The First Discovery of Australia and New Guinea / Being The Narrative of Portuguese and Spanish Discoveries in the Australasian Regions, between the Years 1492-1606, with Descriptions of their Old Charts.

by George Collingridge

CHAPTER X.

MENDANA IN SEARCH OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS.

Twenty-six years had elapsed since the Sarmiento-Mendana voyage, and now Mendana was sent out again with instructions to found a colony at the island of San Christobal, in the Solomon Group; and from thence to make another attempt to discover the Great Southern Continent, the Java Maior, that formed such a conspicuous feature on the maps of the period, and was beginning to attract the attention of other countries besides Spain.

Mendana's fleet was composed of three large vessels and a frigate.

Pedro Fernandez de Queiroz was his captain and chief pilot; the other officers were Lope de Vega, Felipe Corzo, and Alenzo de Leyva.

As it was intended to settle a colony, many took their wives with them, and amongst these were: Da. Isabel de Barreto, Mendana's wife, and Da. Mariana de Castro, the wife of Lope de Vega.

Santa Cruz Island

They set sail from Callao on the 9th of April, 1595, and, after discovering the Marquesas, and a few smaller islands, they sighted land on September the 7th, which Mendana believed, at first, to be the Solomons, of which he was in quest.

They soon found out their mistake, and named the island Santa Cruz. To the northward of this island was seen a most remarkable volcano in full eruption.* The frigate was ordered to sail round it to search for Lope de Vega's ship, which had parted company some time previously.

[* Tinacula Volcano, in eruption at the present day.]

Tinacula Volcano, from Santa Cruz

Don Diego de Prado's Map of the Islands at the South-east end of New Guinea

Pierre Desceliers' Map of Australia

Desliens' Map of Australia

Moresby's Map of the Islands at the South-east end of New Guinea

The Great Bay of St Lawrence (Orangerie Bay of modern charts).

Bay of St Peter of Arlanza (Modern Triton Bay), Dutch New Guinea

They thought that she might have passed to the north, but the hopes of seeing her again were very faint.

Mendana continued near the north coast of Santa Cruz, searching for a port, and was rejoined there by the frigate, which returned without any tidings of Lope de Vega and his ship.

At last a port was discovered where the ships anchored in smooth water, close to the shore.

On the 21st of September, they found a better port, which Mendana named La Graciosa, for it was very beautiful, larger and more commodious than the one where they were first anchored. A river of moderate size and a copious stream of very clear water gushing from beneath some rocks was found in proximity to the anchorage. Here an attempt at colonisation was made, but what with the hostility of the natives, sickness, and a mutinous spirit, the young colony did not progress favorably. To make matters worse, Mendana himself fell ill and died, and the grand scheme which, under favourable circumstances, might have resulted in the foundation of a Spanish Australian Empire, was, perforce, abandoned for the while. The remnant of this disastrous expedition, having repaired to the Philippine Islands, returned to New Spain in the year 1596.

AN EARLY MAP OF THE SOLOMONS ISLANDS.

The discovery of true Solomon Islands was soon forgotten and Mendana's vague notions about them led historians and geographers astray as to their position and size.*

[* In a map of the South Sea, Mar del Zur, published towards the year 1650, the Solomon Islands are represented as extending in a sweeping curve, resembling their natural trend it is true, but the position is from the locality of New Caledonia and New Zealand, right across the Pacific Ocean to the south of Cape Horn. In that distance 40 islands are represented, of an average size equal to the two large islands of New Zealand, truly a magnificent mistake!]

In the few old maps that exist, it is difficult to determine precisely in what measure the members of the expedition are responsible for the charting; some of it is certainly the guesswork of geographers, based, it must be acknowledged, on the best information then available, for we must bear in mind that the accounts of Mendana's expedition were only known from a few extracts, the actual narratives being lost at the time these charts were draughted. Now that some of those narratives have been found, it is easy to identify the present day Solomon Islands with the group discovered by the Spaniards; most of the latitudes in the old chart that I give here, agree with those given by Herrera, the Spanish historian, which shows that if they have been thrown out of position, as they are on some old charts, it is through the fault of the map-makers.

The Earliest Map of the Solomon Islands

The map given here is by Mazza, an Italian geographer of distinction; it is the earliest one that I have been able to procure, the earliest known to exist, the date being between 1583 and 1589.

I have marked on it the probable track of the ships; the first bay where they anchored, and which was called Baya de la Estrella, is marked by No. 1. The second anchorage, on the coast of Guadalcanal, marked No. 2, was named Puerto de la Cruz; and the locality where the third sojourn was made, and where the brigantine was abandoned, is marked by the No. 3.

The island thus marked, bears no name on the map; it is the southernmost large island, however, and corresponds therefore with San Christobal, where the third and last sojourn was made, and where, at a later period, a colony was to have been founded.

The island bearing the name Nombre de Jesus, is misnamed, evidently as the result of interference on the part of the cartographer, for, according to the narrative, it lies at many days' sail from the first land sighted in the Solomon Group, and has been identified, as I have said before, with Nukufetau in the Ellice Group.

Other mistakes of the map-maker are, Amacifre instead of Arecifes reefs; and Maiulata for Malaita. Malaita, however, is a mistake of the Spaniards, for the natives call their island Mala and ita means "here"; as one might say, "here is Mala."

The curious mistake [alluded to] on page 63 is this:

In most of the old maps that were made prior to the identification of Sarmiento's and Mendana's discoveries, the Solomon Islands were placed much too close to New Guinea, occupying, in fact, the position of New Britain and New Ireland. This was owing to the belief on the part of the Spaniards, that they had reached the region where their predecessors, Saavedra, Retez and Gaspar Rico, had made their discoveries: so that, New Britain, New Ireland, and all the other islands, of the Bismark Archipelago were once believed to be the Solomon and Guadalcanal the extreme east end of New Guinea.

Queiroz's Fleet