1 84 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



following days, to re-enter the Bay. But they failed. 

 The wind did not go down. They lost ground, so that 

 they found themselves eighty miles to leeward of the 

 port," all looking at those high mountains with sorrow 

 at not being able to get near them." In vain they " dili- 

 gently sought to shelter behind an island past which 

 they drove one hundred and twenty miles North-West 

 of the Bay." " We were obliged to give it up, owing 

 to the wind and currents, and on the next day we found 

 ourselves at sea, out of sight of land." 



" A want of The narrative then gives the reasons which induced 

 resolution. .. ^ sorrow f u i captain " to abandon the enterprise and 

 make for Santa Cruz. " He considered the strong contrary 

 winds, the very threatening weather, the fact that their 

 present position was unknown, that the ship must need 

 repairs, the necessity for going to a place where she could 

 be got into harbour or careened on a coast. He had very 

 prominently in his mind that, at the first difficulty or danger, 

 there would be a want of resolution or of management, 

 or of the desire to apply a remedy ; for which reason, it 

 might be said with truth, that he was without pilots on 

 whom he could rely, and that from some other persons 

 there was little to be expected or hoped. Then there 

 were his own infirmities ; so that altogether the case was 

 one of evident danger." The view of Bermudez, then, 

 was that the failure was due to the fault of the Pilots, 

 as well as the fault of the weather : that the conduct of 

 the Pilots showed a want of resolution or management, 

 and especially of fervent desire to apply a remedy. The 

 Knights of the Holy Ghost were, after all, what they had 

 been before they received their crosses : men " far from 

 having the valorous minds which ought to animate the 

 searchers for unknown lands, to uphold their original motive 

 and perform heroic deeds." 



The opinion Next, let us look at the letter which Torres, after the 



es< famous passage of the Strait, wrote to the King from Manila 



on the 1 2th of July, 1607. Throughout the story Torres 



had been champion of the Southward course. He tells 



in this letter that he had handed to Quiros a formal 



