demurred, and Diego never received a satisfactory response. Aguilar (1986), citing two secondary sources (Fernandez Duro 1881; Ciriquiain 1979) and one primary source (Colección Vargas Ponce, Museo Naval (Madrid), 1613), states that Spanish Basque whaling had reached the "northernmost" coast of Greenland by 1613. Given the fact this is impossible (the northernmost coast of Greenland is inaccessible due to ice) and that the name Greenland was often applied to Spitsbergen, it seems likely that these sources were in reference to the vessels sent to Spitsbergen the same year. In 1614, a Basque ship was sighted by English ships off Magdalenefjorden, and in 1615, a merchant in San Sebastian sent two ships from Bordeaux, L’ Estinotte and Le Pellecan, under the commands of Jean de Lasso and Jean de Gramont, to Spitsbergen, but they were ordered away by the Dutch. In 1623, the Dane Johan Braem, in cooperation with Joanis de Haraneder of Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Miguel de Larralde of Ciboure, sent out two ships, La Joana and La Maria, to Spitsbergen. They sailed to Mauritius Bay and began to take out the whaling gear from the Danish huts at Smeerenburg, the main Dutch whaling complex on Amsterdam Island, on the northwest coast of Spitsbergen. They were discovered by the Dutch commander Cornelis Ys, and were ordered away by a threat of violence. In 1625, Braem again chartered two Basque ships and sent them to Spitsbergen. The few Dutch ships at Smeerenburg that season begrudgingly let them stay. With the Danish huts having been demolished and its shallops and other gear stolen by the Dutch and English the previous season, the Basque ships waited for the Dutch to leave in August and used their station and gear instead. In 1632, Braem chartered four ships, including two from Saint-Jean-de-Luz – the Ste Marie, under Joannis de Segaroia, and Le Pigeon Blanc ("The White Pigeon"), under Peter Piasion (or Balcon). The two ships sailed to the newly built Danish station in "Københavens Bay" (modern Kobbefjorden, on the west coast of Danes Island). Both were ordered away by the admiral of the Dutch whaling fleet, J. J. Duynkercker. They sailed to the North Cape, where they waited for the Dutch fleet at Jan Mayen to sail home at the end of August. They landed at one of the two Dutch stations there and plundered it, breaking up storehouses and huts, ruining utensils, and destroying shallops