Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/165

Rh in Norway, has no knowledge of these facts, and, if true, it must have been another member of the family, now dead, who is referred to. The story is given in official Queensland publications, but is doubtful. Also the account given by De Quiros in his memorial to the King of Spain goes far to demolish the theory that his port of Vera Cruz and Gladstone Harbour are identical, as he mentions the population being great and of various colours—“whites, yellow, mulattoes, and black, and mixtures of each.” They own no sovereign, but group in tribes “little friendly towards each other.” Their fruits are six sorts of plantains, almonds of four sorts, large strawberries of great sweetness, ground nuts, oranges, and lemons; they have sugar-cane, pumpkins, beets, and beans, and they have also pigs, goats, hens, geese, part-ridges, turtle-doves, and pigeons—this will never do as a description of any part of the Queensland coast at such a date. If there were white people, De Quiros could have learnt something of their origin.]

Torres thought it was only an island, and left, and, sailing through what is now called Torres Straits, eventually arrived at Manilla.

Quiros had missed, as he thought, the Solomons, and his Australia del Esperito Santo had been declared to be no continent, but only an island, yet he was not cast down. He went to Spain, addressed fifty petitions to the King, and in 1614 set sail for Peru, but died at Panama. Then for one hundred and fifty years the Solomons and their natives were left to their own devices, strange as it may seem.

In August 1766 the Dolphin and Swallow, under Captains Wallis and Carteret, left Plymouth, and after passing through the Straits of Magellan lost each other. Carteret on the Swallow sailed on, sighted and named various islands without