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HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



of Spain. His uncle encouraged him in his design and furnished 

 him with the necessary funds. Mendana set sail from Callao 

 on the 11th of January, 1568. He proceeded fourteen hundred 

 and fifty leagues to the west, and discovered a group of islands 

 in about 10° south latitude. One of them, to which he gave the 

 name of Isabella, is distinguished as having been the scene of 

 the first celebration of a Catholic mass in the Pacific Ocean. 

 He sailed round another of the group, St. Christopher, and, 

 after several disastrous encounters with the natives, returned to 

 Callao. This voyage, the most important undertaken by the 

 Spanish since the discovery of America, gave rise to multitudes 

 of fables, with which the historians and chroniclers of Spain 

 filled the minds of the people during the century which followed. 

 The islands discovered by Mendana were represented as enor- 

 mously rich in gold and the precious metals. The name of 

 Solomon was given to the group, — a name which was thought to 

 be eminently suited to so luxurious an archipelago, having for- 

 merly been that of a luxurious prince. As in those days the 

 art of scientific navigation was in its infancy, and as latitude 

 and longitude were not -fixed with any great degree of precision, 

 the position of the Solomon Islands was very loosely marked 

 down by Mendana, and the question of their locality became, 

 and for a long time remained, one of the most puzzling questions 

 in geography. 



Mendana sent home to the Spanish Government brilliant ac- 

 counts of his discoveries, and solicited the means of prosecuting 

 them still further. War and other engagements prevented the 

 ministry from attending to his requests till the year 1595, when 

 he obtained the command of an expedition having for its object 

 .the colonization of St. Christopher. He sailed from Callao in 

 April with four ships carrying four hundred men: his wife, 

 Isabel de Barretos, and three of his brothers-in-law, accompanied 

 him. Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, of whom we shall afterwards 

 speak more particularly, was the pilot of the fleet. They 



