io NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



That the strait was known to Spaniards early in the seventeenth 

 century is proved by a remarkable document, dating from some- 

 where between 1614 and 1621. This is a MEMORIAL which DR. 

 JEAN Luis ARIAS, a lawyer in Chili, writing on behalf of a number 

 of priests, addressed to King Philip III, urging more vigorous 

 exploration, on humanitarian and religious grounds. NEW GUINEA 

 is referred to in it as " a country ENCOMPASSED WITH WATER." 



QUIROS, who persisted for years in urging the colonisation of 

 Santa Cruz and the further exploration of the South Land, was 

 at last given the command of an expedition, which left CALLAO, 

 Peru, on 2ist December, 1605. He hoisted his flag on the "San 

 Pedro y San Pablo " (usually referred to in narratives as " El 

 Capitano" or the Flagship), with, as his Captain or Chief Pilot, 

 JUAN OCHAO DE BILBAHO. This officer was not a man of his own 

 choice, but was forced upon him by the Viceroy at Lima, whose 

 relative and protege he was. In the course of the voyage he was 

 disrated and replaced by the Junior Pilot CASPAR GONZALEZ DE 

 LEZA. TORRES commanded the "San Pedro" (usually called, 

 "for short," the " Almirante" or Lieutenant's ship). A zabra, 

 or tender, named the " Tres Reyes" was in charge of PEDRO 

 BERNAL CERMENO. 



The flagship parted company with her consorts at the island 

 of Espiritu Santo, and thereafter the two fragments of the expedi- 

 tion pursued separate courses. It is only with the section com- 

 manded by TORRES that the historian of the Cape York Peninsula 

 is directly concerned, but the full significance of Torres' voyage 

 cannot be correctly estimated without some consideration of the 

 events which preceded the separation. 



Quiros and Torres were among the last of Spain's navigators 

 of the first order : by the time their expedition set out, Spain's 

 influence in the Pacific was on the wane. The records of their 

 experiences met with the usual fate of such documents. In 

 accordance with what had become almost a matter of routine, they 

 were at first jealously kept secret. Pigeon-holed, they were in due 

 time forgotten, only to be unearthed, piece by piece, through the 

 diligence of patriots, politicians and historians. In reviewing the 

 progress of discovery subsequent to Quiros and Torres, it is neces- 

 sary to remind ourselves that at any given date the information 

 available was limited to such documents as had come to light, and 

 the problems confronting new explorers were not at all those which 

 would have been before them had they been fully aware of what 

 had already been done. It may be confidently asserted that had 

 the various reports of Quiros and Torres been given to the world 

 in their true chronological order, the course of history would have 

 differed widely from what it has been. Up to comparatively recent 

 times the achievements of Quiros were only known at second hand, 

 and chiefly through the meagre references by Torres, Arias and 



