Read Ebook: The Voyages of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros 1595 to 1606. Volume 1 by Queir S Pedro Fernandes De Markham Clements R Clements Robert Sir Translator

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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.

Quiros tells us that he sent in fifty memorials in fifty months. Of these, eight have been preserved and printed by Zaragoza. The first was written in 1607. He describes the events of the voyage, and makes excuses for altering course when he had reached 26? S.; and for having parted company with Torres. He explains his view that the Antarctic continent runs from Espiritu Santo S.E. to Magellan Strait, a land of vast extent: "a new world." He says that he gave the name of "Austrialia del Espiritu Santo" from His Majesty's title of Austria. He says that the tonnage of his ships was 150 and 120, and that they carried one hundred and thirty men, besides six friars. The cost of the expedition was 184,000 ducats. He concludes by saying that he had no pay, and that he owes 2,500 dollars without one quarto to pay it.

The second existing Memorial is the eighth that he sent in. It is given in Purchas, and was reproduced by Dalrymple. It forms the first document in the Appendix. The eighth Memorial was printed at Seville in 1610. Purchas obtained a copy, which he reprinted in his Pilgrimes. Hessel Gerritsz printed a Dutch version, in 1612, in his Detectio Freti Hudsoni, reprinted by M?ller at Amsterdam, in 1878, and two French translations appeared in 1617.

The third existing Memorial is also given in Purchas and Dalrymple. It forms the second document in the Appendix.

The fourth is translated for the first time, and forms the third document in the Appendix.

The fifth existing Memorial was the sixteenth he had written. It contains proposals for colonising the new continent; and here Quiros compares himself to Columbus, Da Gama, and Magellan.

The sixth existing Memorial refers to a royal order received from the Secretary, Gabriel de Hoa, instructing the Viceroys to despatch Quiros on a new voyage. He submits detailed estimates. He proposes to take one hundred and fifty persons, and mentions the names of three Captains who are willing to accompany him. One of them is Lorenzo Ferrer Maldonado, a cosmographer and writer who is best known for his account of the imaginary Strait of Anian, published in 1588. Quiros also gives the names of eighteen Franciscan friars who are ready to go. He refers to his extreme poverty, and asks for his debts to be paid.

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 Menda?a. He prayed that no concession might be made to Quiros, as he, Castro, had inherited the claims of Menda?a on the Solomon Islands.

The two letters from Diego de Prado y Tovar, the malignant enemy of Quiros, follow. This man had made the voyage with Torres, and wrote from Goa, on his way home. He forwarded four valuable and very interesting maps, the originals of which are now at Simancas. They are from the surveys of Torres, who had probably died previous to the date of Prado's letters. One is a plan of the Bay of St. Philip and St. James; the other three are plans of bays in New Guinea. They are coloured, with long descriptive titles. Reduced copies, in colour, were published in the Boletin of the Madrid Geographical Society, in 1878, with the long titles printed separately. I have had these maps reproduced for the present work. The abuse of Quiros by this insubordinate officer can be taken for what it is worth.

Another detractor of his commander was the disloyal Accountant, Juan de Iturbe. He wrote a long letter from Mexico, dated March 25th, 1607, which was referred to the Council of the Indies and retained for reference. He gives a fairly truthful account of the events connected with the return of the Capitana, while trying inferentially to throw blame on Quiros. He ridiculed the ceremonies at Espiritu Santo, and the creation of an order of knighthood by Quiros; and while representing the importance of the discoveries, he added that Quiros was not a fit man to command a new expedition. I have not thought it necessary to insert the letter of Iturbe, as it contains no new information.

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 last document in the Appendix is the Memorial on the discovery of the Antarctic continent and the conversion of its inhabitants, by a Chilian lawyer named Juan Luis Arias. It is bound up in a volume in the British Museum, with other documents, chiefly memorials, relating to the Church of Spain. The text was reprinted at Edinburgh in the last century, and translated by Dalrymple in 1773. Its chief interest lies in the statement that Juan Fernandez led an expedition from Chile which discovered the Southern Continent, landed on it, and had intercourse with the inhabitants. Dalrymple and Burney treat this fabrication seriously, and conjecture that the discovered land might have been New Zealand. I have discussed the career of Juan Fernandez in a footnote to the Memorial of Arias in the Appendix.

