CHAPTER XI.

QUEIROZ'S VOYAGE.

We come now to the most important expedition that ever set out in search
of Australia. We have reached the year 1605, in the month of December, of
which Queiroz, this time the commander of another Spanish fleet, set sail
from the coast of Peru with the object of renewing the attempt at
settlement in the island of Santa Cruz, and from thence to search, for
the "continent towards the south," which he believed to be "spacious,
populous and fertile."

The intentions of navigators and the instructions given to them are
seldom thoroughly carried out. We shall see, in this case, that Queiroz
failed to reach Santa Cruz in the same way as Mendana had failed to reach
the Solomans; although they both sailed almost within sight of the
islands they were looking for.

THE VOYAGE.

According to Gonzales de Leza, the pilot of the expedition, the name of
the _Capitana_, or Queiroz's ship, was the _San Pedro y San Pablo_; the
_Almiranta_, named the _San Pedro_ was commanded by Luis Vaes de Torres;
the brigantine or Zabra, was named the _Tres Reyes_, and was commanded by
Pedro Bernal Cermeno.

With variable winds, the three ships that composed the fleet sailed