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. With the
loss of the San Agustin, explorations of the California coast by laden
ships from the Philippines came to an end.

Sometime prior to the summer of 1595, the viceroy of New Spain, Don Luis
de Velasco, entered into an agreement with certain persons looking to
the exploration of the coasts of the Californias and the settlement of
the land. The consideration for this undertaking, which was to be at the
expense of the adventurers, was the privilege of pearl fishing and
trade, together with all the honors, favors, and exemptions usually
given to the pacifiers and settlers of new provinces. Preparations for
the expedition were under way, when a dispute arose between the leader
and his partners in the enterprise, and the matter was carried into the
courts. Before a decision was reached, the leader died, and the judge
ordered the other partners, among whom was one Sebastian Vizcaino, to
begin the voyage to the Californias within three months. Under this