re is often no more than one ship employed at
a time, yet there is always one ready for the sea when the other
arrives; and therefore are provided three or four stout ships, that,
in case of any accident, the trade may not be suspended.

The ship having received her cargo on board, and being fitted for
the sea, generally weighs from the mole of Cabite about the middle of
July, taking the advantage of the westerly monsoon, which then sets
in, to carry them to sea. It appears that the getting through the
Boccadero to the eastward must be a troublesome navigation, and in
fact it is sometimes the end of August before they get clear of the
land. When they have got through this passage, and are clear of the
islands, they stand to the northward of the east, in order to get into
the latitude of thirty odd degrees, where they expect to meet
with westerly winds, before which they run away for the coast of
California.[2] It is most remarkable, that by the concurrent testimony
of all the Spanish navigators, there is not one port, nor even a
tolerable road, as yet found out betwixt the Philippine Islands and
the coast of California and Mexico; so that from the time the Manilla
ship first loses sight of land, she never lets go her anchor till she
arrives on the coast of California, and very often not till she gets
to its southermost extremity: And therefore, as this voyage is rarely
of less than six months continuance, and the ship is deep laden with
merchandise and crowded with people, it may appear wonderful how they
can be supplied with a stock of fresh water for so long a time. A
supply indeed they have, but the reliance upon it seems at first sight
so extremely precarious, that it is wonderful such numbers should
risque perishing by the most dreadful of all deaths, on the
expectation of so casual a circumstance. In short, their only method
of recruiting their water is by the rains, which they meet with
between the latitudes of 30 deg. and 40 deg. north, and which they are always
prepared to catch: For this purpose they take to sea with them a
great number of mats, which they place slopingly against the gunwale,
whenever the rain descends; these mats extend from one end of the ship
to the other, and their lower edges rest on a large split bamboe, so
that all the water which falls on the mats drain into the bamboe,
and by this, as a trough, is conveyed into ajar; and this method of
supplying their water, however accidental and ext