A TKOPICAL CLIMATE. 



339 



of what he called the "mother of so many islands." At one 

 named Taumaco he seized four natives to serve him as guides 

 and interpreters, and carried them away. He has been much 

 blamed for this act of treachery towards a people who treated 

 him with kindness and hospitality. Three of the four jumped 

 overboard during the two days following, and escaped to islands 

 in the vicinity. The chief of the island where he had taken 

 them had informed him that, if he would change his course from 

 the west to the south, he would come to a large tract, fertile and 

 inhabited, named Manicolo. Following this advice, he discovered 

 the islands of Tucopia and Nuestra Senora de la Luz. It is 

 doubtful whether either of these has been seen by subsequent 

 navigators. On the 26th of April, he made a land which he 

 took to be the continent of which he was in search, and to which 

 he gave the name of Tierra Austral del Espiritu Santo. Bou- 

 gainville and Cook, who arrived here a century and a half after- 

 wards, thought themselves justified, by acquiring the certitude 

 that it was a group of islands and not a continent, in christening 

 them anew, — Bougainville naming them the Grandes Cyclades, 

 and Cook the New Hebrides. 



Quiros has left an admirable picture of this fertile and de- 

 lightful spot. "The rivers Jordan and Salvador," he says, 

 "give no small beauty to their shores, for they are full of odori- 

 ferous flowers and plants. Pleasant and agreeable groves front 

 the sea in every part : we mounted to the tops of mountains and 

 perceived fertile valleys and rivers winding amongst green mea- 

 dows. The whole is a country which, without doubt, has the 

 advantage over those of America, and the best of the European 

 will be well if it is equal. It is plenteous of various and delicious 

 fruits, potatoes, yams, plantains, oranges, limes, sweet basil, nut- 

 megs, and ebony, all of which, without the help of sickle, plough, 

 or other artifice, it yields in every season. There are also cattle, 

 birds of many kinds and of charming notes, honey-bees, parrots, 

 doves, and partridges. The houses wherein the Indians live are 



