FERRER-MALDONADO, Lorenzo, Spanish navigator, lived in the 16th century. According to Leon Pinelo, he submitted to the council of the Indies a new method of ascertaining longitude, for which a premium of 2,000 ducats had been offered, but his invention seems to have failed, as the premium was not awarded to him. In 1588 he sailed from Acapulco with an expedition to discover a northeast passage to the Atlantic, and on his return wrote "Relation del Descubrimiento del Estrecho de Anian en 1588," the manuscript of which found its way into the library of the bishop of Segovia and state councilor of Portugal, Geronimo Mascarenos. A copy was presented to the French geographer, Buache, who read a memoir concerning it in the Academy of sciences in Paris, 13 November 1790. There is a copy of both papers in the twenty-third volume of manuscripts of the library of the metropolitan Church of Mexico. This "Relation" gave rose to the subsequent explorations of Fuca and Bartolom5 Fuentes, but was full of fantastical descriptions, and Ferrer's whole book has been branded as a tissue of improbabilities and downright falsehoods. Ferrer's other work is of a better character, and was printed and published under the title of "hnagen del Mundo sobre la Estera, Cosmografia, Geografia y Arte de Navegar" (Alcala, 1626).