Another detractor of his commander was the disloyal Accountant, Juan de Iturbe. He wrote a long letter from Mexico, dated March 25th, 1607,[30] which was referred to the Council of the Indies and retained for reference. He gives a fairly truthful account of the events connected with the return of the Capitana, while trying inferentially to throw blame on Quiros. He ridiculed the ceremonies at Espiritu Santo, and the creation of an order of knighthood by Quiros; and while representing the importance of the discoveries, he added that Quiros was not a fit man to command a new expedition. I have not thought it necessary to insert the letter of Iturbe, as it contains no new information.
The next two documents in the Appendix speak for themselves. One is a Minute of the Council of the Indies on the demands of Quiros, and on the most politic way of treating him. The other is an order to check him in the printing and dissemination of his Memorials, which were to be considered confidential. We know that two at least had been published at Seville, and had fallen into the hands of Purchas and Hessel Gerritsz.
The last document in the Appendix is the Memorial on the discovery of the Antarctic continent and the conversion of its inhabitants, by a Chilian lawyer named Juan Luis Arias. It is bound up in a volume in the British Museum, with other documents, chiefly memorials, relating to the Church of Spain.[31] The text was reprinted at Edinburgh in the last century, and translated by Dalrymple in 1773. Its chief interest lies in the statement that Juan Fernandez led an expedition from Chile which discovered the Southern Continent, landed on it, and had intercourse with the inhabitants. Dalrymple and Burney treat this fabrication seriously, and conjecture that the discovered land might have been New Zealand. I have discussed the career of Juan Fernandez in a footnote to the Memorial of Arias in the Appendix.[32]
We get a glimpse of the view taken by leading Spanish statesmen under Philip III, of the Memorials and aspirations of Quiros, from the Minutes of a sitting of the Council of State in July, 1609.[33] The Cardinal-Archbishop of Toledo,[34] the Constable of Castille,[35] the Duke of Infantado,[36] the Count of Lemos,[37] and other grandees, were present.
The letter from Juan de Iturbe, as well as the Memorials of Quiros, were before them. The Count of Lemos wrote a Minute strongly against the employment of Quiros. The feeling was that further expenditure on such voyages was undesirable, and that it would be wiser to spend money in completing the exploration of Peru and Mexico. They looked upon Quiros as a very discontented and dangerous man, who might sell his knowledge and services to the English. The best course would be, they thought, to keep him quiet in Madrid by promises. He might be employed to draw maps and charts. If he continued to insist upon going to Peru, a letter of recommendation might be given to him for the Viceroy. But it was further suggested that the letter of Iturbe should also be sent to the Viceroy, with a contra-despacho, leaving the matter to his discretion, with orders to entertain Quiros and his proposals, but not to despatch his business.
This treachery was the final conclusion when Quiros started. Worn out by delays and obstruction, worried almost to death by Councils and Committees, he gladly accepted the promise to give him command of an expedition. Ignorant of the contra-despacho, he put his trust in the honour of the new Viceroy of Peru, a great man, Don Francisco de Borja, Prince of Esquilache,[38] with whom he proceeded on the voyage to Peru, accompanied by his wife and two children. He thought that at length, after years of wearisome solicitation, his grand ideas were to be realised. Fortunately for the brave enthusiast, he was saved from the anguish of being undeceived by a timely death at Panama on his way out. He died at the age of fifty, quite worn out and driven to his grave by Councils and Committees, with their futile talk, needless delays, and endless obstruction. His faithful Secretary, Belmonte Bermudez, who had edited the Memorials for him, stood by him to the last.[39]
The ideas of Quiros respecting an Antarctic continent were, no doubt, fixed in his mind by seeing the coast-lines delineated by the map-makers of his time. It, therefore, becomes very interesting to trace this southern coast-line on the principal maps from the time of Ortelius down to the last map that showed it before Captain Cook’s second voyage finally disproved its existence. Mr. Basil Soulsby has kindly prepared a note on this subject, which follows the Introduction.
The voyage of Quiros was the first event in the story of Antarctic enterprise. Its object was the discovery of the Southern Continent and the annexation of the South Pole. It was the dream of an enthusiast. It was a failure, but not altogether a barren failure. Others of another nation were to follow up his idea. He fell, worried to death by Committees. But he opened the glorious record of Antarctic discovery. Captain Cook made known the Southern Continent imagined by Quiros, and actually seen by Torres. Captain Cook first crossed the Antarctic circle, and searched all round it for the supposed coast-lines of Quiros. Great communities were to arise in the Southern Continent, in Australia and New Zealand, but not of Spanish race. The achievements of the peoples of the Iberian peninsula were of vast importance to the world; but they came to an end with the voyage of Quiros. The mantle of discovery fell on other shoulders. James Ross followed Cook in realising the dream of Quiros; and now we recognise Robert Falcon Scott as the greatest and most successful of Antarctic discoverers.
[1] Historia del descubrimiento de las regiones Austriales hecho por el General Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, publicada por Don Justo Zaragoza (3 vols. Madrid, 1876.)