From this fact, and from the few storms here, this sea has been called the _Mar de Damas_ ["Sea of Ladies"].

A westerly course is taken, following the sun always, upon setting out from our hemisphere.

Journeying through this Southern Sea for forty days more or less, without seeing land, at the end of that time, the islands of Velas ["Sails"], otherwise called the Ladrones, are sighted, which, seven or eight in number, extend north and south.

They are inhabited by many people, as we shall now relate.
_Islands of Velas, or Ladrones._ These islands lie in twelve degrees of latitude.

Opinions differ as to the distance in leagues between them and the port of Acapulco, for up to the present no one has been enabled to ascertain it with certainty, by navigation from east to west, and no one has been able to measure the degrees.