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.

This treachery was the final conclusion when Quiros started. Worn out by delays and obstruction, worried almost to death by Councils and Committees, he gladly accepted the promise to give him command of an expedition. Ignorant of the contra-despacho, he put his trust in the honour of the new Viceroy of Peru, a great man, Don Francisco de Borja, Prince of Esquilache, with whom he proceeded on the voyage to Peru, accompanied by his wife and two children. He thought that at length, after years of wearisome solicitation, his grand ideas were to be realised. Fortunately for the brave enthusiast, he was saved from the anguish of being undeceived by a timely death at Panama on his way out. He died at the age of fifty, quite worn out and driven to his grave by Councils and Committees, with their futile talk, needless delays, and endless obstruction. His faithful Secretary, Belmonte Bermudez, who had edited the Memorials for him, stood by him to the last.

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.

COMPARATIVE LIST OF MAPS OF THE NEW HEBRIDES, ETC., 1570-1904.

With British Museum press-marks.

Zelandia Nova has a western coast-line only. Antonii Van Diemans Landt is partly outlined. The words Australia Incognita occur on the circle of the Southern Polar Region.

"New Holland esteemed to be part of ye Southern unknown continent," mixed up with New Guinea, touching the Equator, and all only partly outlined.

The smaller islands are not named.

The following routes, in dotted lines, are shown:--

Ferdinand Magellan, 1520. Juan Gaetan, 1542. Menda?a and Gallego, 1568. Menda?a and Quiros, 1595. An English Pilot, reported by Robert Dudley, c. 1600. Olivier du Nord, 1600. Le Maire and Cornelius Schouten, 1616. Pelsart, 1629. Abel Tasman, 1642. William Dampier, 1686.

"Isle d?couverte par Drak" occurs in lat. 66? S., long. 75?, above the S. Polar region. Terre que la flote de Menda?a crut ?tre la Nle. Guin?e occurs in lat. 6? S., long. 188?.

BIBLIOGRAPHY,

With British Museum Press-marks.

Antonio .--Bibliotheca Hispana Nova ... 1500 ad 1684.

Arias , Dr. fol.

Bougainville Count.--Voyage autour du Monde par la fr?gate du Roi La Boudeuse, et la fl?te L'Etoile en 1766-69. pp. 417. Saillant & Nyon: Paris, 1771. 4?. The map at p. 19 has the track of Capt. Cook marked in pencil by himself. .--Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes. 2 tom. Durand: Paris, 1756. 4?.

Burney , Admiral. A Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean. 5 vol. pp. 680. G. & W. Nicol: London, 1803-17. 4?.

Callander .--Terra Australis Cognita: or, Voyages to the Terra Australis, or Southern Hemisphere, during the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries. 3 vol. A. Donaldson: Edinburgh, 1766-68. 8?.

Clavius .--Gnomonices libri octo. pp.654. Apud Franciscum Zanettum. Romae, 1581. fol.

See also Euclid.

Coleccion de Documentos.--Ineditos para la historia de Espa?a. 1842, etc. 8?.

See Fernandez de Navarrete .

See Pacheco .

Comedias Escogidas.

See Spain.

Cook , Captain.--A Voyage towards the South Pole and round the World; performed in his Majesties ships, the Resolution and Adventure ... 1772-75, etc. 2 vols. W. Straham & T. Cadell: London, 1777. 4?.

Cordova Fray.--Cronica de la religiosissima provincia de la Orden de San Francisco. Salinas, 1651.

Da?a Fray.--Quarte Parte de la Chronica General de San Francisco y su Apostolica orden, etc. Valladolid, 1611. fol.

Dalrymple .--An Account of the Discoveries made in the South Pacifick Ocean previous to 1764. Part 1. pp. xxxi. 103. 7 plates. London, 1767. 8?.

Daza , Fray.

See Da?a.

Duro .

See Fernandez Duro .

Ercilla y Zu?iga .--La Araucana de Don A. de Erzilla y ?u?iga . Madrid, 1569. 8?.

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