Impressive [...] is the research done by the author, although much of it is from more contemporary secondary sources and not so much from original documents in Spanish, Portuguese, or other archives. Also helpful is a short note referencing dates and measurements which compare those of modern day and the 16th century. The discovery of the vuelta influenced all subsequent voyages and has done so right down to the present. This story deserves a wider audience even if it didn’t result in a momentous discovery of lands or riches along the lines of a Columbus, Cortez, or Magellan.
Andrés Reséndez, a professor of history at the University of California, Davis, has written a pacey account of the 1564-65 expedition that first made its way from Mexico to the Philippines and back again. For all of its political and economic consequences, the expedition’s achievement was in essence a triumph of seamanship over the forces of wind and water. And credit for it, Mr. Reséndez shows persuasively, rests with a brilliant pilot whose role has long been neglected by chroniclers.
U.C. Davis history professor Reséndez (The Other Slavery) delivers a riveting account ... Reséndez evocatively traces Urdaneta and Martín’s subsequent adventures ... Enlivened by lucid explanations of navigational techniques, larger-than-life characters, and colorful anecdotes from the age of exploration, this is a rip-roaring maritime adventure.
