The Voyages Of Pedro Fernandez De Quiros Part 1

The Voyages of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros.

by Pedro Fernandez de Quiros.

INTRODUCTION.

The Council of the Hakluyt Society has decided that the volumes containing the narratives of the discovery of the Solomon Islands by Mendana shall be followed by a monograph on the two voyages of Quiros. In the first voyage he was Chief Pilot to Mendana; the second and most famous voyage was under his own command.

The best and most detailed narrative of both voyages is contained in a work which remained in ma.n.u.script until twenty-eight years ago, when it was edited and published at Madrid by Don Justo Zaragoza. It is ent.i.tled History of the Discovery of the Austrial Regions, made by the General Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. [1] Two copies were known to be in existence: one in the private library of the King of Spain, the other in that of the Ministry of Marine. Both have erroneous t.i.tles, written by careless librarians. The narratives were evidently dictated by Quiros, or written from his notes; but Senor Zaragoza gives reasons for the belief that the work, in its present form, was written by Luis de Belmonte Bermudez, a young man who was Secretary to Quiros during the voyage of 1606, and that it contains several pa.s.sages for which the Secretary was alone responsible. Belmonte Bermudez remained faithful to Quiros in his adversity, and, after his master's death, he became a poet of some celebrity. Senor Zaragoza quotes several pa.s.sages which show the hand of a poet. [2] There is also a quotation from the Araucana of Ercilla on unknown lands not yet revealed by G.o.d, to which is added another version by the young sailor-poet on those unknown lands now revealed by G.o.d. [3]

The author is mentioned twice in the narrative: once as being nearly drowned in landing on the island of Anaa [4] ("Conversion de San Pablo"), and again in the list of officials for the munic.i.p.ality of the city of New Jerusalem projected by Quiros. [5] The question of authorship is really settled by the poet himself, in a line of his poem ent.i.tled La Hispalica, quoted by Zaragoza. Speaking of Quiros as his "Lusitanian master, the star of gallant Portuguese," he adds that, in recording the history of the voyage there was:--

"Want of a writer, which I supplied."

The Historia, as published by Zaragoza, is continuous in eighty-one chapters. It has been found more convenient to divide the translation into two parts: the first containing the second voyage of Mendana, and the second part being the story of the voyage of Quiros in 1606.

The present volume commences with the first part of the History of the Discovery of the Austrial Regions. It describes the second voyage of Mendana in much detail, including the discovery of the Marquesas Islands and of the island of Santa Cruz, the death of Mendana, and the terrible pa.s.sage from Santa Cruz to Manilla. It is certainly a most extraordinary story.

In the work ent.i.tled Hechos del Marques de Canete, a life of one of the Viceroys of Peru, by Cristoval Suarez de Figueroa, [6] Book VI contains an abbreviated version of the narrative in the Historia, generally copied word for word. Numerous details are omitted, particularly such as are derogatory to the Spanish character. There are also a few pa.s.sages which are not in the Historia, but none having any bearing on the events of the voyage. Suarez de Figueroa tells us that he had the narrative of Quiros before him as he wrote. For these reasons I have considered it unnecessary to translate the version of Suarez de Figueroa, as it is merely a mutilated version of the narrative in the Historia. The account in the work of Suarez de Figueroa was the only version of the second voyage of Mendana that was known to our historians of Pacific voyages, Dalrymple and Burney.

There is a short report of the second voyage of Mendana, to Antonio de Morga, the Governor of the Philippines, by Quiros himself. It was translated and printed by Lord Stanley of Alderley, in his edition of the work of Antonio de Morga (Hakluyt Society, 1868). I have caused it to be reprinted in this volume, in order to make the monograph of Quiros complete.

For the voyage of Quiros in 1606, when he discovered the Duff and Banks groups of islands, and the New Hebrides, there are no less than four separate accounts.

The first, and by far the most important, forms the second part of the Historia del descubrimiento de las regiones Austriales, by Belmonte Bermudez. It contains the full narrative, the speeches and reflections of Quiros, as recorded by his Secretary, and the remarks of the poet himself. The royal orders, the curious and interesting instructions of Quiros to his Captains, the act of possession and other strange proceedings at Espiritu Santo, the half-allegorical will of Quiros, and other doc.u.ments, are included.

