FOR THE SOUTH LAND 
3i 
of islands, met with an extensive land of which he fol- 
lowed the north coast for about 230 leagues without 
coming to an end. Henceforth this portion of the 
Southern Continent appeared upon the maps under the 
name of New Guinea, which it still bears. It was easy 
to draw a continuous coast line across the Pacific to unite 
it with the Magellanic Land, nor were there wanting 
adventurous sailors to visit portions of that coast and 
return with detailed descriptions. Thus Dr. Juan Luis 
Arias some time between 1606 and 1621, no doubt ani- 
mated by the stories of Ouiros, wrote a Memorial to 
Philip III., King of Spain, in the true spirit of expansive 
imperialism, urging that monarch to proceed to annex 
and colonise the new continent without delay, for it had 
been discovered by the intrepid pilot, Juan Fernandez, 
about 40° west of the coast of Chile, a pleasant land, 
fertile, temperate in climate, watered by great navigable 
rivers, like nothing one could see in Chile or Peru, and 
to crown all, inhabited by white people. So, long before 
Defoe immortalised the adventures of Alexander Selkirk 
on the island really discovered by Juan Fernandez and 
named after him, a romance was woven round some 
Polynesian island visited by the same navigator, and the 
prevailing belief in a non-existent region strengthened 
thereby. 
In 1567, Pedro de Sarmiento, succeeded in inducing 
the Viceroy of Peru to fit out an expedition to explore 
the South Land, but though he was made captain of one 
of the vessels the command of the expedition was given 
to Alvaro de Mendana, nephew of the Viceroy, who took 
a course of his own, little dreaming that the route urged 
by Sarmiento would have led to the discovery of Aus- 
tralia. The only result of the voyage was to find a 
