ABSTRACT

There has come here from Rome the Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, a Portuguese; and the Duke of Sesa and of Baena, of my Council of State and my Ambassador at that Court, wrote to me that in the holy year he had news from Friar Diego de Soria, Prior at Manilla of the Order of San Domingo, that there would be found at that court the said Captain Quiros, who was a great pilot with much experience of the South Sea and of the great gulf between the coasts of New Spain and Peru and Japan and the Philippine Islands, having been Chief Pilot of the second discovery made by the Adelantado Alvaro de Mendaila. The said Father represented that it would be much for the service of God and for mine to introduce him, that he might again return to discover these unknown parts and islands. So the Duke sent for him to his house to ask him concerning curious things relating to his art ; and entertained him there for near seventeen months, during which time he opened his mind, and showed many papers he possessed, and drew up others which he communicated to Father Clavio and other mathematicians and distinguished geographers. All were persuaded, by the proofs and reasonings he submitted to them, that there could not fail to be either a continental land or a number of islands from the Strait of Magellan to New Guinea and Java and the other islands of that great archipelago. And they concluded that, enjoying the best part of the torrid and temperate zones, where it has been seen, as well in the ancient provinces of the world as in the new discoveries, that much and very good and rich land exists which has a temperate and therefore a habitable climate. They are, therefore, of opinion that it is very desirable to lose no time in discovering that southern region, unknown until now, which will be a great service to God.