The second narrative is by Gaspar Gonzalez de Leza, the Chief Pilot of the Capitana with Quiros. For the most part it is merely a log, with courses, distances run, winds, and lat.i.tudes for each day, with occasional calculations of the distance from Callao. But it also contains accounts of the visits to the newly-discovered islands, and some remarks of interest, which may be compared with the same events described by Quiros, and in the work of Torquemada. The ma.n.u.script is in the Royal Library at Madrid (J. 2); and Lord Stanley of Alderley quoted largely from it, in annotating the letter of Torres. But it was first printed by Zaragoza.

The third narrative is contained in the Monarquia Indiana, a work on Mexico first published in 1614, by the Franciscan Friar, Juan de Torquemada, who was Provincial of the Order in Mexico in that year (vol. i, pp. 738 to 756 the second edition, 1723) (Lib. V, caps. lxiv to lxix). Torquemada was at Mexico when Quiros and his companions landed at Acapulco, and came up to the capital in the end of 1606. He must have known and conversed both with Quiros and with some of his crew. He thus obtained his information at first hand, and was able to write an authentic account of the voyage. Torquemada's style is more polished and flowing than those of the sailors, or even of the young poet, who relate the events of the same voyage. [7]

The fourth narrative is contained in a letter from the second in command, Luis Vaez de Torres, to the King. This letter briefly describes the whole voyage; but it is specially interesting when it relates the events after parting company with Quiros. For Torres, on his voyage from Espiritu Santo to Ternate, was the discoverer of the strait which bears his name. Dalrymple obtained a copy of the letter of Torres, and translated it. This translation was, with the permission of Dalrymple, first published by Burney. Mr. Major reprinted it in his volume of Early Voyages to Australia (Hakluyt Soc., 1859). Lord Stanley of Alderley found another copy in the National Library at Madrid (J. 2), and translated it as Appendix VI of his edition of the work on the Philippines, by Antonio de Morga (p. 402, Hakluyt Soc., 1868). This is a copy of a doc.u.ment mentioned by Navarrete as existing at Simancas. Ever loyal to his chief, though disapproving of his conduct of the expedition, Torres wrote another letter to Quiros. The letter of Torres has such an important bearing on the voyage of Quiros, that I have considered it indispensable to include it in the present volumes.

The Memorials of Quiros, and other doc.u.ments in the Appendix, will be described further on. They complete the materials for a monograph of the famous navigator's work and life.

I now propose to state all that I have been able to ascertain respecting his life; and to discuss his character, his attainments, his views and aspirations, and the position his voyages occupy in the history of maritime discovery.

Pedro Fernandez de Quiros was born at Evora [8], in Portugal, in 1565, the year before Mendana 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.

In 1589, when he had reached his twenty-fourth year, he had probably been several years at sea. He then married Dona Ana Chacon, of Madrid, daughter of the licentiate Juan Quevedo de Miranda, by Ana Chacon de Miranda. She was a year his senior. A son, named Francisco, was born to them in 1590, and they must then have gone to Peru; for their daughter Jeronima was born some months after Quiros sailed from Peru with Mendana in 1595. [10]

Quiros was thirty years of age when he accepted the post of Chief Pilot in the ship of Alvaro de Mendana, who had received a concession to colonise the Solomon Islands, which he had discovered thirty years before. Quiros joined this expedition with some misgivings, caused by the quarrelsome character of the Camp Master, the want of order and discipline, and the position a.s.sumed by the Commander's wife and her brothers. Mendana was more than twenty years older than Quiros. The Pilot's position was one of some difficulty: for while on one side he had to exercise tact in his intercourse with the family clique, on the other he found it difficult to avoid friction with a most impracticable and quarrelsome old soldier who was Camp Master, and who had a feud with the brothers-in-law of Mendana, which continued to increase in bitterness. The expedition culminated at the island of Santa Cruz, a new discovery, with the slaughter of the old Camp Master, the deaths of Mendana and his brother-in-law Don Lorenzo, the succession of the widow, Dona Isabel, to the command of the expedition, and the disastrous voyage to Manilla.

Through all this intrigue and violence the Chief Pilot steered his course with prudence and caution. He was a reliable seaman, and was constantly consulted. He appears, from his own account, to have been a peacemaker, to have avoided quarrels, and to have had some influence. He was, however, a great talker. The widow did not like him, but she was obliged to rely upon him entirely. Her brothers were useless. Quiros stood between the widow's selfish parsimony and a crew on the verge of mutiny from misery and starvation. He brought a sinking ship, with rotten spars and rigging, safely over an unknown sea from Santa Cruz to Manilla.

