134 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



" give them more land than they could people." On 

 Discovery of the 7th of February, eighty days after leaving Callao, 



^ Gallego ordered a sailor to " climb to the main-top and 



Solomons, 



Feb. 1568. look towards the South for land," for he thought he saw 

 something very high. The sailor reported land, and soon 

 it was visible to all, and " everybody received the news 

 with great joy and gratitude for the Grace that God had 

 vouchsafed to us, through the intercession of the Virgin 

 of Good Fortune, the Glorious Mother of God, whom 

 we all worshipped, and whom we all praised, singing 

 the ' Te Deum Laudamus.' ' 



" The land," writes Mendana, "was so large and high, 

 that we thought it must be a continent." x At ten 

 o'clock in the morning they observed " a resplendent 

 star" -"a real star, though it was broad day" and, 

 " firmly persuaded that our Lord favoured us, through 

 the intercession of His Divine Mother and the three Magi," 

 who had " sent the star to show us the passage," they 

 named the harbour " Bahia de la Estrella." They landed, 

 and erected a cross ; the Franciscans chanted " the 

 hymn Vexilla Regis prodeunl " ; and they took possession 

 of the " continent " for Christ and for Spain. 



Was it the Mendana called the island Santa Ysabel, "because we 

 had sailed from the kingdom of Peru upon the feast of 

 Santa Ysabel, and also because she had been our patroness 

 throughout the voyage." At a spot that can still be 

 exactly identified a photograph of it is given in the 

 admirable modern edition of these narratives they built 

 a brigantine for the exploration of the islands ; for islands 

 they were, though no doubt very near to the mighty 

 continent that they sought. In this brigantine they 

 crept along the island coasts, by routes which can be 

 exactly traced on the modern map, and saw scenes which 

 the modern photographer can exactly ppurtray. ' They 

 brought back to Peru an account of their discoveries 

 so accurate and detailed that it is possible 333 years after- 

 wards to identify every harbour and islet and creek." 



1 " The same island, which we believed to be a continent " (Gallego, 

 p. 17). 



