Relacion del viage que por orden de su magestad, y acuerdo de el real consejo de Indias, hicieron los capitanes Bartholome Garcia de Nodal, y Gonzalo de Nodal, hermanos, naturales de Pontevedra, al descrubimento del estrecho nuevo de San Vicente, que hoy es nombrado de Maire, y reconocimiento del de Magallanes.: one of the rarest books on voyages of the seventeenth century

Cadiz: en la Real imprenta de Marina, 1753.

Two parts in one volume,
First work: [20] 1-160 159-162 [4] pp., signatures pi2 [par.]-2[par.]4 A-X4 (2[par.]4 and X4 blank), woodcut initial and head-and tailpieces, engraved folding map (titled 'Reconocimiento de los estrechos de Magallanes y San Vicente ... por Don Pedro Texeira Ealbernas', woodcut vignettes in text at pp. 82-3 and 88, ink inscription to title-page verso.
Second Work: 41 [3] pp., signatures A-E4 F2'

Early full calf binding, 4to (19.3 x 13.6 cm), Engraved Folding Map.

This map illustrates one of the most important discoveries in the history of world trade, the discovery of the Strait of Le Maire or, as the Nodal brothers christened it, the Strait of San Vicente. The Nodal expedition was a reconnaissance mission sponsored by King Philip III of Spain in 1619. The purpose was to confirm the recent discoveries of Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten of a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the south of Tierra del Fuego.

Hill describes the first edition, printed at Madrid in 1621, as 'one of the rarest books on voyages of the seventeenth century ... Copies containing the map are so rare that it is believed to have been suppressed in accordance with the official Spanish policy of secrecy'. 'The work gives an account of the Spanish expedition sent out by order of Philip III, immediately after the return of Schouten's expedition, for the exploration of the Magellan Straits.

The expedition was led by the brothers Bartolome and Gonzalo Garcia de Nodal, who were accompanied by cosmographer Diego Ramirez de Arrellano, who served as the chief navigator. The expedition departed from Lisbon on September 27, 1618 and by January 22, 1619 the two ships entered the strait discovered by Schouten and Le Maire between Tierra del Fuego and Staten Island. The expedition named the Strait "San Vicente." The pair reconnoitered the region to the south of Tierra del Fuego including the Drake Passage, before returning to Spain on July 7, 1619.

Le Maire and Schouten, sponsored by independent Dutch merchants, had circumnavigated via the new-found strait from 1615 to 1617. The importance of their find lay in the fact that Spain preferred to operate a closed sea policy in the Pacific; they claimed that their ships were the only vessels allowed to ply Pacific waters. Other nations did not agree with this policy, but the difficulty and distance in passing via the Straits of Magellan prevented many from attempting to enter the Pacific.

Additionally, the Straits were claimed as proprietary territory of the Dutch East India Company, which gave them a veritable monopoly over the passage and prevented non-company ships from passing through, even though the waters were seldom if ever patrolled. The new strait provided a legal avenue for ships of all nations to enter the Pacific, a situation feared by the Spanish whose ports on the western side of South America, already proven vulnerable to sacking by the likes of Francis Drake, were again at risk.

The Nodal expedition was meant to provide the Spanish with vital geographic information about the crucial, yet little known, area around the Straits of Magellan. The brothers established the navigability of the passage and found the Diego Ramirez Islands, which remained the most southerly point visited by Europeans until Captain James Cook sailed in the area in 1775.

Sabin 55935-6 (including the Instruccion); cf. Borba de Moraes II p. 102, Carter Brown II p. 156, Church 386 and Hill (1974) pp. 213-14 for the first edition (of Nodal only).