Pedro Fernandes de Queirós
Pedro Fernández de Quirós (* 1565 in Évora, Portugal, † 1614 in Panama) was a Portuguese navigator and explorer, particularly in the Pacific.
Life
In 1595 Pedro Fernández de Quirós took (Portuguese: Pedro Fernandes de Queirós ) as the main pilot under Alvaro de Mendana de Neyras second expedition from Peru to the Marquesas and on to the Santa Cruz Islands (now the Solomon Islands) part where Mendana died. Together with the widow Medañas, Doña Ysabel de Barreto, he also married later, he led the expedition over the Philippines back to Peru. 1605 Quirós left the Peruvian port of Callao, together with another ship, the San Pedrico, under Luiz Vaez de Torres, on behalf of the Spanish viceroy of Peru.
Taking a southerly course, he discovered a number of uninhabited islands in the Tuamotu group, which he cataloged. On February 10 of the year 1606, he came across an inhabited island, which he called Conversion de San Pablo ( Conversion of St. Paul ). There was speculation that it might here have acted to Tahiti. However, these were not confirmed. Rather, it was the island of Anaa ( French Polynesia), as its discoverer James Cook was previously. Further to the west reached Quirós on March 1, 1606 Another inhabited island, to which he gave the name Gente Hermosa. To date, it is not quite sure which island he landed right ( sources say it could be either Olosenga ( Swain Iceland the Tokelau group) or to Rakahanga (Cook Islands) ).
On May 3, 1606 he reached the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu). One of these islands, Espiritu Santo, seemed to him so great that he surmised, this might not act to the legendary southern continent terra australis incognita. He named the island La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo then ( the southern land of the Holy Spirit ). Here he founded the colony of Nova Jerusalem.
The name of Pedro Fernández de Quirós is known today primarily in Australia. Many write to him coining the name to Australia in the faith, he named the islands of Australia del Espiritu Santo. The Archbishop of Sydney from 1884 to 1911, Francis Cardinal Moran, saw this as a fact, and therefore it has also been taught in Catholic schools for many years to come. The cardinal was of the opinion that Quirós " New Jerusalem " is near Gladstone, Queensland. This myth was the Australian Catholic poet James McAuley (1917-1976) a poem called "Captain Quiros ' writing, in which he is portrayed as a martyr for the Catholic civilization of the Pacific. The Australian writer John Toohey wrote in 2002 a novel entitled " Quiros ". (The name Australia was shaped in reality by Matthew Flinders. )
While Torres continued the expedition, when he was separated from Quirós by chance, Quirós returned to the port of La Navidad in October 1606. Quirós came back in 1607 to Madrid. Viewed as a fraud, he spent the next years in poverty with writing travel reports and the writing of petitions to King Philip the III. He was sent with a letter to Peru, but the king wanted to spend any more money for him. 1614, after a long stay in Spain, Quirós died on arrival in Panama.