With the hope of making fresh discoveries and in pursuance of their
object to establish a trade between the Spice Islands and their newly
acquired colonies on the western shores of America, the Spaniards
continued to send out expeditions whenever an opportunity offered.

Ever widening their sphere of action, they now looked forward to the
southern regions of the Pacific Ocean as the land of promise, the _El
Dorado_ of their dreams; Saavedra's _Isla de Oro_ and Retez's and Gaspar
Rico's discoveries were not to be forgotten either.

It is in those regions that the legends and traditions of the times
placed the islands from which King Solomon derived the gold and other
treasures that served for the decoration of the temple of Jerusalem.

These legends, founded partly on historical events, and partly coupled
with traditions handed down in the Royal Incarial families of Peru, seem
to have given a powerful stimulus to Spanish enterprise in the South
Pacific Ocean.

The hopes they gave rise to were, in addition, strengthened by the desire
to discover the Great Southern Continent in a more effectual way than had
hitherto been done: these prospects originated all the expeditions which,
leaving the shores of South America, followed one after another in the
same wake.

The Spaniards were now firmly established in Peru and it came to pass
that a certain Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, a Spanish officer of unusual
erudition in maritime and other matters, having collected and translated
many historical documents, or _guipus_,* relating to the Incas, became