Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 02).djvu/105

 to order the general to sail straightway in search of the Filipinas Islands, and the other islands contiguous thereto, by the same route taken by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos." The Audiencia do not agree with Urdaneta (see above, p. 81) that the Philippines are in Portugal's demarcation. (Tomo ii, no. xxi, pp. 200–205.)

Nueva España, 1564 (?). The first-appointed admiral of the fleet, Juan Pablo de Carrión, writes to King Felipe in regard to the proposed route. He gives a brief outline of Urdaneta's opinion that they should sail first to New Guinea. This island he declares "is one that we discovered in the year forty-four." He describes it as a desolate region, with but scant food, and declares that the voyage thither is dangerous and arduous. His own opinion is that the fleet should take the same course as did Saavedra and Villalobos; "and that the fleet should put in at the Filipinas Islands, which are friendly islands, with whom we have had trade and friendship, and where even eight Spaniards of the fleet in which I sailed remained. They are islands well supplied with all manner of food, and there is much trade there. They are wealthy and large, and have the best location of the entire archipelago. Their language is known, and their ports, and even the names of their principal rulers, with whom we have contracted friendship. … There are islands among them with a circuit of three hundred leagues, and so down to fifty. Those islands that have been seen are eight large ones, without reckoning the small ones between them. They are within sight of one another, so that the most distant of them is not more than ten leagues from another. To the north of them lies the mainland of