TORRES 13 



There is reason to believe that Quiros was influenced in his 

 decision to steer WNW. no less by the insubordinate, if not 

 mutinous, conduct of a section of his crew than by the lateness of 

 the season. Probably enough, with a commander of greater 

 firmness, the ugly word " mutiny " would never have been heard. 

 Having reached, approximately, the latitude of 10 S., the 

 expedition steered west for VERA CRUZ, driven by the imperative 

 need for fresh water and firewood. These requisites, however, 

 were obtained at an island named TOUMACO, and the project of 

 making for Vera Cruz was abandoned. 



By this time, the INSUBORDINATION on the flagship had to be 

 dealt with. The ringleader was the Chief Pilot, or Captain, 

 JUAN OCHOA DE BILBAHO, for whom Quiros considered that a 

 sufficient punishment was to be relieved of his office and sent on 

 board the " Almirante " a proceeding which was perhaps a little 

 hard on Torres. Ochoa was replaced by GASPAR GONZALEZ DE 

 LEZA, Junior Pilot. 



A bitterly spiteful enemy of Quiros, and necessarily a supporter 

 of the disrated Captain, was DIEGO DE PRADO Y TOBAR, who, 

 according to his own account, voluntarily accompanied Ochoa and 

 boarded the " Almirante " at Toumaco. In allowing an officer 

 of the flagship to desert openly and to side with a degraded malcon- 

 tent, it seems to me that Quiros displayed a weakness which was 

 most reprehensible, unless it was to be pardoned as a " symptom " 

 of his illness. Be this as it may, we owe to the desertion of Prado, 

 as will afterwards appear, a much fuller knowledge of Torres' 

 subsequent proceedings than we should have had if Prado had not 

 accompanied Torres for the remainder of the expedition. In the 

 letters already referred to, Prado states that : " I went as Captain 

 of the ship ' Capitano,' knew what took place on board and took 

 part in it, and as it was not in conformity with the good of Your 

 Majesty's Service, I could not stay. So I disembarked at Toumaco 

 and went to the ' Almirante ,' where I was well received." The 

 assertion that he was Captain is sheer impudence, as there can be 

 no question that the Captain was Ochoa. Prado was perhaps a 

 " mate " of some sort, and the sailing of the ship may at some time 

 have temporarily devolved upon him in the course of duty, but 

 beyond this there was never any justification for his claim. His 

 version of the story is that he gave Quiros timely warning of the 

 mutinous disposition of the " Capitano's " officers and crew, and 

 he insinuates that Quiros either did not believe him or stood so 

 much in fear of the malcontents that he made things so unpleasant 

 that he (Prado) was glad to exchange into the " Almirante" 



At Toumaco, the natives were understood to say that large 

 lands (which, of course, might prove to be the desired South Land) 

 lay to the south, and the course was changed accordingly. In 

 latitude 15 40' S. and longitude 176 E., the promised land 



