In 1585, Captain Francisco de Gali, sailing for the Philippines, was directed to sail, on the return voyage, as far north as the weather would permit, and on reaching the coast of California, examine the land and the harbors on his way homeward, make maps of all, and report all that he accomplished. It does not appear from Gali's report that he accomplished anything in particular. He reached the coast in latitude 37 deg. 30' (Pillar Point), and noted that the land was high and fair; that 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.