ABSTRACT
Pedro Fernandez de Quiros was remarkable both for what he was and for what he did. At Taumaco Quiros obtained supplies of water, provisions and fuel, and information as to the existence of other islands in that region. Whilst fundamentally an island should be seen in order to be accurately identified, the identity of most of the islands mentioned can be determined from 'the copious topographical and nautical data' given in geographical and hydrographic handbooks of the Pacific and in the Admiralty Charts. A modern authority describes it: Caroline Island lies almost due north of Tahiti, the nearest inhabited land being the north-west Tuamotu Islands. The orientation from north to south mentioned by Munilla agrees with Rakahanga, the more northerly island of the two. The islands that lie strewn across the broad waters of the Pacific are conventionally divided into three great groups, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.
