NODAL, Bartolome Garcia and Gonzalo (no'dal), Spanish navigators, born in Pontevedra, province of Galicia, at the beginning of the 17th century. Philip III., being very uneasy on account of the facility with which the Dutch crossed in twenty-four hours from the Atlantic to the Pacific by the Strait of Le Maire, tried to close the route by building forts on both sides, and equipped two ships for the purpose, commanded by the brothers Nodal, appointing Diego Ramirez de Arellano as pilot and cosmographer. They left Lisbon, 27 September, 1618, and touched at Rio Janeiro, whence they sailed on 6 December The Nodals were the first that took exact soundings of the gradual slope of the South Atlantic. On 6 January, 1619, they discovered islands, which they called Los Reyes. They arrived on the 19th at the Cape of Virgins, on the 22d at Cape Le Maire, which they called San Vicente, and soon afterward they discovered the Bay of Buen Succeso, where they anchored. After determining the latitude of Cape Horn, they discovered a small number of islands, which they called Diego Ramirez, and which were during a century and a half the most southern land that was known. They returned to Europe in July, 1619, after a voyage of nine months. Although Philip III. was not wholly satisfied with the result of the voyage, the Spanish discoveries in South America were completed by it. The Nodals published a narrative, with several charts, entitled "Relacion del viaje que hicieron los capitanes Bartolome Garcia y Gonzalo de Nodal al descubrimiento de un estrecho nuevo" (Madrid, 1621; Cadiz, 1766).