Introduction.

The Council of the Hakluyt Society has decided that the volumes containing the narratives of the discovery of the Solomon Islands by Mendaña shall be followed by a monograph on the two voyages of Quiros. In the first voyage he was Chief Pilot to Mendaña; the second and most famous voyage was under his own command.

“Want of a writer, which I supplied.”

The Historia, as published by Zaragoza, is continuous in eighty-one chapters. It has been found more convenient to divide the translation into two parts: the first containing the second voyage of Mendaña, and the second part being the story of the voyage of Quiros in 1606.

The present volume commences with the first part of the History of the Discovery of the Austrial Regions. It describes the second voyage of Mendaña in much detail, including the discovery of the Marquesas Islands and of the island of Santa Cruz, the death of Mendaña, and the terrible passage from Santa Cruz to Manilla. It is certainly a most extraordinary story.

There is a short report of the second voyage of Mendaña, to Antonio de Morga, the Governor of the Philippines, by Quiros himself. It was translated and printed by Lord Stanley of Alderley, in his edition of the work of Antonio de Morga (Hakluyt Society, 1868). I have caused it to be reprinted in this volume, in order to make the monograph of Quiros complete.

For the voyage of Quiros in 1606, when he discovered the Duff and Banks groups of islands, and the New Hebrides, there are no less than four separate accounts.

The first, and by far the most important, forms the second part of the Historia del descubrimiento de las regiones Austriales, by Belmonte Bermudez. It contains the full narrative, the speeches and reflections of Quiros, as recorded by his Secretary, and the remarks of the poet himself. The royal orders, the curious and interesting instructions of Quiros to his Captains, the act of possession and other strange proceedings at Espiritu Santo, the half-allegorical will of Quiros, and other documents, are included.

The second narrative is by Gaspar Gonzalez de Leza, the Chief Pilot of the Capitana with Quiros. For the most part it is merely a log, with courses, distances run, winds, and latitudes for each day, with occasional calculations of the distance from Callao. But it also contains accounts of the visits to the newly-discovered islands, and some remarks of interest, which may be compared with the same events described by Quiros, and in the work of Torquemada. The manuscript is in the Royal Library at Madrid (J. 2); and Lord Stanley of Alderley quoted largely from it, in annotating the letter of Torres. But it was first printed by Zaragoza.

The fourth narrative is contained in a letter from the second in command, Luis Vaez de Torres, to the King. This letter briefly describes the whole voyage; but it is specially interesting when it relates the events after parting company with Quiros. For Torres, on his voyage from Espiritu Santo to Ternate, was the discoverer of the strait which bears his name. Dalrymple obtained a copy of the letter of Torres, and translated it. This translation was, with the permission of Dalrymple, first published by Burney. Mr. Major reprinted it in his volume of Early Voyages to Australia (Hakluyt Soc., 1859). Lord Stanley of Alderley found another copy in the National Library at Madrid (J. 2), and translated it as Appendix VI of his edition of the work on the Philippines, by Antonio de Morga (p. 402, Hakluyt Soc., 1868). This is a copy of a document mentioned by Navarrete as existing at Simancas. Ever loyal to his chief, though disapproving of his conduct of the expedition, Torres wrote another letter to Quiros. The letter of Torres has such an important bearing on the voyage of Quiros, that I have considered it indispensable to include it in the present volumes.

The Memorials of Quiros, and other documents in the Appendix, will be described further on. They complete the materials for a monograph of the famous navigator’s work and life.

I now propose to state all that I have been able to ascertain respecting his life; and to discuss his character, his attainments, his views and aspirations, and the position his voyages occupy in the history of maritime discovery.

