THE VOYAGE OF TORRES 193 



to give me dispatch for completing the voyage as Your 

 Majesty commanded " : and he is therefore unable to 

 be " the first," as he had hoped, " to give Your Majesty 

 a relation of the discovery." So he sends one of the 

 Franciscans, " who, having been an eye-witness, will give 

 a full relation to Your Majesty." And he sends with him 

 an " account," which is written in vigorous phrase, but Torres' 

 with extreme brevity. The story of the voyage from the 

 Harbour to the West end of New Guinea is told in three 

 pages of modern print. " I do not make a relation of 

 labours and victories to Your Majesty, for I hope to give 

 it at large." 



This is the last word of Torres. He wrote also a letter 

 to Quiros, to which the latter refers in vaguest terms. 

 And no doubt he wrote letters to others ; but, if so, these 

 have disappeared. The best guess seems to be that he 

 died soon afterwards. In December 1613 one of his crew, 

 Diego de Prado, wrote from Goa to the King of Spain, 

 enclosing four maps of places visited by Torres ; maps which Maps, 

 add a little interesting geographic detail to Torres' bald 

 narrative, but do not touch the main problems. 1 He refers 

 to "the map of discoveries," which he had sent before, but 

 this map, which would have been invaluable, has vanished. 

 Our only other evidence, I think, is a slight reference in 

 the pamphlet written by Dr. Arias shortly after 1614. Arias. 



Torres waited in the Harbour fifteen days, and then, Torres sails 

 with reluctant crew, struck South- West. He sought to 2I ' 

 to sail round the "island"; but the season and strong 

 currents would not permit it, though he " ran along a 

 great part of it," and evidently saw enough to make him 

 feel certain that it was an " island." He saw " very 

 large mountains, many ports, and all was well watered 

 with rivers." Then he sailed South- West, in the teeth of 

 difficulties that should make us think more kindly of 

 the failure of Quiros to persuade his men to face them. 

 " We had at this time nothing but bread and water ; it 

 was the height of winter, with sea, wind, and ill-will against 

 us. All this did not prevent me from reaching the men- 



1 These maps are reproduced by Markham and Collingridge. 

 W.A. N 



