THE VOYAGE OF 1595 149 



Once more Mendana thought he had rediscovered the 

 Solomons. He addressed the islanders in the language 

 he had learnt thirty years before ; but they could not 

 understand him. Though Quiros calculated they had 

 already sailed sixteen hundred miles past the place where 

 the Solomons were said to be, those islands were in fact 

 still some distance away to the West. But the island 

 they had come to, though not one of the Solomons, seemed 

 as good a place as they were likely to find. " The land 

 was like Andalusia, and for a settlement the place was 

 as good as agreeable." They called the island Santa 

 Cruz ; and it seemed, for a moment, as if " the spirit and 

 valour of Spaniards, which could do aH, would overcome 

 all difficulties, for God and King." 



But still " the devil was able to work so well with some The colony 

 that they kept in mind the delights of Lima." Complaints a 

 arose, and " they began to lose love and loyalty." These, 

 they said, were not the islands the Adelantado had spoken 

 of ! " We did not come here to sow ; for that purpose 

 there is plenty of land in Peru ; that is not the way to 

 follow the service of God and King." " People would only 

 come to take gold, silver, and pearls, and these are not 

 here ! " Quiros tried to chaff them. " They ought 

 to know how to find cities, vineyards and gardens ; to 

 enter a house ready furnished with the table spread, and 

 to make their owners give up their property and go into 

 servitude ; or they should know how to find mountains, 

 valleys, and plains of emeralds, rubies, and diamonds, 

 ready to be loaded and taken away." All the provinces 

 in the world had their beginnings ; Seville, Rome, and 

 Venice were once forests or bare plains. When the New 

 World was first discovered, there appeared to be only 

 " a few very small islands of little or no value." It is the 

 glory 7 of the first workers that they " make the beginnings." 



necessities, and begged that they would not part company, and with 

 this promise they were rejoiced . . . The Admiral showed much 

 despondency, saying that the defects of his ship were numerous, but 

 that he was determined to die with his people, because for that he was 

 come." It is, however, curious that Mendana, knowing these facts, 

 thought that the Admiral had deserted him. 