Quiros was thirty years of age when he accepted the post of Chief Pilot in the ship of Alvaro de Mendaña, who had received a concession to colonise the Solomon Islands, which he had discovered thirty years before. Quiros joined this expedition with some misgivings, caused by the quarrelsome character of the Camp Master, the want of order and discipline, and the position assumed by the Commander’s wife and her brothers. Mendaña was more than twenty years older than Quiros. The Pilot’s position was one of some difficulty: for while on one side he had to exercise tact in his intercourse with the family clique, on the other he found it difficult to avoid friction with a most impracticable and quarrelsome old soldier who was Camp Master, and who had a feud with the brothers-in-law of Mendaña, which continued to increase in bitterness. The expedition culminated at the island of Santa Cruz, a new discovery, with the slaughter of the old Camp Master, the deaths of Mendaña and his brother-in-law Don Lorenzo, the succession of the widow, Doña Isabel, to the command of the expedition, and the disastrous voyage to Manilla.

Through all this intrigue and violence the Chief Pilot steered his course with prudence and caution. He was a reliable seaman, and was constantly consulted. He appears, from his own account, to have been a peacemaker, to have avoided quarrels, and to have had some influence. He was, however, a great talker. The widow did not like him, but she was obliged to rely upon him entirely. Her brothers were useless. Quiros stood between the widow’s selfish parsimony and a crew on the verge of mutiny from misery and starvation. He brought a sinking ship, with rotten spars and rigging, safely over an unknown sea from Santa Cruz to Manilla.

It was during this voyage, and while gaining experience in the navigation of the Pacific Ocean and the treatment of natives, that Quiros conceived his grand project. He was a cartographer, and, in studying existing maps, he saw a great Southern continent extending across the ocean, from the Strait of Magellan to New Guinea. He thought that here was a discovery as famous as had been made by Columbus or Da Gama. He thought that here was not only a great continent extending to the South Pole to be added to the dominions of his sovereign, but millions of souls to be saved and brought within the fold of the Church. He devoted his life to the realisation of this glorious dream with unswerving devotion, never turning aside to the right hand or to the left; undaunted by difficulties or wearisome delays to his dying day; literally killed by Councils and Committees; but succumbing only with his last breath. He became a man with one idea. Alas! he was but a dreamer.

When Quiros arrived at Rome, the Duke of Sesa, a descendant of the Great Captain, was Spanish Ambassador. The Pope was a scion of the noble Roman family of Aldobrandini, and had succeeded, as Clement VIII, in 1592.

The Duke of Sesa received Quiros well on his arrival at Rome, made him a member of his household, and was so much interested in his project that he assembled all the most eminent astronomers and geographers in the Eternal City to examine and report to him upon it. Among these experts there was a mathematician of the first rank. Christopher Clavio was born at Bamberg in 1537, and taught mathematics at Rome for twenty years. He corrected the calendar for Gregory XIII, and published his Calendarii Romani Gregoriani Explicatio in 1603. He had previously been the author of a work entitled Gnomonices, and of an edition of Euclid. The other advisers of the Duke were Dr. Mesa and Dr. Toribio Perez, who had been Professors of Geography at Salamanca, and a learned Jesuit named Villalpando.

The authority of Clavio cannot be gainsaid. He found Quiros to be an accomplished Pilot and cartographer, and the inventor or improver of two nautical instruments. The Duke of Sesa was satisfied by Clavio and the other experts of the capacity of Quiros as a navigator, and of the importance of his project. He, therefore, introduced him to the Pope, and both Clement VIII and the Duke gave him letters of recommendation to the Spanish Government.

Philip III had succeeded his father in 1598 as King of Spain and Portugal. He found the country utterly ruined, and commerce nearly dead. Yet he continued the same fatal policy. He confided the management of affairs to the Duke of Lerma, a man well known to readers of Gil Blas, and the extravagance of the Court helped to lead Spain downwards on the road to decadence and ruin.

Quiros arrived at Madrid with his credentials in the spring of 1602, and had interviews with Philip III, and with his Minister, the Duke of Lerma. The Pope’s influence secured his success. Within a year he had obtained a royal order, through the Council of State, addressed to the Viceroy of Peru, instructing that dignitary to fit out two ships at Callao, to enable Quiros to undertake an expedition for the discovery of the Antarctic continent.

