called Terra del Fuego. It
is thoughte this south lande, about the pole Antartike, is farre
bigger than the north land about the pole Artike; but whether it
be so or not, we have no certaine knowledge, for we have no
particular description thereof, as we have of the land under and
aboute the north pole."

Then Purchas, in 1678, says:--

"This land about the Straits is not perfectly discovered, whether
it be Continent or Islands. Some take it for Continent, and extend
it more in their imagination than any man's experience towards
those Islands of Saloman and New Guinea, esteeming (of which there
is great probability) that Terra Australis, or the Southerne
Continent, may for the largeness thereof take a first place in
order and the first in greatnesse in the division and parting of
the Whole World."

[Illustration: FROBISHER'S MAP. From "A true Discourse of the late Voyages
of Discoverie for the finding of a passage to Cathaya by the Northweast
under the conduct of _Martin Frobisher_, Generall:" [London, 1578]. _To
face p_. 4.]

The most important of the Spanish voyages was that made by De Quiros, who
left Callao in December, 1605, in charge of an expedition of three ships.
One of these vessels was commanded by Luis Vaez de Torres. De Quiros, who
is believed to have been by birth a Portuguese, discovered several island
groups and many isolated islands, among the former being the New Hebrides,
which he, believing he had found the continent, named Tierra Australis
del Espiritu Santo. Soon after the ships commanded by De Quiros became
separated from the other vessels, and Torres took charge. He subsequently
found that the land seen was an island group, and so determined to sail
westward in pursuance of the scheme of exploration. In about the month of
August he fell in with a chain of islands (now called the Louisiade
Archipelago and included in the British Possession of New Guinea) which he
thought, reasonably enough, was the beginning of New Guinea, but which
really lies a little to the southeast of that great island. As he could
not weather the group, he bore away to the southward, [Sidenote: 1605]
and his subsequent proceedings are here quoted from Burney's _Voyages_:--

"We went along three hundred leagues of coast, as I have
mentioned, and diminished the latitude 2-1/2 degrees, which
brought us into 9 degrees. From thence we fell in with a ba