It was during this voyage, and while gaining experience in the navigation of the Pacific Ocean and the treatment of natives, that Quiros conceived his grand project. He was a cartographer, and, in studying existing maps, he saw a great Southern continent extending across the ocean, from the Strait of Magellan to New Guinea. He thought that here was a discovery as famous as had been made by Columbus or Da Gama. He thought that here was not only a great continent extending to the South Pole to be added to the dominions of his sovereign, but millions of souls to be saved and brought within the fold of the Church. He devoted his life to the realisation of this glorious dream with unswerving devotion, never turning aside to the right hand or to the left; undaunted by difficulties or wearisome delays to his dying day; literally killed by Councils and Committees; but succ.u.mbing only with his last breath. He became a man with one idea. Alas! he was but a dreamer.

It was a dream. The heroic days of Spain and Portugal were pa.s.sed 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 superst.i.tions of his time and nation.

When Quiros arrived at Rome, the Duke of Sesa, a descendant of the Great Captain, was Spanish Amba.s.sador. The Pope was a scion of the n.o.ble Roman family of Aldobrandini, and had succeeded, as Clement VIII, in 1592.

The Duke of Sesa received Quiros well on his arrival at Rome, made him a member of his household, and was so much interested in his project that he a.s.sembled all the most eminent astronomers and geographers in the Eternal City to examine and report to him upon it. Among these experts there was a mathematician of the first rank. Christopher Clavio was born at Bamberg in 1537, and taught mathematics at Rome for twenty years. He corrected the calendar for Gregory XIII, and published his Calendarii Romani Gregoriani Explicatio in 1603. He had previously been the author of a work ent.i.tled Gnomonices, and of an edition of Euclid. The other advisers of the Duke were Dr. Mesa and Dr. Toribio Perez, who had been Professors of Geography at Salamanca, and a learned Jesuit named Villalpando.

The authority of Clavio cannot be gainsaid. He found Quiros to be an accomplished Pilot and cartographer, and the inventor or improver of two nautical instruments. The Duke of Sesa was satisfied by Clavio and the other experts of the capacity of Quiros as a navigator, and of the importance of his project. He, therefore, introduced him to the Pope, and both Clement VIII and the Duke gave him letters of recommendation to the Spanish Government.

Philip III had succeeded his father in 1598 as King of Spain and Portugal. He found the country utterly ruined, and commerce nearly dead. Yet he continued the same fatal policy. He confided the management of affairs to the Duke of Lerma, a man well known to readers of Gil Blas, and the extravagance of the Court helped to lead Spain downwards on the road to decadence and ruin.

Quiros arrived at Madrid with his credentials in the spring of 1602, and had interviews with Philip III, and with his Minister, the Duke of Lerma. The Pope's influence secured his success. Within a year he had obtained a royal order, through the Council of State, addressed to the Viceroy of Peru, instructing that dignitary to fit out two ships at Callao, to enable Quiros to undertake an expedition for the discovery of the Antarctic continent.

Quiros sailed for Peru in the summer of 1603. He seems to have left his family in Spain. He was shipwrecked near the Island of Curacoa, in the West Indies, and had to pa.s.s some time at Caraccas. Here he found the orphan children of a brother, of whom he had not heard for many years, living with their maternal grandfather: two boys and a girl. He thought it right to take the two nephews with him, leaving the niece with her grandfather. One of the nephews is not heard of again. The other, Lucas de Quiros, was his uncle's companion in the voyage of 1606. He was Royal Ensign for the ceremonies at Espiritu Santo. He is afterwards heard of as a rising cartographer at Lima. [12]

Quiros arrived at Lima quite dest.i.tute, owing to the refusal of the royal officials on the route to give him any pecuniary a.s.sistance, although they had positive orders to do so. He found shelter in the house of a potter; and it was some days before he could get an audience of the Count of Monterey, [13] who was then Viceroy of Peru. Eventually, the Viceroy recognised the necessity for carrying out the royal orders. Vessels were tardily bought and fitted out at Callao, for the expedition of Quiros, in the last months of 1605. There were two ships and a zabra or launch. The ship chosen for Quiros was called the Capitana, and named San Pedro y San Pablo. She was 150 tons. The other ship was called the Almiranta, and named the San Pedro, 120 tons. Her Captain was known as the Admiral, the t.i.tle of a second in command in those days. Both ships were built on the west coast, probably at Guayaquil. They carried one hundred and thirty men and six friars. The launch was named Los Tres Reyes.

