rs, because many of his crew had fallen ill and
were dying rapidly, and because his provisions had suddenly become bad,
which obliged him to hasten his return. After examination of this in my
royal Council of the Indias, together with the surveys and relations
that were sent with the description of each port, singly, of those
discovered by the said Sebastian Vizcaino, and after having listened
to the cosmographer Andres Garcia de Cespedes, they advised me; and
after considering the great importance, for the safety and security
of the ships coming from those islands--a navigation of more than two
thousand leguas of open water--of their having a port on the voyage,
wherein to be repaired and to take in water, wood, and provisions, and
that the said port of Monterrei, lying on the thirty-seventh degree,
will be a half-way station, and that it has all the good qualities that
may be desired, I have deemed it advisable that all the vessels from
those islands, since they approach that coast, shall enter that port,
and there be repaired and reprovisioned. In order to initiate this
and establish it as a fixed and well-known practice, I have ordered
Marques de Montesclaros, [33] my present viceroy of the said provinces
of Nueva Espana, by another decree of the date of this present, to
have the said Sebastian Vizcaino, if now alive, sought with all care
and diligence, since he has made the said exploration, and has coasted
from Acapulco to Cape Mendocino; and, as soon as he shall have been
found, to order him to go to those islands. Sebastian Vizcaino is to
take with him his own chief pilot, or the chief pilot of the admiral;
and in order that his voyage may have the effect intended, and be
accomplished with all possible promptness, as is desirable, I have
ordered the said marques to despatch the ships that are to sail to
those islands in the coming year, 607. He shall despatch them in the
usual manner, and as has been done hitherto, as you probably can not
have any vessels constructed there of the two hundred tons capacity
which is necessary for the trade, in accordance with the new decree
that I had issued in this regard, because of the short time since
it was given. The marques is to appoint the said Sebastian Vizcayno
commander of the said fleet; and, as his admiral, the one whom he
had in the discovery of the said port [34]--if both are living. If
either of them is dead, then he shall send as commander the one of
them still li