[Evasion of regulations.] Legentil, the astronomer, gives a full description of the regulations which prevailed in his day and the manner in which they were disobeyed.  The cargo consisted of a thousand bales, each composed of four packets, [28] the maximum value of each packet being fixed at $250.  It was impossible to increase the amount of bales, but they pretty generally consisted of more than four packets, and their value so far exceeded the prescribed limits, that a boleta was considered to be worth from $200 to $225.  The officials took good care that no goods should be smuggled on board without a boleta.  These were in such demand, that, at a later period, Comyn [29] saw people pay $500 for the right to ship goods, the value of which scarcely amounted to $1,000.  The merchants usually borrowed the money for these undertakings from the obras pias, charitable foundations, which, up to our own time, fulfil in the Islands the purposes of banks. [30] In the early days of the trade, the galleon used to leave Cavite in July and sail with a south-westerly wind beyond the tropics, until it met with a west wind at the thirty-eighth or [Route outward.] fortieth parallel. [31] Later on the vessels were ordered to leave Cavite with the first south-westerly winds to sail along the south coast of Luzon, through San Bernardino straits, and to continue along the thirteenth parallel of north latitude [32] as far to the east as possible, until the north-easterly trade wind compelled them to seek a north-west breeze in higher latitudes.  They were then obliged to try the thirtieth parallel as long as possible, instead of, as formerly, the thirty-seventh.  The captain of the galleon was not permitted to sail immediately northward, although to have done so would have procured him a much quicker and safer passage, and would have enabled him to reach the rainy zone more rapidly.  To effect the last, indeed, was a matter of the greatest importance to him, for his vessel, overladen [Water-supply crowded out by cargo.] with merchandise, had but little room crowded out for water; and although he had a crew of from four hundred to six hundred hands to provide for, he was instructed to depend upon the rain he caught on the voyage; for which purpose, the galleon was provided with suitable mats and bamboo pails. [33]

[Length of voyage.] Voyages in these low latitudes were, owing to the inconstancy of the winds, extremely troublesome, and often lasted five months and upwards.  The fear of exposing the costly, cumbrous vessel to the powerful and sometimes stormy winds of the higher latitudes, appears to have been the cause of these sailing orders.

[California landfall.] As soon as the galleon had passed the great Sargasso shoal, it took a southerly course, and touched at the southern point of the Californian peninsula (San Lucas), where news and provisions awaited it. [34] In their earlier voyages, however, they must have sailed much further to the north, somewhere in the neighborhood of Cape Mendocino, and have been driven southward in sight of the coast; for Vizcaino, in the voyage of discovery he undertook in 1603, from Mexico to California, found the principal mountains and capes, although no European had ever set his foot upon them, already christened by the galleons, to which they had served as landmarks. [35]