Luis Vaez de Torres, the Admiral or second in command under Quiros, was a good sailor and pilot, an energetic and capable leader, and loyal to his chief. He commanded all the landing parties, and relieved Quiros of much anxiety and trouble. His Chief Pilot in the Almiranta, Juan Bernardo de Fuentiduena, and Pedro Bernal de Cermeno, in command of the launch, were loyal and capable men. The junior Pilot in the Capitana, Gaspar Gonzalez de Leza, afterwards Chief Pilot, was also a reliable officer. Quiros had a cousin with him, one Alonso Alvarez de Castro, as well as a nephew, Lucas de Quiros. But his most faithful and devoted friend was young Luis de Belmonte Bermudez. Born at Seville in about 1585, this youth had gone out to seek his fortune, first in Mexico and then at Lima. Fired by the stories told him of the Araucanian war in distant Chile, he composed a panegyric on the youthful deeds of the Marquis of Canete, the first product of his muse. When Quiros was fitting out his expedition, Belmonte Bermudez accepted the post of Secretary, taking with him the "Araucana,"

that n.o.ble epic of the soldier-poet, Alonso de Ercilla.

But Quiros also had in his ship men of a very different stamp. Among them was a Chief Pilot named Juan Ochoa de Bilboa, who had been forced upon him as a protege of the Viceroy; [14] another officer named Diego de Prado y Tovar; and the accountant, Juan de Iturbe. They stirred up mutiny and disaffection on board.

Quiros complained bitterly of the delay in fitting out the expedition, which obliged him to sail so late in the year. He considered that he should have sailed not later than St. Francis, or the 4th of October. He did not obtain his despatch until the 21st of December.

Quiros was now free to attempt the realisation of his dream, the discovery of the Antarctic continent and the annexation of the South Pole. All was left to his discretion. There is no reason for the belief that the Viceroy of Peru gave any instructions beyond the letter of farewell which was read to the men. The plan of Quiros was to steer W.S.W. from Callao until he reached lat.i.tude 30 S., [15] where he fully expected that he would have reached the continental southern land shown on the maps of his time. He continued on this course from December 21st to January 26th, when he found himself in 26 S.

Then Quiros came to the fatal decision to alter course to W.S.W. He says in his narrative that there was a heavy swell, and that he was obliged by the force of the wind and the sea to alter his course. He adds, in one of his memorials, that winter was approaching, that there was a mutinous spirit among his crew, and that he was ill in bed. Torres remonstrated. He wrote: "I gave a declaration under my hand that it was not a thing obvious that we ought to diminish our lat.i.tude till we got beyond 30 S." If Quiros had continued on his course, he would have discovered New Zealand, and his dream would have been partly realised.

Having turned away from the goal, his plan was to make for the island of Santa Cruz, discovered when he served as Chief Pilot under Mendana, and thence to make another attempt southward. But this was a lame conclusion. His chance was gone. Antarctic discovery was left to another nation and another century.

The lat.i.tudes 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 lat.i.tude 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]

In following the parallel of 10 20' S. to reach Santa Cruz, Quiros fortunately came upon Taumaco, the princ.i.p.al island of what is now called the Duff group. Here he found a native Chief, from whom he received such detailed information respecting the existence of islands, and, as was understood, even continental lands to the southward, that the most sanguine hopes appeared to be approaching realisation. The project of going to Santa Cruz was abandoned, and Quiros steered S., fully antic.i.p.ating the consummation of his dreams of discovery. Nor was he destined to be altogether disappointed. Island after island, all lofty and thickly inhabited, rose above the horizon; and at last he sighted such extensive coast lines that he believed the Southern Continent to be spread out before him. The islands of the New Hebrides group, such as Aurora, Leper, and Pentecost, overlapping each other to the S.E., seemed to him to be continuous coast lines, while to the S.W. was the land which he named Austrialia del Espiritu Santo. All appeared to his vivid imagination to be one continuous continental land.

Such was the enthusiastic navigator's belief when his vessels anch.o.r.ed in the port of Vera Cruz, at the southern extreme of the great bay of St. Philip and St. James. He had found the largest island of what Captain Cook named the New Hebrides group, yet not a very large island. He showed his belief by his grandiose proceedings. To us they must now appear very pathetic. There was a ceremony of taking possession, in the names of the Church, of the Pope, and of the King. Quiros took possession of "all this region of the south as far as the Pole, which from this time shall be called Austrialia del Espiritu Santo, with all its dependencies for ever and so long as right exists," in the name of King Philip III. A great city was to be founded and named the New Jerusalem, and its river was to be the Jordan. All the munic.i.p.al and royal officers were nominated, and a knightly order of "Espiritu Santo" was inst.i.tuted, subject to confirmation by the King. There were processions, religious dances, high ma.s.ses and fireworks.

