In this sea he discovered two uninhabited islands, whose situations are not
well known. He afterwards crossed the Line; discovered the Ladrone Islands;
and then proceeded to the Phillipines, in one of which he was killed in a
skirmish with the natives.
His ship, called the Victory, was the first that circumnavigated the globe;
and the only one of his squadron that surmounted the dangers and distresses
which attended this heroic enterprise.[2]
The Spaniards, after Magalhaens had shewed them the way, made several
voyages from America to the westward, previous to that of Alvaro Mendana De
Neyra, in 1595, which is the first that can be traced step by step. For the
antecedent expeditions are not handed down to us with much precision.
We know, however, in general, that, in them, New Guinea, the islands called
Solomon's, and several others, were discovered.
Geographers differ greatly concerning the situation of the Solomon Islands.
The most probable opinion is, that they are the cluster which comprises
what has since been called New Britain, New Ireland, &c.[3]
On the 9th of April, 1595, Mendana, with intention to settle these islands,
sailed from Callao, with four ships; and his discoveries in his route to
the west, were the Marquesas, in the latitude of 10 deg. S.; the island of St
Bernardo, which I take to be the same that Commodore Byron calls the Island
of Danger; after that, Solitary Island, in the latitude of 10 deg. 40' S.,
longitude 178 deg. W.; and, lastly, Santa Cruz, which is undoubtedly the same
that Captain Carteret calls Egmont Island.
In this last island, Mendana, with many of his companions, died; and the
shattered remains of the squadron were conducted to Manilla, by Pedro
Fernandes de Quiros, the chief pilot.
This same Quiros was the first sent out, with the sole view of discovering
a southern continent, and, indeed, he seems to have been the first who had
any idea of the existence of one.
He sailed from Callao the 21st of December, 1605, as pilot of the fleet,
commanded by Luis Paz de Torres, consisting of two ships and a tender; and
steering to the W.S.W., on the 26th of January, 1606. being then, by their
reckoning, a thousand Spanish leagues from the coast of America, they
discovered a small low island in latitude 26 deg. S. Two days after, they
discovered another that was high, with a plain on the top. This is probably
the same that Captain Carteret calls Pitcairn's Island.
After leaving these islands, Quiros seems to have directed his course to
W.N.W. and N.W. to 10 deg. or 11 deg.
