting. Saavedra, on landing, was met by a promiscuous band advancing in a certain order, with tambourines and festal songs. To gratify the curiosity of their chief, a musket was fired, which struck them with such terror that the greater part immediately fled in their canoes to a station three leagues distant, whence they were with difficulty induced to return. These islands afforded abundance of cocoanuts and other vegetable productions. The commander died soon after leaving the Good Gardens ;* and after vainly attempting to reach New Spain, the ship once more returned to the Moluccas. After sustaining many varieties of fortune, the Spaniards, finding that they could procure no re-enforcements from their own country, consented to abandon the settlement, on condition of being furnished with means to convey them home. They accordingly departed for Cochin in 1534, but did not reach Europe till 1537, after an absence of twelve years. Though the honour," says Burney, "of sending forth the second ship that encircled the globe cannot be claimed by the Spanish nation, it is nevertheless a justice

66

*To Saavedra is ascribed the bold idea of cutting a canal from sea to sea through the Isthmus of Darien. This project, which has been often revived, very early engaged the attention of Spain. It is discussed in Jos. Acosta's History of the Indies, who urges against the design an opinion, that one sea being higher than the other, the undertaking must be attended by some awful calamity to the globe. Observations made under the patronage of Bolivar, and completed in 1829, seem to show that the levels of the two oceans are different; but as our ideas of a canal no longer imply a channel through which the waters of the one sea should flow into the other, the apprehensions that occurred to the Spanish historian have ceased to appal us. The chief obstacle is the enormous expense; for it seems now to be sufficiently proved that either a canal or a railway is quite practicable (See Royal Society Transactions for 1830); indeed, it is reported that the construction of the latter has been determined on by the government of New Grenada. A cut was in fact made in 1788, connecting a tributary of the San Juan with a branch of the Quito, and thus opening a communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific, during the rainy season, fo the canoes of the country, which draw from one to two feet of water.

due to the memory of the few of Loyasa's and Saavedra's men who reached their native country, to notice them as the navigators who the second time performed that tour."*

Several voyages had in the mean time been attempted by private adventurers; but they all proved abortive, and the passage by Magellan's Straits, as well as the schemes which began to be entertained for opening a communication through the Isthmus of Darien, was abandoned, when, in 1529, the Emperor Charles V. mortgaged or ceded to Portugal his right to all the islands west of the Ladrones, for 350,000 ducats (108,181., 15s.). The discoveries now opening in other quarters likewise contributed to divert attention from this point. The peninsula of California was visited a few years afterward. Its gulf and outer shores were examined by Cortes in 1536; new settlements were also every year rising in Mexico and Peru, which engrossed the cares of the Spanish governor; and it was not till the year 1542, that, forgetting the cession to Portugal, a squadron was once more fitted out, destined for the Archipelago of St. Lazarus. This was the work of Mendoza, viceroy of Mexico, and the command was intrusted to his brother-in-law, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos. He discovered the Island of San Tomas, in latitude 18° 30′ north, and a cluster, which he named El Coral. On the 6th January, 1543, at 35 leagues from the Coral Isles, the fleet passed ten islands belonging to the group of the Carolines, and probably the same with Saavedra's Gardens. The squadron coasted along Mindanao, and on reaching Sarrangan, an island near the south part of Mindanao, resolved to establish in it that settlement which was the chief purpose of their expedition. This the natives, though at first hospitable and friendly, stoutly opposed; but the captain-general, having already taken formal possession of all the islands for the emperor, determined to make good his point, and, accordingly, attacking their forces, compelled them to retreat. Here the Spaniards raised their first harvest of Indian corn in the Philippines-the name now given by Villalobos to the Archipelago, in compliment to the Prince-royal of Spain. The inhabitants of several islands in a short time became more friendly; traffic was established; and this success once more excited the jealous apprehensions of the Portuguese, and induced them to foment intrigues

* Chron. Hist. of Discov. in South Sea, vol. i., p 161.

among the native chiefs who favoured the different European leaders. In the progress of events, the conduct of Villalobos was marked by perfidy to the allies he had gained, and by treachery to his sovereign. In despite of the remonstrances of his officers, he accepted unworthy terms from the Portuguese, and provided himself a passage home in one of their ships. But his main object was defeated, for he died at Amboyna of sickness and chagrin-thus eluding the vengeance of the country which he had betrayed.

