Note 11 — Introduction.

It was a dream. The heroic days of Spain and Portugal were passed and gone. Quiros was the last of the long and glorious roll of great Spanish navigators. He spoke, if not to stone-deaf ears, to fast-deafening ears. The Viceroy Don Luis de Velasco,11 at Lima, to whom Quiros first explained his project, would take no responsibility, and referred him to the Court of Spain and its Councils of State and of the Indies. It was a happy inspiration which led Quiros to go first to Rome, and interest the Pope in the conversion of millions of Antarctic souls; for nothing was more likely to induce the Spanish Government to move in the matter than a strong recommendation, which would be looked upon almost as a command, from the Supreme Pontiff. Quiros was himself a very religious man, deeply imbued with the superstitions of his time and nation.