S. which they named St
Matthew; and, finding orange trees, hogs, and European poultry, they
concluded it to be inhabited; but, by inscriptions oil the bark of trees,
they learnt that the Portuguese had bean there seventeen years before.
A
small pinnace of this squadron, commanded by Juan de Resaga, passed the
straits of Magellan, and ran along the whole coast of Peru and New Spain,
carrying the intelligence to Cortes of the expedition of Loaisa to the
Moluccas: But the admiral ship only of this squadron, commanded by Martin
Mingues de Carchova, arrived at its destination, where the Moors of the
Moluccas received the Spaniards hospitably; Loaisa and all the other
captains died by the way.
In the same year Stephen Gomez sailed from Corunna, to endeavour to
discover a strait in the northern parts, by which ships might sail from
Europe to the Moluccas. This person had been refused employment in the
fleet commanded by Loaisa; but the Count Ferdinando de Andrada, with the
Doctor Beltram, and a merchant named Christopher de Sarro; fitted out a
galleon for him at their joint expence. He went first to the island of
Cuba, whence he sailed to Cape Florida, sailing only by day, as he was
ignorant of the coast. He passed Cape Angra, and the river Enseada, and
so went over to the other side; and it is reported that he came to Cape
Razo[59] in lat. 46 deg. N. whence he returned to Corunna with a cargo of
_slaves_. But news spread through Spain that he was come home laden with
_cloves_, which occasioned much joy at the court of Spain, till the
mistake was discovered. Gomez was ten months engaged in this voyage. In
this same year, Don George de Menesses, governor of Molucca, and Don
Henriques, sent a vessel on discovery towards the north, commanded by
Diego de Rocha, having Gomez de Sequiera as pilot. In lat. 9 deg. or 10 deg. N.
they discovered several islands in a group, which were called the islands
of Sequiera; whence they returned to the island of Bato-China. In 1526,
Sebastian Gabota, chief pilot to the emperor, a native of Bristol in
England, whose father was a Venetian, sailed from Seville with four ships,
intending to have gone to the Moluccas by a western course. Gabota came
to Pernambuco in Brasil, where he waited three months for a favourable
wind to get round Cape St Augustine. In the Bay of _Patos_, or of ducks,
the admirals ship was lost; and despairing of being able to accomplish
the voyage to the Moluccas, he built a pinnace for the purpose of
exploring the Rio Plata. Gabota accordingly ran sixty leagues, or 120
miles up that river; when coming to a bar, he left the large ships there,
and went with the boats of the squadron 120 leagues, or 480 miles farther
up the river Parana, which the inhabitants considered to be the principal
river. He here constructed a fort, and remained in that place above a
year; From thence he rowed still farther up the Parana, till he came to
the mouth of another river called _Paragioa_, or Paraguay; and,
perceiving that the country produced gold and silver, he kept on his
course, sending one of the boats in advance, which was taken by the
natives.
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