The commencement of a new reign is a period proverbial for energy and activity. Among the first acts of Philip II. was an order issued to the Viceroy of Mexico for the final conquest of the Philippines. The Fray Andres de Urdaneta, a celebrated cosmographer and navigator, who, after sailing with Loyasa, had become a monk, was requested to accompany an expedition for this purpose; and to him the honour was given of nominating the captain-general, his own profession forbidding him to hold any secular rank. His choice fell upon Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, a person of great prudence, who sailed with four ships from Navidad in New Spain on the 21st November, 1564. On the 9th January following they discovered a small island, which they named De los Barbudos, on account of the large beards of the natives, and next morning a circle of islets, which were called De los Plazeres, from the shoals which ran between them. A similar group were perceived on the 12th, named Las Hermanas, or The Sisters; and are supposed to be the same with the Pescadores and Arrecifes of modern charts. The squadron touched at the Ladrones, and without seeing other land made the Philippines, where, according to the sealed orders received from the king, they were to form a settlement. On the 13th of February they anchored near the east part of the Island Tandaya. The natives wore the semblance of friendship; and an alliance was made with the chiefs, according to the customs of their country, the parties drawing blood from their arms and breasts, and mingling it with wine or water, in which they pledged mutual fidelity.* In this ceremony the captain-general declined to join, alleging that there was no person on the other side of

The classical reader will not need to be reminded that Herodotus records similar customs as prevalent among the Scythians and other nations.

sufficient rank to contract with him. The Indians, however, could not be so far insnared as to become the dupes of European policy, remarking that the Spaniards gave "good words but bad works." The fleet sailed from place to place, but small progress was made in gaining the confidence of the people, who were now fully alive to the intentions of their visiters. One station after another was abandoned, and though a good understanding was established with the chief of Bohol, with whom Legaspi performed the ceremony of bleeding, Zebu was at last selected as the centre of colonization. There the Spaniards carried matters in a higher tone than they had hitherto assumed. The tardiness of the people to acknowledge the offered civilities of the voyagers was used as a pretext for aggression, and the foundation of the first Spanish colony in the Philippines was laid in the ashes of the sacked capital. Hostilities continued to be waged for a time between the islanders and the invaders; but at last a peace was concluded. The news of the settlement was carried back to America by the Fray Andres Urdaneta, the pilot-monk, who sailed on the 1st June, and on the 3d of October reached Acapulco an exploit highly extolled at the time, as the passage across the Pacific from west to east, so necessary to facilitate the communication between the Philippines and the mother-country, had hitherto baffled every navigator. By following a course to the 43d degree of north latitude fair winds were obtained; and the homeward voyage long continued to be made to New Spain by the same track, which acquired the name of Urdaneta's Passage. The occupation of Manilla soon followed that of Zebu, and it became the insular capital of the Spaniards in the eastern world.

Geographical discovery and maritime enterprise were now to receive a new spirit from that extraordinary career of conquest which, commenced by Hernan Cortes almost contemporaneously with the voyage of Magellan, had already extended over the greater part of the western coast of South America. In the year 1563, Juan Fernandez, a Spanish pilot, in the passage from Peru to the new establishments in Chili, had stood out to sea in the hopes of finding favourable winds, and in his progress descried two islands; one of which was called Mas-afuera, while the other received the name of its discoverer, and has since acquired much celebrity as the supposed scene of Defoe's romance of Robinson Crusoe.

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