In _New Spain_, the fitting four Ships to go on Discovery, as such Undertakings had been very frequent, it would not engage any extraordinary Attention of the Publick there; it often happened that what was done on such Voyages was kept a Secret. The more curious and inquisitive Persons would attain but an imperfect Account, by Inquiry from the People on board the Ships, as the Ships were divided, and they would receive no satisfactory Information of what was most material, and the principal Object of their Inquiry by those who went in the Boats, as Seamen delighting in Stories often tell what they neither heard or saw. The Consequences of the Voyage not known, because not understood, a weak Tradition of this Expedition would remain to Posterity; and the only Knowledge or Certainty to be acquired, as to this Expedition, would be from Journals accidentally preserved, of some Persons who had gone the Voyage.
Mons. _de Lisle_ gives us an Extract of a Letter from Mons. _Antonio de Ulloa_, wrote from _Aranguer_ the 19th of _June_ in the Year 1753[8], to Mons. _Bouguer e le Mounier_, to answer the Queries they had made on the Subject of the Letter of Admiral _de Fuente_. That curious and able _Spanish_ Officer sent them in Answer, That in the Year 1742 he commanded a Ship of War the _Rose_, in the South Sea; he had on board him a Lieutenant of the Vessel named _Don Manuel Morel_, an antient Seaman, who shewed him a Manuscript; _Mons. Ulloa_ forgot the Author's Name, but believes it to be _Barthelemi de Fuentes_, the Author in that Manuscript reported, that in Consequence of an Order which he had received from the then Viceroy of _Peru_, that he had been to the Northward of _California_, to discover whether there was a Passage by which there was a Communication between the North and South Sea; but having reached a certain Northern Latitude, which _Mons. Ulloa_ did not recollect, and having found nothing that indicated such Passage, he returned to the Port of _Callao_, &c. _Mons. Ulloa_ adds, he had a Copy of such Relation, but he lost it when he was taken by the _English_ on his return from _America_.
[8] Novelles Cartes des Decovertes de L'Amiral de Fonte, et autres Navigateurs, &c. Par de Lisle. Paris 1753.--P. 30.