ABSTRACT
The expedition of the Comendador Loaysa and Sebastian del Cano had the same object as the expedition of Magellan, to reach the Spice Islands by the western route and occupy them for the king of Spain. Del Cano was accompanied by his friend Andres de Urdaneta. The whole story of the Spanish expeditions to gain possession of the Malucos is covered by the lives of the two great navigators Sebastian del Cano, the first circumnavigator of the globe, and Andres de Urdaneta, the discoverer of the route from the Eastern Archipelago to America. There cannot therefore be a more appropriate introduction to the expedition of Loaysa, than biographical notices of these two Basque worthies.
