They Came Next To A
Harbour In The Island Of Sarangani, Reported To Yield Both Pearls And
Gold.
At this place they pressed two pilots to conduct them to the
Moluccas; and passing the islands named Ceana,
Canida, Cabiaia, Camuca,
Cabalu, Chiari, Lipan, and Nuza, they came to a fair isle in lat 3 deg.
20' N. named Sangir.[17] Passing five other islands, they at last
espied a cluster of five islands, which they were informed by the pilots
were the Moluccas. This was on the 6th November, 1521, twenty-seven
months after their departure from Spain. Trying the depth of the sea in
the neighbourhood of these islands, they found it no less than fifty-one
fathoms; though the Portuguese report that this sea is too shallow for
being navigated, and is besides rendered extremely dangerous by numerous
rocks and shelves, and by continual darkness; doubtless to deter any
other nation from attempting to go there.
[Footnote 17: Sangir is in lat. 8 deg. 35' N. and long. 125 deg. 25 E. from
Greenwich. The other islands enumerated in the text do not occur in
modern maps. - E.]
They came to anchor in the port of Tiridore [Tidore] on the 8th
November, this being one of the chief of the Molucca islands. Although
a Mahometan, the king of this island was so fond of the Spaniards, that
he invited them to come on shore as into their own country, and to use
the houses as their own, calling them his brethren and children; even
changing the name of his island from Tidore to Castile.
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