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 towards the west till the 26th of January, 1606, when, in the afternoon, they sighted a small island.

No anchorage could be found and it was thought that it could not be inhabited, so they passed it.

Continuing on a westerly course three days later, they came in sight of another island of larger dimensions; here, also, finding no convenient landing place, they passed on.
The sky now became obscured, and, as they proceeded, rain set in, followed by thunder and lightning; then a fearful tempest threatened their destruction.
Presently, however, the storm abated, and through a rift in the clouds they perceived land and made for it.
They found it to be an island about thirty leagues in circumference, apparently an atoll, for it was described as having "a lagoon inside," and was surrounded by a coral reef.