| On 19 November 1567,
Mendaņa's two vessels sailed from Callao in Peru. The two ships were the
107 ton Todos Santos (ie All Saints) and the 250 ton Los
Reyes (ie the Kings). On board were 150 men, made up of 70
experienced sailors and soldiers and the remainder South American Indian
slaves. Also on board were four Franciscan friars. For three weeks the
ships steered westward. Then, contrary to Sarmiento's advice, but on the
counsel of Mendaņa's pilot, Herman Gallego, an experienced navigator,
they veered north-west. Sarmiento later blamed the failure of the
expedition on Mendaņa and his officers for having ignored his advice at
this point. Certainly, had they continued due west, they would almost
certainly have discovered the Society
Islands. As it was, the ships passed between the Marquesas
and Tuvalu)
which they named the Isle of Jesus.
By now, after two months at sea, the drinking
water was becoming foul. An error on Gallego's part, which prevented the
crews landing on the Isle of Jesus, did not improve morale, and near
wreckage on some coral reefs reinforced the crew's mutterings.
Fortunately, on 7 February 1568, the voyagers sighted an island which they
named Santa Ysabel, after the name saint of Mendaņa's wife.
As the ships entered a broad harbour, Mendaņa
was certain they had reached the shores of the elusive continent, but it
soon became obvious they had landed on an island. However, on the basis
that Columbus had discovered such a group of islands with a continent not
far away, Mendaņa believed that he too would find a continent close by.
On arrival, the ships were met by a fleet of canoes, full of islanders
armed with bows and arrows. The next day the chief, Bilebanara, made an
appearance, and promised fresh food and water. When the expected supplies
did not arrive, Mendaņa sent Pedro de Ortega ashore with an armed party,
but although they were hospitably received, no supplies were forthcoming.
Meanwhile, Gallego had supervised the
construction of a 5-ton brigantine, the Santiago, for in-shore survey
work. Sarmiento and Ortega embarked on a number of less peaceful missions
and, on one occasion were so sickened by the proffered gift of a child's
shoulder and arm, that they killed a number of natives and burned their
huts to the ground. This conduct angered Mendaņa, a humane man, and
hastened the ships' departure.
Ortega and Gallego now took the Santiago on three
exploratory cruises, during which three further islands were discovered -
Malaita, Guadalcanal (named by Ortega after his Spanish birthplace) and
Choiseul. After a month, it was decided to move camp to Guadalcanal, where
once again the same pattern of events occurred - friendly approaches,
misunderstandings, kipnapings and retaliations, in which natives were
killed and their huts and canoes were burned. The ships moved on the
island of San Cristobal, where the same things happened. Finally, Mendaņa
called a meeting to debate their next move. Sarmiento and some of the
soldiers wished to stay in the hope of finding gold, while Gallego, Ortega
and the friars advised returning home, and Mendaņa accepted this latter
advice. A few islanders were captured as trophies, the Santiago was
burned, and on 11 May 1568, they sailed for Peru. The islands were not to
see any more Europeans for another 200 years.
The last stage of the voyage was by far the
worst. The pilots were soon arguing over the correct course to steer.
Sarmiento suggested sailing south-west, but was overruled. Gallego refused
to obey Mendaņa's orders to sail due east, insisting that the only chance
of safety lay in making for North America or Mexico. After veering to and
fro between north and south-east, according to the wind, Gallego's advice
was heeded. The ships turned north, across the equator, past the Marshall
and Gilbert Groups and
a lonely island which they named San Francisco (now Wake
Island), and finally turned east. At some point Sarmiento parted
company with Mendaņa, probably deliberately. Mendaņa and Gallego were
left in the Los Reyes to battle through a severe hurricane
and then to cope with dwindling supplies of food and water. Finally, on 19
December 1568, the Los Reyes anchored in the bay of Colima on
the coast of Lower California. A short time later the Todos Santos
limped in, so battered that she resembled a derelict.
It was nine months before the ships returned to
Callao, arriving in September 1569. There, on Mendaņa's orders, Sarmiento
was arrested. He was later released to continue a violent and unsuccessful
career at sea against the English and French. Mendaņa himself received
scant recognition for his voyage "for," wrote a
Spanish official to the King, "the islands they discovered were
of little importance...............they found no specimens of spices, nor
of gold and silver, nor of merchandise, nor of any other source of profit,
and all the people are naked savages." This same writer
invented the name of the Solomon
Islands for the newly discovered group, presumably because he imagined
that they were the Land of Ophir,
the legendary source of King Solomon's wealth, although his letter to the
king rather conflicts with this theory.