Luis Vaez de Torres, the Admiral or second in command under Quiros, was a good sailor and pilot, an energetic and capable leader, and loyal to his chief. He commanded all the landing parties, and relieved Quiros of much anxiety and trouble. His Chief Pilot in the Almiranta, Juan Bernardo de Fuentidueña, and Pedro Bernal de Cermeño, in command of the launch, were loyal and capable men. The junior Pilot in the Capitana, Gaspar Gonzalez de Leza, afterwards Chief Pilot, was also a reliable officer. Quiros had a cousin with him, one Alonso Alvarez de Castro, as well as a nephew, Lucas de Quiros. But his most faithful and devoted friend was young Luis de Belmonte Bermudez. Born at Seville in about 1585, this youth had gone out to seek his fortune, first in Mexico and then at Lima. Fired by the stories told him of the Araucanian war in distant Chile, he composed a panegyric on the youthful deeds of the Marquis of Cañete, the first product of his muse. When Quiros was fitting out his expedition, Belmonte Bermudez accepted the post of Secretary, taking with him the “Araucana,” that noble epic of the soldier-poet, Alonso de Ercilla.

Quiros complained bitterly of the delay in fitting out the expedition, which obliged him to sail so late in the year. He considered that he should have sailed not later than St. Francis, or the 4th of October. He did not obtain his despatch until the 21st of December.

Then Quiros came to the fatal decision to alter course to W.S.W. He says in his narrative that there was a heavy swell, and that he was obliged by the force of the wind and the sea to alter his course. He adds, in one of his memorials, that winter was approaching, that there was a mutinous spirit among his crew, and that he was ill in bed. Torres remonstrated. He wrote: “I gave a declaration under my hand that it was not a thing obvious that we ought to diminish our latitude till we got beyond 30° S.” If Quiros had continued on his course, he would have discovered New Zealand, and his dream would have been partly realised.

Having turned away from the goal, his plan was to make for the island of Santa Cruz, discovered when he served as Chief Pilot under Mendaña, and thence to make another attempt southward. But this was a lame conclusion. His chance was gone. Antarctic discovery was left to another nation and another century.

In following the parallel of 10° 20′ S. to reach Santa Cruz, Quiros fortunately came upon Taumaco, the principal island of what is now called the Duff group. Here he found a native Chief, from whom he received such detailed information respecting the existence of islands, and, as was understood, even continental lands to the southward, that the most sanguine hopes appeared to be approaching realisation. The project of going to Santa Cruz was abandoned, and Quiros steered S., fully anticipating the consummation of his dreams of discovery. Nor was he destined to be altogether disappointed. Island after island, all lofty and thickly inhabited, rose above the horizon; and at last he sighted such extensive coast lines that he believed the Southern Continent to be spread out before him. The islands of the New Hebrides group, such as Aurora, Leper, and Pentecost, overlapping each other to the S.E., seemed to him to be continuous coast lines, while to the S.W. was the land which he named Austrialia del Espiritu Santo. All appeared to his vivid imagination to be one continuous continental land.

Such was the enthusiastic navigator’s belief when his vessels anchored in the port of Vera Cruz, at the southern extreme of the great bay of St. Philip and St. James. He had found the largest island of what Captain Cook named the New Hebrides group, yet not a very large island. He showed his belief by his grandiose proceedings. To us they must now appear very pathetic. There was a ceremony of taking possession, in the names of the Church, of the Pope, and of the King. Quiros took possession of “all this region of the south as far as the Pole, which from this time shall be called Austrialia del Espiritu Santo, with all its dependencies for ever and so long as right exists,” in the name of King Philip III. A great city was to be founded and named the New Jerusalem, and its river was to be the Jordan. All the municipal and royal officers were nominated, and a knightly order of “Espiritu Santo” was instituted, subject to confirmation by the King. There were processions, religious dances, high masses and fireworks.

