Note 8 — Introduction.

Pedro Fernandez de Quiros was born at Evora8, in Portugal, in 1565, the year before Mendaña sailed on his first voyage. The ill-fated Don Sebastian was then King of Portugal. His uncle, the Cardinal Henry, became King in 1578; but in 1580 Philip II, the Cardinal’s nephew, succeeded as King of Portugal, as well as of Spain. Quiros, though a Portuguese, then became a subject of the King of Spain, his age being fifteen. We are told, though an enemy is our informant,9 that young Quiros was brought up in the “Rua nova,” then a disreputable part of Lisbon, and that he was a clerk or supercargo in merchant ships. This may or may not be true. He certainly became a good sailor, and an accomplished pilot.