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. S. latitude, and then westward, till he
arrived at the Bay of St Philip and Jago, in the Island of Tierra del
Espirito Santo.
