Micronesians had settled the the two parallel low-lying coral island groups, called the Ratak (Sunrise) and Ralik (Sunset) chains and later called the Marshall Islands, in the second millennium BCE, but there are no historical or oral records of that period.

Over time, the Marshall Island people had learned to navigate over long ocean distances by canoe using traditional stick charts.

Loaísa on July 30, 1526, had died of scurvy and Elcano a few days later.

Alonso de Salazar, commanding the ship Santa Maria de la Victoria, the only surviving vessel of the Loaísa Expedition, is the first European to see the islands.

He sights an island (probably Taongi) on August 21, 1526,  at 14°N, that he names "San Bartolome".

The Marshall Islands are located about two thousand one hundred and seventy-five miles (thirty-five hundred kilometers) southwest of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.