Note 145 — Chapter II
Reading edition
[It is to be observed, however, that the Portuguese, who had made their way to the Moluccas by the Cape of Good Hope in 1512,—a year before Balboa disclosed the great sea to the Spaniards,—claim that in the very year (1520) when Magellan was finding a passage by the straits, and Cortes was exploring the Gulf of Mexico in the vain endeavor to find another, their ships from the Moluccas crossed the ocean eastward and struck the coast of California. It is also represented that the expedition conducted by Cabrillo, a Portuguese in the King of Spain’s service, went up to 44° in 1542-43. This phase of the subject is more particularly examined in Vol. II.—Ed.]