Pedro Fernandes de Queirós

Queirós (or Quirós as he signed) was born in Évora, Portugal in 1563. As the Portuguese and Spanish monarchies had been unified under the king of Spain in 1580 (following the vacancy of the Portuguese throne, which lasted for sixty years, until 1640, when the Portuguese monarchy was restored), Queirós entered Spanish service as a young man and became an experienced seaman and navigator. In April 1595, he joined Álvaro de Mendaña y Neira on his voyage to colonize the Solomon Islands, serving as chief pilot. After Mendaña's death in October 1595, Queirós is credited with taking command and saving the only remaining ship of the expedition, arriving in the Philippines in February 1596. Isabel Barreto, Mendaña's wife, accompanied the expedition and was accused of causing the crew's low morale by her selfishness and strict discipline. ==The search for Terra Australis==

Queirós spent eighteen months in the Philippines, but returned to Spain in 1598, via Mexico. In January 1606, the expedition came upon Henderson Island and Ducie Island, and then Rakahanga (Northern Cook Islands), and the Buen Viaje Islands (Butaritari and Makin) in the present-day island nation of Kiribati. It is also probable that his expedition sighted Tahiti and other islands in the Tuamotu archipelago. Queirós narrowly missed the Marquesas as well as New Zealand, thanks to a change in his planned itinerary. In his printed memorials, notably the Eighth (which was published in Italy, Holland, France, Germany and England), this was altered to Austrialia del Espíritu Santo (The Australian Land of the Holy Spirit), a pun on "Austria", in honor of King Philip III, who was of the House of Hapsburg or 'Austria' in Spanish. The island is still called Espiritu Santo. Here, he stated his intention to establish a colony, to be called Nova Jerusalem. He seems to have identified Australia/Austrialia del Espíritu Santo with the huge northward extension of the Austral continent joining it to New Guinea, as depicted in maps like those of Gerard de Jode and Petrus Plancius. For, as he said in his Tenth Memorial (page 5): “New Guinea is the top end of the Austral Land of which I treat". Two weeks later, his second-in-command, Luis Váez de Torres, after searching in vain for Queirós and assuming Queirós (or rather the crew of his ship) had decided to go their own way, left Espiritu Santo. Torres successfully reached Manila, the capital of the Spanish East Indies in May 1607, after charting the southern coastline of New Guinea on the way and in doing so sailing through the strait that now bears his name, between Australia and New Guinea. Torres was unaware of his proximity to Australia's northern coast, just over the horizon from his route. ==Later life==

Pedro Fernandes de Quirós returned to Madrid in 1607. Regarded as a crank, he spent the next seven years in poverty, writing numerous accounts of his voyage and begging King Philip III for money for a new voyage, sending the king more than 65 letters over a seven-year period. ==Accounts of Queirós's voyage==

There are a number of documents describing the Queirós – Torres voyages still in existence. Most significant are • Queirós' many subsequent Memorials to the King Philip III regarding the voyage, • Torres' letter to the King of Spain from 12 July 1607, • Diego de Prado's narrative and 4 charts of New Guinea, • Juan Luis Arias de Loyola's memorial to King Philip IV (written about 1630 and based on discussions between Queirós and Loyola). 1617 may be the date of the first English translation of one of Queirós’ memorials, as Terra Australis Incognita, or A New Southerne Discoverie. A short account of Queirós’ voyage and discoveries was published in English by Samuel Purchas in 1625 in Haklvytvs posthumus, or, Pvrchas his Pilgrimes, vol. iv, p. 1422-1432. This account also appears to be based on a letter by Queirós to the King in 1610, the eighth on the matter. Memorials Queirós sent at least 50, memorials to the King between 1607 and 1614. Although most were written manuscripts, Queirós paid to have fourteen printed and presented to the King. Copies of thirteen of these memorials are known to have survived. A short account of Queirós's voyage and discoveries was published in English by Samuel Purchas in 1625 in Haklvytvs posthumus, or, Pvrchas his Pilgrimes, vol. iv, p. 1422-1432. This account also appears to be based on a letter by Queirós to the King in 1610, the eighth on the matter. The table below gives a summary of the memorials, including the classification systems used by four different scholars: Celsus Kelly in 1965, Frances Mary Hellessey Dunn in 1961, Justo Zaragoza in 1876 and Phyllis Mander-Jones in 1930. ==Theory that Queirós discovered Australia==

In the 19th century, some Australians claimed that Queirós had in fact discovered Australia in advance of Willem Janszoon, Abel Tasman, and James Cook. The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney from 1884 to 1911, Patrick Francis Moran, asserted this to be a fact, and it was taught in Australian Catholic schools for many years. Moran claimed that the real site of Queirós' New Jerusalem was near Gladstone in Queensland, supported by elements of Queirós' description of the land he had discovered, such as his assertion that "its length is as much as all Europe and Asia Minor as far as the Caspian and Persia, with all the islands of the Mediterranean and the ocean which encompasses, including the two islands of England and Ireland. That hidden part is the fourth corner of the world". ==Queirós in modern literature==

The Australian poet James McAuley wrote an epic poem called Captain Quiros (1964), describing the expeditions of Queirós in his search for the Great South Land. It is considered an important contribution to the voyager theme in Australian literature. The Australian writer John Toohey published a novel, Quiros, in 2002. The British writer Robert Graves describes the 1595 expedition in his historical novel, The Islands of Unwisdom, published in 1949. ==Namesake==

The Spanish Navy gunboat Quirós, commissioned in 1896, was named for Queirós, using the Spanish form of his surname. After she was sold to the United States, she retained the name as in United States Navy service from 1900 to 1923. ==In popular culture==

Queirós was the subject of the 1982 television opera, Quiros, by Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe. Sculthorpe later reworked the opera into the 2013 oratorio The Great South Land, premiered at the Canberra International Music Festival. Queirós is mentioned in the 1976 movie King Kong as discovering Skull Island and encountering Kong after being blown south from Tematagi in 1605. Queirós is the namesake of many space stations in the 2014 video game Elite Dangerous. ==References==