SPAIN AND AUSTRALIA.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 270, 16 November 1909, Page 2

SPAIN AND AUSTRALIA.

The students who are applying themselves-patiently to the, study of the early history of European espolration in Australian waters are gradually linfolding a very interesting story. Australia, it seems, might very easily have Been, a- Spanish colony, and that it was left to the British was due, we are told, to the partiality of the Spaniards for warm weather. This particular story was related to the Australian Historical Society in Sydney recently by Mr George Collingridge. In 1606 the Spanish commander de Quiros set sail from Peru with a fleet to discover the great southern continent. He* had minute instructions as to the course he should follow, and from Mr Collingridge's account it would appear that de Quiros intended to make due west in and about the latitude of Valparaiso. If the directions had been followed, the navigator would have had a very good chance of sighting the. northern end of New Zealand, and he would certainly have sighted the Aifstratfian ' ooast near. Port Jackson, anticipating Captain Cook by many years. But the Spaniards, we are told, were ."salamanders." They were" afraid of getting too far south, and so they sailed on a course, that took them to Santo, in the New Hebrides. There is a theory that they found the coast of what is now Queensland, but the careful examination of the records does not bear out the; idea. At Santo,_ the .mutinous crew of de Quiro's ship locked their commander in his cabin and put out to sea. Their intention was to sail to Manila, but it was abandoned, and they went to ~ CJentral>, America. Thence de Quiros returned to Sprain. In all sincerity he published accounts of how he had discovered Ihe great southern land, Australia, and the accounts ultimately found their, way to Manila, But in the meantime, Tor-

res, who was second in command to de Quiros on the voyage,? had from Santo,1 through theis^raitg between Cape York and Papua, to Manila. In good time he exposed-the error of his old-time commander, and do Quiros, we are told, presented as many as fifty petitions to the King, praying that he might be sent on another voyage of exploration. He did, at length, reach Panama, but he died there.