The first, and by far the most important, forms the second part of the Historia del descubrimiento de las regiones Austriales, by Belmonte Bermudez. It contains the full narrative, the speeches and reflections of Quiros, as recorded by his Secretary, and the remarks of the poet himself. The royal orders, the curious and interesting instructions of Quiros to his Captains, the act of possession and other strange proceedings at Espiritu Santo, the half-allegorical will of Quiros, and other documents, are included.
The second narrative is by Gaspar Gonzalez de Leza, the Chief Pilot of the Capitana with Quiros. For the most part it is merely a log, with courses, distances run, winds, and latitudes for each day, with occasional calculations of the distance from Callao. But it also contains accounts of the visits to the newly-discovered islands, and some remarks of interest, which may be compared with the same events described by Quiros, and in the work of Torquemada. The manuscript is in the Royal Library at Madrid (J. 2); and Lord Stanley of Alderley quoted largely from it, in annotating the letter of Torres. But it was first printed by Zaragoza.
The third narrative is contained in the Monarquia Indiana, a work on Mexico first published in 1614, by the Franciscan Friar, Juan de Torquemada, who was Provincial of the Order in Mexico in that year (vol. i, pp. 738 to 756 the second edition, 1723) (Lib. V, caps. lxiv to lxix). Torquemada was at Mexico when Quiros and his companions landed at Acapulco, and came up to the capital in the end of 1606. He must have known and conversed both with Quiros and with some of his crew. He thus obtained his information at first hand, and was able to write an authentic account of the voyage. Torquemada’s style is more polished and flowing than those of the sailors, or even of the young poet, who relate the events of the same voyage.[7]
The fourth narrative is contained in a letter from the second in command, Luis Vaez de Torres, to the King. This letter briefly describes the whole voyage; but it is specially interesting when it relates the events after parting company with Quiros. For Torres, on his voyage from Espiritu Santo to Ternate, was the discoverer of the strait which bears his name. Dalrymple obtained a copy of the letter of Torres, and translated it. This translation was, with the permission of Dalrymple, first published by Burney. Mr. Major reprinted it in his volume of Early Voyages to Australia (Hakluyt Soc., 1859). Lord Stanley of Alderley found another copy in the National Library at Madrid (J. 2), and translated it as Appendix VI of his edition of the work on the Philippines, by Antonio de Morga (p. 402, Hakluyt Soc., 1868). This is a copy of a document mentioned by Navarrete as existing at Simancas. Ever loyal to his chief, though disapproving of his conduct of the expedition, Torres wrote another letter to Quiros. The letter of Torres has such an important bearing on the voyage of Quiros, that I have considered it indispensable to include it in the present volumes.
The Memorials of Quiros, and other documents in the Appendix, will be described further on. They complete the materials for a monograph of the famous navigator’s work and life.
I now propose to state all that I have been able to ascertain respecting his life; and to discuss his character, his attainments, his views and aspirations, and the position his voyages occupy in the history of maritime discovery.
Pedro Fernandez de Quiros was born at Evora[8], in Portugal, in 1565, the year before Mendaña sailed on his first voyage. The ill-fated Don Sebastian was then King of Portugal. His uncle, the Cardinal Henry, became King in 1578; but in 1580 Philip II, the Cardinal’s nephew, succeeded as King of Portugal, as well as of Spain. Quiros, though a Portuguese, then became a subject of the King of Spain, his age being fifteen. We are told, though an enemy is our informant,[9] that young Quiros was brought up in the “Rua nova,” then a disreputable part of Lisbon, and that he was a clerk or supercargo in merchant ships. This may or may not be true. He certainly became a good sailor, and an accomplished pilot.
In 1589, when he had reached his twenty-fourth year, he had probably been several years at sea. He then married Doña Ana Chacon, of Madrid, daughter of the licentiate Juan Quevedo de Miranda, by Ana Chacon de Miranda. She was a year his senior. A son, named Francisco, was born to them in 1590, and they must then have gone to Peru; for their daughter Jeronima was born some months after Quiros sailed from Peru with Mendaña in 1595.[10]
Quiros was thirty years of age when he accepted the post of Chief Pilot in the ship of Alvaro de Mendaña, who had received a concession to colonise the Solomon Islands, which he had discovered thirty years before. Quiros joined this expedition with some misgivings, caused by the quarrelsome character of the Camp Master, the want of order and discipline, and the position assumed by the Commander’s wife and her brothers. Mendaña was more than twenty years older than Quiros. The Pilot’s position was one of some difficulty: for while on one side he had to exercise tact in his intercourse with the family clique, on the other he found it difficult to avoid friction with a most impracticable and quarrelsome old soldier who was Camp Master, and who had a feud with the brothers-in-law of Mendaña, which continued to increase in bitterness. The expedition culminated at the island of Santa Cruz, a new discovery, with the slaughter of the old Camp Master, the deaths of Mendaña and his brother-in-law Don Lorenzo, the succession of the widow, Doña Isabel, to the command of the expedition, and the disastrous voyage to Manilla.
Through all this intrigue and violence the Chief Pilot steered his course with prudence and caution. He was a reliable seaman, and was constantly consulted. He appears, from his own account, to have been a peacemaker, to have avoided quarrels, and to have had some influence. He was, however, a great talker. The widow did not like him, but she was obliged to rely upon him entirely. Her brothers were useless. Quiros stood between the widow’s selfish parsimony and a crew on the verge of mutiny from misery and starvation. He brought a sinking ship, with rotten spars and rigging, safely over an unknown sea from Santa Cruz to Manilla.