1608.] DEATH OF VIZCAINO. 95 



and a promise of means for the execution of his projects. Armed 

 with these, he hastened back to Mexico, and began his prepara- 

 tions ; but, while thus engaged, he was seized with a sickness, 

 of which he died in 1608, and the enterprise was then aban- 

 doned. 



The Spanish government, at the period of Vizcaino's expeditions, 

 appears, indeed, to have been seriously interested in the exploration 

 of the Pacific, with which object several voyages were made from 

 Peru and Mexico. In 1595, Alvaro de Mendana discovered the 

 group of islands in the southern division of that ocean, to which he 

 gave the name of Mas de las Marquesas, (Islands of the Mar- 

 chionesses,) in token of his admiration of the beauty and grace of 

 their women. In 1605, Pedro Fernandez de Quires visited many 

 other islands in the same sea, not previously known, among which 

 were, probably, those now called Otaheite and Owyhee : he also 

 believed that he had ascertained the existence of a great southern 

 continent, which he named Australia del Espiritu Santo ; and, like 

 Vizcaino, he spent many years at Madrid, in endeavors to obtain 

 from the government the command of an expedition for the occu- 

 pation of this new land. 



