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Updated: May 31, 2025
It was also in his contemplation to run as far west as the Tierra Austral del Espiritu Santo, which was discovered by Quiros, and to which M. de Bougainville has given the name of the Great Cyclades. From this land, it was the captain's plan to steer to the south, and so back to the east, between the latitudes of fifty and sixty.
De Quiros, who is believed to have been by birth a Portuguese, discovered several island groups and many isolated islands, among the former being the New Hebrides, which he, believing he had found the continent, named Tierra Australis del Espiritu Santo. Soon after, the ships commanded by De Quiros became separated from the other vessels, and Torres took charge.
De Quiros carried the king's instructions to Peru, and two ships were soon prepared and filled with suitable crews the Capitana and the Almiranta, with a smaller vessel called the Zabra to act as tender.
Quiros therefore went to Spain and thence to Rome, where he received a kindly welcome from the Pope, who recommended him warmly to Philip III. At length in 1605, after numberless applications and solicitations, he was empowered to fit out at Lima the two vessels which he should judge the most suitable for the investigation of the Australian continent and for continuing the discoveries of Mendana.
It was a week or ten days before the officers quite recovered. The crews of Quiros had suffered in the same way. He had named the fish Porgos. A number of islands were now passed, to which the names of Montagu, Sandwich, Hitchinbrook, and Shepherd were given; the ship continuing along the coast to the south-east.
The inhabitants came down to the edge of the green and shining waters making signs of peace, and twenty soldiers went ashore, along with an officer, who made friends with them, exchanging cloth for pigs and fruit. De Quiros coasted along the islands for a day or two till he entered a fine bay, where his vessels anchored, and Torres went ashore.
He puts aside the fact that the latitude of Port Curtis, 24 degrees South, does not agree with that given by De Quiros, 15 degrees 20 minutes South, by saying that the positions of newly discovered places were, in those days, "often purposely concealed lest other navigators might appropriate to themselves and their respective countries, the results of the discovery."
De Quiros, in his ship, made no further discovery; he arrived on the Mexican coast in October, 1606, and did all he could to induce Philip III. of Spain to sanction further exploration, but without success. Of the voyages of the Dutch in Australian waters much interesting matter is available. Major sums up the case in these words:
Quiros, in 1606, named one of the islands of the New Hebrides group Austrialia del Espiritu Santo, though he seems to have done so in compliment to Philip III, who ruled Austria as well as Spain. See Markham, Voyages of Quiros volume 1 page 30 Hakluyt Society. "Australasia" was De Brosses' new name for a broad division of the globe.
In Europe, Quiros succeeded in interesting the Spanish king, Philip III., in the idea of another voyage, so that in 1603 he was able to set sail from Spain with three ships.
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