In 1585, Captain Francisco De Gali, Sailing For The Philippines, Was
Directed To Sail, On The Return Voyage, As Far
North as the weather
would permit, and on reaching the coast of California, examine the land
and the harbors on
His way homeward, make maps of all, and report all
that he accomplished. It does not appear from Gali's report that he
accomplished anything in particular. He reached the coast in latitude
37deg. 30' (Pillar Point), and noted that the land was high and fair; that
the mountains[1] were without snow, and that there were many indications
of rivers, bays, and havens along the coast.
In 1594, Captain Sebastian Cermenon, a Portuguese sailor in the service
of Spain, sailed for the Philippines with orders similar to those of
Gali. In an attempt to survey the coast, he lost his ship, the San
Agustin. It is supposed she struck on one of the Farallones and was
beached in Drake's Bay. From the trunk of a tree they constructed a
boat, called a viroco, and in this the ship's company of more than
seventy persons continued the homeward voyage. The little vessel reached
Puerto de Navidad in safety, and here the commander and part of the
company left it in charge of the pilot, Juan de Morgana, with a crew of
ten men, who brought it into Acapulco on the 31st of January, 1596; a
most remarkable voyage of nearly twenty-five hundred miles by
shipwrecked, sick, and hungry men, crowded into an open boat.
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