Pedro Fernández de Quirós

Pedro Fernández de Quirós (or Pedro Fernandes de Queirós in Portuguese), born with Évora (Portugal) in 1565 and died in Panamá in 1614, was a navigator and a Explorateur Portuguese with the service of the Spanish royalty.

Biography

Born in Portugal, Quirós engages in the Spanish navy where he becomes an experienced navigator. In 1595, it takes part in the capacity as pilot in explorations of Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira in the south-east of the Pacific.

It goes to Rome in 1600 to obtain the blessing of the pope Clément VIII for new explorations. It takes the sea in direction of the Peru in 1603 to organize a forwarding bound for the Terra australis , the “large mythical ground of the south”, and to take of it possession in the name of Spain and of the Church. Its forwarding embarks in Callao, the December 21st 1605, with 300 men of crew and soldiers, on board three ships, the Santos Pedro there Pablo , the San Pedro and Los Tres Reyes .

In 1606 forwarding reaches the Archipel of Tuamotu and the New Hebrides (today the Vanuatu). Quirós accosts on a large island which he thinks of belonging to the southern continent, and baptizes it Austrialia del Espíritu Santo , in the honor of the dynasty reigning in Spain and with the Portugal, the Habsbourg, of Austrian origin ( Austria in Spanish). The island is always called Espiritu Santo. It founds there a colony which it baptizes Nouvelle Jerusalem, but must quickly give up its project because of the hostility of the indigenous S and the conflicts between the members of forwarding.

On the way of the return, the bad weather separates the boat from Quirós of the other ships. It unloads finally with Acapulco, with the Mexico, in November 1606. Its second in command, Shine Váez de Torres, left at its research, put the course on Espíritu Santo, discovering that it was of an island and not about a continent. It carried on its road and reached Manila with the Filipino .

Quirós turns over to Madrid in 1607. Regarded as insane, it spends the seven following years in misery, being devoted to the drafting of many reports/ratios of voyage and soliciting the king Philippe III of Spain so that it finances a new forwarding. It set out again in Peru with letters of introduction, but without obtaining the financial support of the king. Quirós died in Panamá in 1615.

Researchers tried to show, at the 19th century, that Quirós had discovered the Australia before Abel Tasman and James Cook, mainly because of the name given by the navigator to the island Austrialia del Espíritu Santo , whereas the origin and the orthography of the word Australia are different from those of Austrialia .

The name of Quirós will be mentioned by Bougainville in its Voyage around the world and by Jules Verne in Twenty thousand miles under the seas .

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