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THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



The 



Franciscan 



Gospel. 



" A 



beginning 

 with great 

 foundation. 



Not falcons 

 but pelicans 



bad recompense of men, and never hoped for good report, 

 nor would waste a single moment in such nonsense, needing 

 time for more important matters." 



These " more important matters " were the belief and 

 practice of Christianity. " To pardon ingrates and enemies 

 without having cause to do so, to do them good by force, 

 is a very great vengeance." " He had come out of this 

 first attempt without blood having been shed, though 

 he had bought this result very dear, and it would cost 

 him more hereafter." And thus he had made sure that 

 " over the bones of so many martyrs would rise a good 

 work with good reputation in the world, which was his 

 chief desire." Such had been the aim of " many valorous 

 prudent captains, mirrors into which he was looking 

 day and night with desire to imitate them." 



For, in the midst of " sorrowful discourses " came gleams 

 of hope and faith : " discourses more consolatory." 

 The voyage had ended in personal failure and humiliation, 

 but the Cause for which he had striven had not failed. 

 He had discovered, and had taken possession of, good 

 and populous lands that seemed without end ; and this 

 was " a beginning with very great foundation." The 

 completion of a task so glorious could not be achieved 

 in one voyage, nor in three, even with very efficient help, 

 and. with men who would work with the same love for 

 the Cause as the Captain felt. Torres, he believed, 

 would do all in his power to discover more lands. But, 

 for the present, Quiros, " being about to die," sought 

 strength in depicting in his " Will " the vision that he had 

 seen, and that made his life ; the vision of the Land 

 of the Holy Spirit in the South. It is to be a land very 

 different from the Spanish colonies in America, where 

 Spanish falcons have grasped the people with cruel talons, 

 and with fierce and sharp beaks tear them into two thousand 

 pieces : " it is money, I say, that they want, and more 

 money, though it be torn from men's entrails." In the 

 New Land of the South, Spaniards are not to be falcons 

 but " pelicans who first tear their own flesh," and so feed 

 their spiritual children with pure and clean love. Thus, 