The great navigator had two serious drawbacks in his rejoicing. He was disabled by a serious illness; and the natives, owing to the misconduct of the Spaniards, were persistently hostile. After being at anchor in this port of Vera Cruz for thirty-five days (from the 3rd of May to the 8th of June, 1606), the little fleet sailed, with the object of completing the discovery of the Southern Continent. Then came the catastrophe.

It came on to blow hard from the S.E., with a nasty sea; and it was resolved to return to the anchorage. Late at night Torres brought the Almiranta to anchor, and the launch was also safely brought to. Quiros was too ill to come on deck, the Pilots seem to have lost their heads, were confused between the lights of the other ships and these on shore, and eventually stood out, running before the wind. At dawn they were several leagues to leeward, outside the bay. From the 12th to the 18th they were trying to beat up to the bay, but with topmasts struck it was nearly all leeway. Ships built in Peru would not work to windward: Quiros was in despair. At last, he determined to make for Santa Cruz, which was a rendezvous in the Instructions. But when the latitude of Santa Cruz was reached, there was a consultation. It was resolved to cross the Line, and make for Acapulco: a four months’ voyage. Quiros bewailed his position. He had enemies on board. He does not mention any actual mutiny, though his enemy, Prado y Tovar, who must have got his information from the men who remained at Mexico, and perhaps afterwards found their way to the Philippines, makes the assertion.

Quiros consoled himself with the reflection that his return would at least enable him to make known his discoveries, and to urge upon the King and his Councils the importance of completing them. He also felt confidence in Torres, his second in command, who was left behind on board the Almiranta, and in his Pilot, Fuentidueña; and with good reason. They were resolute and capable seamen. Quiros hoped that they would continue his discoveries; and he rejoiced when, some years afterwards, he received the news of the successful voyage of Torres.

The actual results of the voyages of Quiros and Torres were the discovery of thirteen coral islands in the Pacific, of the Duff and Banks groups, of the New Hebrides, of the eastern end and southern coast of New Guinea, and of Torres Strait, with its innumerable islands: not a barren record.

Quiros came to Madrid to urge the Spanish Government to give him command of another expedition for the completion of his discoveries. He had before him a dreary seven years of memorialising Councils, of obstruction and delays. It wore him out; but he was led to believe that he had succeeded. A timely death saved him from the anguish of finding that he had been deceived. He was worried into his grave by Councils and Committees. But before he died he believed that he had at length overcome the obstruction, and his last hours were cheered by the hope of final success.

We gather the character of Quiros from his narratives. He was a man of a humane and generous disposition, averse to violence and bloodshed. He was a zealous Catholic, striving to maintain religious feelings and to enforce morality among his people. Brave and resolute himself, full of zeal and enthusiasm, he failed in the management of men. He was often weak and vacillating, and had not the force of will necessary to control the turbulent and to cheer the half-hearted. The Chief Pilot, Juan Ochoa de Bilboa, during the voyage, caused a mutinous feeling on board the Capitana, persuading the crew to go straight to Manilla. Quiros merely sent this Chief Pilot on board the Almiranta under arrest. Torres strongly importuned his chief to punish such insubordination, but he would not. It was the same with another mutinous officer, Diego de Prado y Tobar. He was merely sent on board the Almiranta. To this weakness Torres attributes the slackness and want of zeal, if not something worse, when the Capitana parted company. Juan de Iturbe, the Accountant, in his letter now in the Biblioteca Nacional (J. 2), merely says that the Chief Pilot went over to the ship of Torres because he was disgusted with Quiros. We have the evidence of Torres himself that this was not the reason. Iturbe was another disaffected officer, and disloyal to his chief. There was not a single instance of capital punishment during the expedition, and not a single death, with the exception of the Father Commissary, who died of old age. Quiros was a thorough seaman, and the best Pilot of his time. He was not a self-seeker, but was devoted to a great idea, and persistently strove to realise it with unswerving resolution, until death ended his career.

It only remains to record the story of the Quiros Memorials, when we shall see the navigator, prematurely old, striving for the means of renewing his efforts: struggling against Councils and Committees while life lasted.

