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| Pacific
Explorers Library |
Luis Vaez de Torres
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| In 1605 Torres sailed with PEDRO
FERNANDEZ DE QUIROS as captain of the ship "San Pedrico"
from Callao, in Peru, to La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo (= Espiritu
Santo in Vanuatu).
After De Quiros had been swept out to sea (eventually returning to
Mexico), De Torres was left with Diego de Prado y Tovar and other
survivors on Espiritu Santo. After unsuccessfully searching for the
wreckage of Quiros' ship, during which time they discovered that they were
on an island not a continent, they first sailed SW to 21°S before being
forced to the Northwest, reaching the Louisiades and Basilaki Island. |
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| Unable to proceed further
north, Torres coasted southern New Guinea (called Magna Margarita), naming
San Juan Batista (Yule Island), entering Orokolo Bay, passing Malandanza
(Umuda Island), Isla de Perros (Bristow Island) and sighting Long Reef off
Cape York (called Volcan Quernado). He then unknowingly negotiated the Torres
Strait (named after him in 1769 by the Scotsman Alexander Dalrymple,
who first saw the Manila documents), afterwards coasting New Guinea and
doubling Cape San Pablo (= Cape Valsch). After calling at San Juan de
Prado and Cape San Lucas (in the region of Kaimana, Irian Jaya), he sailed
North to Cinco Hermanas (= Yef Pelee on Misool Island), Ternate and
Manila, arriving 12 May 1705.
De Torres spent the rest of his life in Manila.
His report of the voyage was not discovered until 1762 (although it is
briefly mentioned in a Franciscan document from Peru in 1640), and the
journal of Prado was not published until 1930. However, the Ortelius map
of 1570 mysteriously shows the Torres Strait, along with Terra Australis.
Torres' voyage through the straits (the subject of much recent debate)
happened to follow the discoveries of Willem Jansz in the same region by
only a few months.
For more
information on Luis Vaez de Torres, go
to: |
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