ORE HIPC : POY, SOD, 
LETTER VI. 
HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF SANTO—ITS APPEARANCE— 
BARTERING WITH THE NATIVES—THE QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY 
—MAU AND ITS PEOPLE—VISIT ASHORE—RETURN TO 
ANEITYUM. 
Anelcauhat, Aneityum, 
Sune, 1872. 
KD 
T is no doubt true of the South-Sea Islanders and the South- 
Sea Islands, that they have no history; but I must claim 
for the island of Santo the place of an exception to this rule, for it 
has a history—a brief one, ’tis true, but still an interesting one ; 
and I am sure that I cannot do better now than briefly run 
over the incidents which led to its discovery nearly three 
hundred years ago. ‘ 
Early in the seventeenth century a Spaniard, Pedro Quiros 
by name, coming to the conclusion, after much thought and in- 
vestigation, that there lay in the South Pacific a great continent 
still unknown, petitioned the Spanish government most assidu- 
ously to fit out for him an expedition, that he might go and 
settle this question. After considerable delay his request was 
granted, and he was despatched, in December 1605, with three 
vessels, six priests, and a large complement of men, on a voyage 
of discovery. In April 1606, after touching at several islands 
before discovered, he sighted land in a position where nothing 
of the kind had been known to exist, and from its apparent 
