N the year 1579 the Viceroy of Peru, D. Francisco de Toledo, commissioned Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, a very competent navigator for the times in which he lived, to sail southwards with two ships into the Straits of Magalhaens with the principal object of intercepting Francis Drake and his companions, who, it was expected by the Spaniards, would return out of the Pacific towards Europe by that route?which, however, our countryman did not. Three weeks after Sarmiento put to sea from El Callao roads he made an entry in the log of his ship, the Esperanza, in the subjoined terms. The log was certified true, and was signed at the end by Sarmiento, by the master Anton Pablos [Corso], and by sixteen other members of the expedition; and was attested in the presence of the Royal Notary. The entry runs :