252 STORY OF A LOST ARCHIPELAGO. 



portion of St. Chvistoval is at presjent called Bauro, and by this 

 name the whole island is often known to the natives of the islands 

 around. Thus, without suspecting it, Quiros had described to him 

 an island of the lost Solomon Group, and the very island which 

 had been more completely explored than any other by the expedition 

 of Mendana nearly forty years before. Had he been in possession 

 of Gallego's journal, in which the native name of Paubro is given to 

 St Christoval, he would have at once recognised in this Pouro of 

 the Taumaco natives the Paubro of Mendana's expedition. His 

 informant spoke to him of silver arrows which had been brought 

 from Pouro, but this circumstance did not set him on the right 

 track ; and thus for the second time this enterprising navigator 

 unwittingly let the chance pass by of finding the Isles of Salomon.^ 



The opportunity had gone ; and, for this reason, the remainder 

 of this voyage of Quiros has no interest in connection with the 

 Solomon Group. The information which he had obtained of the 

 numerous islands and tracts of land in the vicinity of Taumaco 

 seems to have banished from his mind all thoughts of the missino- 

 group. Steering southward, and passing without seeing the island 

 of Santa Cruz of which he had been in search, he reached the island 

 of Tucopia, of which he had previously obtained information from 

 the natives of Taumaco. Continuing his course, he finall}^ anchored 

 in a large bay which indented the coast of what he believed was 

 the Great Southern Continent. The name Australia del Espiritu 

 Santo was given by him to this new land, when flushed with the 

 success of his discovery. In the hour of his supposed triumph, 

 fortune again frowned on the efforts of the Spanish navigator. A 

 mutiny broke out on board his ship, and Quiros was compelled by 

 his crew to abandon the enterprise. Without being able to acquaint 

 Torres of what had happened, he left the anchorage unperceived in 

 the middle hours of the night, and after making an ineffectual 

 attempt to find Santa Cruz, he sailed for Mexico. Torres, after 

 ascertaining that the supposed southern continent was an island,^ 

 continued his voyage westward, and, passing through the straits 

 which bear his name, ultimately arrived at Manilla. 



The results of the expeditions in which Quiros had been engaged 



^ The question of this name of Pouro is further treated in Note XV. of the Geographical 

 Appendix, since an attempt has been made by Mr. Hale, the American philologist, to identify 

 it with the Bouro of the Indian Archipelago. 



-This island is one of the New Hebrides, and still retains its Spanish name of Espiritu 

 Santo. 



