Note 16 — Introduction.
Clements R. (Clements Robert) Markham translation
The latitudes recorded by Quiros, Torres, and Leza, and the courses and distances run, enable us to identify the islands discovered by Quiros in crossing the Pacific. The first inhabited island, reached on February 1st, 1606, has been supposed by Burney and others to be Tahiti. It is in the latitude of Tahiti; but it is described as a low island with a large lagoon in the centre, and no fresh water. This could not by any possibility be Tahiti. Sir William Wharton has identified it as Anaa, or Chain Island, one of the Low Archipelago to the eastward of Tahiti.16 Quiros named it “Conversion de San Pablo,” not “Sagittaria,” as Burney supposed. With Anaa as a point of departure, the other islands discovered by Quiros are easily identified.17