FOR THE SOUTH LAND 
37 
signs he took to be a promontory of the great Terra Aus- 
tralis Incognita. He named it Australia del Espiritu 
Santo , and took possession with a pomp, ceremony, and 
comprehensiveness that has perhaps never been sur- 
passed. He landed with his soldiers and priests, set up 
his standards and the cross, and hailed his discovery 
with the words “ To God alone the praise and glory ! O 
Land so long sought for, believed in by so many, so earn- 
estly longed for by me.” Then a notary solemnly called 
Heaven and Earth, the Waters and all Creatures to witness 
that Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros took possession 
in the names of the Holy Trinity, the Pope, the Francis- 
cans, various other orders, and lastly, the King of 
Spain. The definition of the territory annexed was 
given thus : 
“ In this southern quarter of the globe which has hith- 
erto been unknown, to which I have come with the per- 
mission of Pope Clement VIII. and by command of King 
Philip III. of Spain, dispatched by his Council of State, 
I, Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros take possession 
in the name of the Holy Trinity of all islands and 
lands which I have recently discovered and will discover 
e\ en to the Pole.” 
Yet notwithstanding all this Quiros went no further 
south ; he lingered more than a month at his island, and 
planned a town to be called New Jerusalem at the mouth 
of the Jordan. Soon after sailing, the ships of the squad- 
ron were separated by a storm. Quiros returned to Peru 
via the Philippines, and Torres, his second in command, 
discovered and navigated the strait which now bears his 
name, thus proving that New Guinea was not part of the 
southern continent, arid discovering new land to the 
south. Quiros, the would-be Columbus of the south, 
