150 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



Quiros argued victoriously, but in vain. The Spaniards 

 were determined to be gone. They murdered the natives, 

 in order to induce them to make war, and so compel us 

 to leave the island. At length they murdered the Chief, 

 who had been our faithful friend. Quiros protested 

 at great length. To abandon the enterprise would show 

 us enemies to God and to the King ; " For the work 

 we came to was for the honour of God and the salvation 

 of souls, to rescue from the Devil those whom he looks 

 upon as so secure." But the mutineers went back to their 

 old song, that they wanted to go to Manila. They threat- 

 ened to kill Quiros for his sermons ; and asked what they 

 should drink in his skull ! Quiros replied that all he 

 had put before them was in the service of God and the 

 King, and he would sustain it to the death ! A friend 

 advised him to " hold his tongue, for, if not, he would be 

 killed, or left alone on the island." 



At last this tragedy of " the island where Solomon was 

 wanting" came to an end. Mendana caused the leader 

 and Men- of the mutiny to be stabbed. Then Mendana himself 

 danadies. ^ ie ^ and man y others, among them the "Vicar." Only 

 fifteen soldiers remained in health, and they were lads. 

 Ten determined natives could have killed us all. And the 

 cause of disaster was also evident. An exploit of Christian 

 Chivalry had been committed to the hands of a gang 

 of scoundrels ; men, said the dying Vicar, "who have not 

 confessed for three, five, seven, nine, fourteen, and thirty 

 years, and one who has confessed once in his life." Some 

 of them were murderers. One did not know whether 

 he was a Christian or a Moor. The disaster, said the 

 Vicar, was God's punishment of sin. The mission was 

 abandoned ; and the island was " left in the claws of 

 him who held it before, until God permits others to come 

 forward more desirous of the welfare of those lost ones, 

 that with a finger they may show the way to that Salvation 

 for which they were created." 



Mendana was succeeded in command by his widow, 

 who was given the title of " Governess." She determined 

 to seek San Christobal, one of the Solomons, their original 



