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difficulty or danger save from scurvy, scanty stores, and a little later, from corsairs. Each year after this the rich products of the east were received in Mexico in one or more ships, but there is no record extant,[1] for the government loved to shroud her commerce in mystery, which course was, indeed, to some extent justified, as subsequent events made apparent. Expeditions on private account for the discovery of new countries, whether by land or sea, were now forbidden by royal cédula of July 13, 1573, unless by express permission of the sovereign.
- ↑ The San Gerónimo is mentioned as having sailed for the Philippines in 1566; the San Juan for New Spain in 1567; the arrival of two vessels from New Spain the same year, and others in 1572 to take a course farther north than usual for purpose of exploration. Burney's Hist. Discov. South Sea, i. 271-2. The ship Espiritu Santo from Acapulco for the Western Islands with 11 friars, Diego de Herrera at their head, and some soldiers on board, sailed January 6, 1676, and arrived there April 25th; about 100 miles from Manila she was wrecked; those who reached the shore were slain by the natives. One Indian boy was the only person left with life. The number lost, passengers, officers, and crew, exceeded 100. Enriquez, Carta al Rey, Oct. 31, 1576, in Cartas de Indias, 328. In the spring of 1568 arrived in Mexico Álvaro de Mendano, who had been despatched in 1567 by the viceroy of Peru to discover the Solomon Islands near New Guinea; he returned to Mexico by way of Lower California, and anchored near Cedros Island in December.
