i8o 



THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



Quiros tries 

 to return 

 to the Bay, 

 gth June. 



The launch 



and the 



Almirante 



reach 



anchorage, 



but the 



Capitana 



fails. 



i ith June. 



The narra- 

 tive of Pilot 

 de Leza. 



so important to the sight, had as yet yielded but a bad 

 account." The port, which he had condemned a few 

 days before, on the ground that " there was not a chance 

 on our side," was to be made a permanent base for future 

 exploration Southward in midwinter. The sudden total 

 change of plan is perplexing, and is inadequately explained 

 by anything that is said in our narratives. We are in 

 fact becoming aware that these are not telling the whole 

 truth. 



The end of the story was that the three ships re-entered 

 the Bay, that the launch and the Almirante under Torres 

 succeeded in reaching the anchorage at the head, while 

 the Capitana under Quiros failed to do so and eventually 

 sailed for home. We have diverse explanations of this 

 failure. And it will be best, first, to note the explanation 

 given by the writers on the Capitana. There is the narra- 

 tive of Quiros himself, which he wrote with the help of his 

 secretary Bermudez, who took the opportunity freely 

 to assert his own opinions. And there is the narrative 

 of the Pilot de Leza, 1 who had taken the place of the trouble- 

 some Pilot now in the custody of Torres. De Leza is 

 described by Quiros as " an honest man and a good Pilot." 

 His journal seems to be a careful and an able piece of work. 

 The writer professes warm sympathy with the aims of 

 Quiros, and there seems nothing to suggest suspicion 

 that the profession is insincere. 



To get to their anchorage at the head of the Bay, twenty- 

 four miles from the entrance, they had to battle against a 

 strong South wind. "All Saturday and Sunday till sunset " 

 (loth and nth June), says the Pilot, "we were within the 

 Bay, beating from one side to the other. Our launch reached 

 the port, but we did not know whether she anchored 

 or not ; for the Capitana and the Almirante were more 

 than a league and a half away. The Almirante was half 

 a league to windward of us. From this tack the two 

 ships made for the anchorage. When we were so near 

 as to be standing for it, we heard the people of the Almirante 

 apparently taking in sail and anchoring. This was at 

 1 Quiros, ed. Markham, pp. 393-395. 



