Gemino facit commercia Mundo
LONDON:
Printed for William Bray in Exeter-Court, near Exeter-Change in the Strand.
THE
Copy of a Petition
Presented to the
KING of Spain,
BY
Capt. Peter Ferdinand de Quir, touching the Discovery of the Fifth part of the World, called Terra Australis Incognita, and of the great Riches and Fertility of the same.
Sir,
I am called Captain Peter Ferdinand De Quir, a most humble Servant and Subject of your Majesty's, who in all Submission do shew unto you, that this is the Eighth Petition, which by me hath been presented to your Majesty's View, to perswade the Conduction of some Colonies, unto the Land which your Majesty hath commanded to be discovered in the Country of Terra Australis incognita: And yet to this Hour no Resolution is taken in this Affair, neither have I received any Answer or Hope, whereby I might rest assured to obtain my Dispatch, although I have attended Fourteen Months in your Court, and have employ'd Fourteen Years in this Discovery, unto the which I have been induced by the meer Goodness of the Cause, and in the Assuredness of the same have obdurated my self against all Difficulties and Contradictions whatsoever. I have desperately exposed my self to a thousand Perils both by Sea and Land, I have diminished and sunk my Estate, I have been travailed with many Afflictions in my Person, and suffered such strange and extraordinary Crosses, that they seem almost incredible to my self; and all, that so Religious an Undertake should not unworthily be abandoned. In regard whereof, I do most humbly beseech your Majesty in the Bowels of the Divine Charity, that you would be pleased to take Order, that I be not deprived of the Fruits of this Design, which with such Instance I do desire, and which with so much Justice are due unto my continual Pains and Travel: Nor that I be debarr'd from the Effects of so considerable and well-grounded a Request, whose principal Scope is the Glory of God, and of your Majesty, and from whence infinite Benefits are likely to issue forth, which will live as long as the Fabrick of the World shall subsist, and after the Dissolution thereof, will remain to all Eternity.
Touching the Extent of these Regions newly discovered, grounding my Judgment on that which I have seen with mine own Eyes, and upon that which Captain Lewes Paez de Terres Admiral of my Fleet, hath represented unto your Majesty, the Length thereof is as great as all Europe and Asia the Less, unto the Sea of Bachu, Persia, and all the Isles, as well of the Ocean, as of the Medeterranean Sea, taking England and Island into this Account.
This unknown Country is the Fifth part of the Terrestrial Globe, and extendeth it self to such Length, that in probability it is twice greater in Kingdoms and Seignories, than all that which at this Day doth acknowledge Subjection and Obedience unto your Majesty.