Quiros landed at Acapulco, was very coldly received by the officials at Mexico, and reached Madrid on the 9th of October, 1607. He was quite destitute. He only had two maravedis, which he gave to a beggar. But his faithful young Secretary remained true to him. During the first eleven days, he had not money to buy ink or paper. He wrote his first Memorial on the flyleaves of a pamphlet. He got the money for printing it by selling his clothes. To print the second, he sold his bedding; for the third, he pawned the royal banner under which he had taken possession of Espiritu Santo. After seventeen months of extreme penury, the King granted him 500 ducats.

The seventh extant Memorial is, according to Quiros, the fiftieth that he wrote. It is much the longest, covering 108 pages. It begins by recapitulating the contents of his eighth and sixteenth Memorials. It contains an interesting report by Hernando de los Rios, the Procurator of the Philippines, of a voyage to New Guinea by a Portuguese named Miguel Roxo de Brito; also an extract from a letter received by Quiros from his second in command, Torres, dated June 15th, 1607; and a report by Ruy Gonzalez de Sequiera, the Governor of the Moluccas. Quiros repeats his proposals, and again dwells on the importance of the intended discoveries.

The eighth and last extant Memorial is only a further recapitulation. He says he has been sending in memorials constantly for fifty months.

The Memorials are tedious, and necessarily full of repetitions. I have only thought it advisable to give three of them in the Appendix, as specimens.

The fourth document in the Appendix is a letter from Fernando de Castro, who had married the widow of Mendaña. He prayed that no concession might be made to Quiros, as he, Castro, had inherited the claims of Mendaña on the Solomon Islands.

The next two documents in the Appendix speak for themselves. One is a Minute of the Council of the Indies on the demands of Quiros, and on the most politic way of treating him. The other is an order to check him in the printing and dissemination of his Memorials, which were to be considered confidential. We know that two at least had been published at Seville, and had fallen into the hands of Purchas and Hessel Gerritsz.

The letter from Juan de Iturbe, as well as the Memorials of Quiros, were before them. The Count of Lemos wrote a Minute strongly against the employment of Quiros. The feeling was that further expenditure on such voyages was undesirable, and that it would be wiser to spend money in completing the exploration of Peru and Mexico. They looked upon Quiros as a very discontented and dangerous man, who might sell his knowledge and services to the English. The best course would be, they thought, to keep him quiet in Madrid by promises. He might be employed to draw maps and charts. If he continued to insist upon going to Peru, a letter of recommendation might be given to him for the Viceroy. But it was further suggested that the letter of Iturbe should also be sent to the Viceroy, with a contra-despacho, leaving the matter to his discretion, with orders to entertain Quiros and his proposals, but not to despatch his business.

The ideas of Quiros respecting an Antarctic continent were, no doubt, fixed in his mind by seeing the coast-lines delineated by the map-makers of his time. It, therefore, becomes very interesting to trace this southern coast-line on the principal maps from the time of Ortelius down to the last map that showed it before Captain Cook’s second voyage finally disproved its existence. Mr. Basil Soulsby has kindly prepared a note on this subject, which follows the Introduction.

The voyage of Quiros was the first event in the story of Antarctic enterprise. Its object was the discovery of the Southern Continent and the annexation of the South Pole. It was the dream of an enthusiast. It was a failure, but not altogether a barren failure. Others of another nation were to follow up his idea. He fell, worried to death by Committees. But he opened the glorious record of Antarctic discovery. Captain Cook made known the Southern Continent imagined by Quiros, and actually seen by Torres. Captain Cook first crossed the Antarctic circle, and searched all round it for the supposed coast-lines of Quiros. Great communities were to arise in the Southern Continent, in Australia and New Zealand, but not of Spanish race. The achievements of the peoples of the Iberian peninsula were of vast importance to the world; but they came to an end with the voyage of Quiros. The mantle of discovery fell on other shoulders. James Ross followed Cook in realising the dream of Quiros; and now we recognise Robert Falcon Scott as the greatest and most successful of Antarctic discoverers.