The great navigator had two serious drawbacks in his rejoicing. He was disabled by a serious illness; and the natives, owing to the misconduct of the Spaniards, were persistently hostile. After being at anchor in this port of Vera Cruz for thirty-five days (from the 3rd of May to the 8th of June, 1606), the little fleet sailed, with the object of completing the discovery of the Southern Continent. Then came the catastrophe.

It came on to blow hard from the S.E., with a nasty sea; and it was resolved to return to the anchorage. Late at night Torres brought the Almiranta to anchor, and the launch was also safely brought to. Quiros was too ill to come on deck, the Pilots seem to have lost their heads, were confused between the lights of the other ships and these on sh.o.r.e, and eventually stood out, running before the wind. At dawn they were several leagues to leeward, outside the bay. From the 12th to the 18th they were trying to beat up to the bay, but with topmasts struck it was nearly all leeway. Ships built in Peru would not work to windward: Quiros was in despair. At last, he determined to make for Santa Cruz, which was a rendezvous in the Instructions. But when the lat.i.tude of Santa Cruz was reached, there was a consultation. It was resolved to cross the Line, and make for Acapulco: a four months' voyage. Quiros bewailed his position. He had enemies on board. He does not mention any actual mutiny, though his enemy, Prado y Tovar, who must have got his information from the men who remained at Mexico, and perhaps afterwards found their way to the Philippines, makes the a.s.sertion.

Quiros consoled himself with the reflection that his return would at least enable him to make known his discoveries, and to urge upon the King and his Councils the importance of completing them. He also felt confidence in Torres, his second in command, who was left behind on board the Almiranta, and in his Pilot, Fuentiduena; and with good reason. They were resolute and capable seamen. Quiros hoped that they would continue his discoveries; and he rejoiced when, some years afterwards, he received the news of the successful voyage of Torres.

After waiting for some days for the Capitana, Torres continued the voyage by rounding the northern end of Espiritu Santo, and steering a course to the S.W., until he reached a lat.i.tude of 21 S. [18] He then altered course to the N., and discovered the bay and islands at the east end of New Guinea. In 1613 Diego de Prado y Tovar sent home four maps from Goa, which throw considerable light on the course of Torres's ship. The first map is a very interesting one of the bay of St. Philip and St. James, in Espiritu Santo. The next is a map of a land named "Buenaventura," with many islands. Torres arrived at this land on July 18th, having sailed from the bay of St. Philip and St. James on the 26th of June. "Buenaventura" is Basilisk Island, so named by Captain Moresby, after his ship, in 1873. The bay of San Millan, accurately delineated by Torres, is Jenkins Bay of Moresby. The port of Santo Toribio of Torres is the China Strait of Moresby.

The third map shows the great bay of San Lorenzo, and the port of Monterey, identified with "l'Orangerie" and "Ile Dufaure"

of Bougainville (1768), on the S. coast of New Guinea. The names of Saints given to the bays, capes, and islands, throw light on the dates, for it was usual to give to a cape, bay, or island the name of the Saint on whose day it was discovered. The feast of San Lorenzo is on the 10th of August, the date when Torres arrived in the bay, where he appears to have remained for several days. The fourth map is of the bay of San Pedro de Arlanza, whose feast is on the 18th of October. This bay is identified with the Triton Bay of the Dutch. The four maps have been reproduced for this volume, and the legends on the original large-scale maps are given separately. [19]

From Triton Bay, Torres proceeded to Ternate, where he left the launch, and thence continued his course to Manilla. His letters to Quiros and to the King from that place are dated June and July, 1607. From the fact that Diego de Prado y Tovar sent the four maps home in December, 1613, it is supposed that Torres had died in the interval. The letter of Torres was first printed in Burney's Voyages, from a copy obtained and translated by Dalrymple, who suggested the name of Torres Strait for the princ.i.p.al discovery of that navigator. The Spanish Government jealously concealed the knowledge acquired by their great explorers, and left their n.o.ble deeds in oblivion. It was left to Englishmen to immortalise the names of Quiros and Torres, whose achievements were so long forgotten by their own countrymen.

The actual results of the voyages of Quiros and Torres were the discovery of thirteen coral islands in the Pacific, of the Duff and Banks groups, of the New Hebrides, of the eastern end and southern coast of New Guinea, and of Torres Strait, with its innumerable islands: not a barren record.