put into operation. He therefore urged to Quiros to lay his case before the Spanish monarch at Madrid, and furnished him with letters to strengthen his application. Whether Philip III was more influenced by the arguments of De Quiros, as to the discovery of a southern continent, or rather by the desire to explore the route between Spain and America by the east, in the hope of discovering wealthy islands between New Guinea and China, we need not pause to question. It is possible that both these motives had their weight, for Quiros was despatched to Peru with full orders for the carrying out of his plans, addressed to the Viceroy, the Count de Monterey; and he was amply equipped with two well-armed vessels and a corvette, with which he sailed from Callao on the 21st of December, 1605. Luis Vaez de Torres was commander of the Almirante, or second ship, in this expedition. The voyage was looked upon as one of very great importance; and Torquemada, in his account of it in the Monarquia Indiana, says that the ships were the strongest and best armed which had been seen in those seas. The object was to make a settlement at the island Santa Cruz, and from thence to search for the Tierra Austral, or southern continent.
After the discovery of several islands, Quiros came to a land which he named Australia del Espiritu Santo, supposing it to be a part of the great southern continent. At midnight of the 11th of June, 1606, while the three ships were lying at anchor in the bay which they had named San Felipe and Santiago,