As it turned out, the Solomons became
"lost" again and were not rediscovered until about 200 years
later. Mendaņa's pilots had greatly under-estimated the distance
involved, being unaware of the effect of the equatorial current, which was
so strikingly demonstrated in modern times by the Kon-Tiki
expedition.
Meanwhile, the belief in Marco
Polo's Beach and the fabulous extensive land of Terra Australis was
being fostered by cartographers. In England especially, there were
influential men thinking and planning a South Pacific voyage of
exploration. The news of Mendaņa's discovery reached England about 1572,
five years before Drake
commenced his famous voyage
of circumnavigation, which, as originally planned, might have led to
the discovery of Australia. Instead, Drake raided the wealth of Chile and
Peru, and made no discoveries other than those on the American seaboard.
His example was followed by Cavendish
in 1586 and Richard Hawkins in 1593. The objective of the latter was also
Terra Australis, but his vessel, the Dainty was captured off
the South American coast.
In all probability, it was information gained
from the captives, to the effect that England was interested in Terra
Australis, that caused the new Viceroy of Peru, the Marquis of Canete, to
favour Mendaņa's plan for a new western voyage. The expedition, which was
financed privately by Mendaņa, was ill-found and doomed to failure.
Now 53 years old, Mendaņa left Callao on 9 April
1595, with a fleet of four ships - the flagship San Jeronimo
and the San Ysabel, the smaller frigate Santa Catalina
and the galiot San Felipe. His objective was to found a
settlement in the Solomon Islands as an outpost for further discovery. He
was accompanied by his wife, Doņa Isabel de Barreto, her three brothers,
and a company of 378 soldiers and sailors, and their wives and children.
In his choice as pilot, Mendaņa was fortunate to have the services of a
33 year old Portuguese, Pedro
Fernandez de Quiros.
In July, the Marquesas were discovered and named
in honour of the Marquesas de Mendoza. Here the voyagers anchored and
refreshed themselves, before sailing westward on 5 August. On 7 September
the ships ran into a thick fog, caused by the volcano of Tinakula in
active eruption. During the night the Santa Ysabel, with Lopez de Vega on
board, disappeared, probably destroyed by volcanic shocks. The rest of the
ships came to anchor in the Santa Cruz group, which lie to the north of
the New Hebrides
(Vanuatu). As usual, their very first encounter with the natives caused
bloodshed.
When the Spanish anchored in Graciosa Bay,
however, the natives appeared to be friendly. The chief, Malope, was
paddled out and gifts were exchanged, but soon the same old story repeated
itself. A watering party was ambushed and three men wounded. Mendaņa
promptly dispatched a punishment party to burn huts, kill islanders and
steal pigs. The rest of the men set up a camp, but by this time Mendaņa
was sick with malaria,
and fast losing control of the situation. He was not helped by the
constant nagging of his wife and her brothers. It was on their suggestion
that the camp master was stabbed to death. This led to an orgy of killing,
as supporters of both factions fell upon one another.
Quiros watched and recorded these horrors with
growing alarm and despair. Malaria began to kill off many of the party,
and on 18 October 1595, Mendaņa himself died. Before he died, Mendaņa
had handed responsibility to his wife and her brother Don Lorenzo, but on
his death, Quiros took charge. On 18 November, with disease still raging,
he and the remainder of the party sailed for the Philippines. The wooden
ships were rotting, supplies were almost exhausted, corpses were tossed
overboard daily and Quiros had to consult Doņa Ysabel on all matters. She
refused to permit him to jettison the other ships so as to combine the
crews, and she would not allow the little fresh water remaining to be
distributed to the dying men, women and children, but used it instead to
wash her own clothes. By December, the ships were near the equator. The
days were stifling, the nights freezing. Rations were sown to half a pound
of flour and half a pint of putrid water per day. The Santa Catalina
disappeared and was never seen again. The San Felipe vanished for a time,
but later reached the Philippines. Quiros, by a remarkable feat of
navigation, brought the flagship to port at Guam on New Year's Day 1596.
At last, in February 1996, Manila was sighted. The sorry, blood-strewn
failure of a voyage was finally over, with Quiros alone salvaging from it
any shreds of honour.
For more
information on Alvaro de Mendaņa de
Nehra, go to: |
