Note 2 — Letter from Doctor Antonio de Morga to Felipe II
Reading edition
At the beginning of this year, a galleon arrived at these islands from Piru, and later a small fragata in its convoy, wherein it appears that Adelantado Alvaro de Mendaña had set out from Piru in April of last year to discover the western islands in the Southern Sea. This he did not succeed in doing, and lost his flagship and afterward another fragata. He formed a settlement on another island near Nueva Guinea, where the men quarreled among themselves, and the said adelantado died with many of his people.2 His wife inherited that settlement, and arrived at these islands in great need and after many hardships, where she married Don Fernando de Castro, cousin of the governor, and returned to Piru with her Page 259ship. I am sending your Majesty the report of the matter which has been received, and an account of their voyage and adventures, which are therein stated at greater length.