QUIROS 157 



on the right ankle, and a hand cut by a nail. My cure 

 cost me four bleedings, and two months and a half in bed, 

 without possessing a single maravedi. When barely 

 convalescent I embarked in a ship bound for Peru, with- 

 out a bit of bread or a jar of water. I arrived at Callao 

 on the 6th of March, 1605, with debts for the passage 

 and food, and with no moneys. I hired horses from one 

 I had known before, and entered Lima by night. I 

 went round without being able to find any hostelry, until 

 God led me to a potter who, for that night and for three 

 other nights, hospitably received me with good will among 

 his pots ; so that I am able to say with good reason that 

 I arrived at Lima weighted down with very many old 

 labours to make a beginning of new ones." We begin 

 to perceive that we are in noble company. We travel 

 with Don Quixote in the sunset of Spain. 



At Lima he met with more discouragements. The 

 Viceroy was lukewarm, and suggested that the expedition 

 had better start from the Philippines. " I was forced 

 to continue my memorials." " I found more opposers 

 than helpers." The husband of Mendana's widow argued 

 that the expedition would " trench on the Solomon Islands." 

 There were long delays. In vain Quiros urged that " if 

 the day of St. Francis, September 4th, should pass, the 

 best of the year would be lost for making sail and shaping 

 a South- West course." -Three and a -half months passed 

 after that date before preparations were completed. He The Days of 

 sailed not on the day of St. Francis, but on the day of and^t" 1 " 3 

 St. Thomas, the,2ist of December, 1605. Thomas. 



The wish to sail on the day of St. Francis had a signi- 

 ficance beyond the convenience of date. Quiros had planned 

 a ceremony which should give expression to the Franciscan 

 character of the mission. A Festival was to be held 

 " in the convent of St. Francis where were the six Friars 

 who were to go in our ships. The standards and banners 

 were to be blessed, and we were to come forth with all 

 our people in procession, in the clothes of sackcloth which 

 almost all had made for the occasion. But envy put 

 a stop to this laudable intention, and some even opposed 



