MENDANA IN SEARCH OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS.
Twenty-six years had elapsed since the Sarmiento-Mendana voyage, and now
Mendana was sent out again with instructions to found a colony at the
island of _San Christobal_, in the Solomon Group; and from thence to make
another attempt to discover the Great Southern Continent, the Java Maior,
that formed such a conspicuous feature on the maps of the period, and was
beginning to attract the attention of other countries besides Spain.
Mendana's fleet was composed of three large vessels and a frigate.
Pedro Fernandez de Queiroz was his captain and chief pilot; the other
officers were Lope de Vega, Felipe Corzo, and Alenzo de Leyva.
As it was intended to settle a colony, many took their wives with them,
and amongst these were: Da. Isabel de Barreto, Mendana's wife, and Da.
Mariana de Castro, the wife of Lope de Vega.
They set sail from Callao on the 9th of April, 1595, and, after
discovering the Marquesas, and a few smaller islands, they sighted land
on September the 7th, which Mendana believed, at first, to be the
Solomons, of which he was in quest.
They soon found out their mistake, and named the island _Santa Cruz_. To
the northward of this island was seen a most remarkable volcano in full
eruption.* The frigate was ordered to sail round it to search for Lope de
Vega's ship, which had parted company some time previously.
[* Tinacula Volcano, in eruption at the present day.]
They thought that she might have passed to the north, but the hopes of
seeing her again were very faint.
Mendana continued near the north coast of Santa Cruz, searching for a
port, and was rejoined there by the frigate, which returned without any
tidings of Lope de Vega and his ship.
At last a port was discovered where the ships anchored in smooth water,
close to the shore.
On the 21st of September, they found a better port, which Mendana named
_La Graciosa_, for it was very beautiful, larger and more commodious than
the one where they were first anchored. A river of moderate size and a
copious stream of very clear water gushing from beneath some rocks was
found in proximity to the anchorage. Here an attempt at colonisation was
made, but what with the hostility of the natives, sickness, and a
mutinous spirit, the young colony did not progress favorably. To make
matters worse, Mendana himself fell ill and died, and the grand scheme
which, under favourable circumstances, might have resulted in the
foundation of a Spanish Australian Empire, was, perforce, abandoned for
the while. The remnant of this disastrous expedition, having repaired to
the Philippine Islands, returned to New Spain in the year 1596.
AN EARLY MAP OF THE SOLOMONS ISLANDS.
The discovery of true Solomon Islands was soon forgotten and Mendana's
vague notions about them led historians and geographers astray as to
their position and size.*
[* In a map of the South Sea, _Mar del Zur_, published towards the year
1650, the Solomon Islands are represented as extending in a sweeping
curve, resembling their natural trend it is true, but the position is
from the locality of New Caledonia and New Zealand, right across the
Pacific Ocean to the south of Cape Horn. In that distance 40 islands are
represented, of an average size equal to the two large islands of New
Zealand, truly a magnificent mistake!]
In the few old maps that exist, it is difficult to determine precisely in
what measure the members of the expedition are responsible for the
charting; some of it is certainly the guesswork of geographers, based, it
must be acknowledged, on the best information then available, for we must
bear in mind that the accounts of Mendana's expedition were only known
from a few extracts, the actual narratives being lost at the time these
charts were draughted.
Now that some of those narratives have been found, it is easy to identify
the present day Solomon Islands with the group discovered by the
Spaniards; most of the latitudes in the old chart that I give here, agree
with those given by Herrera, the Spanish historian, which shows that if
they have been thrown out of position, as they are on some old charts, it
is through the fault of the map-makers.
The map given here is by Mazza, an Italian geographer of distinction; it
is the earliest one that I have been able to procure, the earliest known
to exist, the date being between 1583 and 1589.
I have marked on it the probable track of the ships; the first bay where
they anchored, and which was called _Baya de la Estrella_, is marked by
No. 1. The second anchorage, on the coast of Guadalcanal, marked No. 2,
was named _Puerto de la Cruz_; and the locality where the third sojourn
was made, and where the brigantine was abandoned, is marked by the No. 3.
The island thus marked, bears no name on the map; it is the southernmost
large island, however, and corresponds therefore with _San Christobal_,
where the third and last sojourn was made, and where, at a later period,
a colony was to have been founded.
The island bearing the name _Nombre de Jesus_, is misnamed, evidently as
the result of interference on the part of the cartographer, for,
according to the narrative, it lies at many days' sail from the first
land sighted in the Solomon Group, and has been identified, as I have
said before, with Nukufetau in the Ellice Group.
Other mistakes of the map-maker are, _Amacifre_ instead of _Arecifes_
reefs; and _Maiulata_ for _Malaita_. Malaita, however, is a mistake of
the Spaniards, for the natives call their island Mala and ita means
"here"; as one might say, "here is Mala."
The curious mistake alluded to on page 63 is this:
In most of the old maps that were made prior to the identification of
Sarmiento's and Mendana's discoveries, the Solomon Islands were placed
much too close to New Guinea, occupying, in fact, the position of New
Britain and New Ireland. This was owing to the belief on the part of the
Spaniards, that they had reached the region where their predecessors,
Saavedra, Retez and Gaspar Rico, had made their discoveries: so that, New
Britain, New Ireland, and all the other islands, of the Bismark
Archipelago were once believed to be the Solomon and Guadalcanal the
extreme east end of New Guinea.