Pedro Fernández de Quirós

Pedro Fernández de Quirós

Pedro Fernández de Quirós (* 1565 in Évora , Portugal, † 1614 in Panama ; Portuguese: Pedro Fernandes de Queirós ) was a Portuguese navigator and explorer, especially in the Pacific .

Life

In 1595 Pedro Fernández de Quirós took part as the main pilot in the second expedition of Alvaro de Mendaña de Neyra . It led from Peru to the Marquesas and on to the Santa Cruz Islands (now the Solomon Islands ), where Mendana died. Together with his widow, Doña Ysabel de Barreto, Quirós led the expedition via the Philippines back to Peru; the two later married too.

In 1605 Quirós left the Peruvian port of Callao for a second expedition on behalf of the Spanish viceroy of Peru. The second ship of the expedition, the San Pedrico , sailed under Luiz Váez de Torres . This time the fleet sailed further south than on the first voyage. Quirós discovered a number of uninhabited islands in the Tuamotu Archipelago , which he cataloged. On February 10 of the year 1606, he came across an inhabited island he Conversion de San Pablo called (Conversion of St. Paul) . There were suspicions that this could have been Tahiti . However, these have not been confirmed. Rather, it was about the island of Anaa ( French Polynesia ), the discoverer of which James Cook was long believed . Further west, Quirós reached another inhabited island on March 1, 1606, which he named Gente Hermosa . So far it is not entirely certain which island he landed on; According to sources, it could be Olosenga ( Swains Island of the Tokelau Group ) or Rakahanga ( Cook Islands ).

On May 3rd, 1606 he reached the New Hebrides (today's Vanuatu ). The island of Espiritu Santo seemed so large to him that he suspected it could be the legendary southern continent terra australis incognita . He then named the island La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo (the southern land of the Holy Spirit). Here he founded the colony Nova Jerusalem .

The name Pedro Fernández de Quirós is best known in Australia today. Many attribute the coining of the name Australia to him in the belief that he called the continent Australia del Espiritu Santo . Cardinal Francis Moran, Archbishop of Sydney from 1884 to 1911, saw this as a fact, which is why it was taught in Catholic schools for many years. The cardinal believed that Quirós' "New Jerusalem" was near Gladstone, Queensland . This myth had the Australian Catholic poet James McAuley (1917–1976) write a poem called "Captain Quirós" in which he is portrayed as a martyr for the Catholic civilization of the Pacific. The Australian writer John Toohey wrote a novel in 2002 called "Quirós". In reality, the name Australia was coined for the continent by Matthew Flinders .

While Torres continued the expedition after being separated from Quirós by chance, the latter returned to the port of La Navidad in October 1606 and returned to Madrid in 1607. Misjudged as a fraud, he lived in poverty for the next few years, wrote travel reports and wrote petitions to King Philip III . He was sent to Peru with a letter of introduction, but the king did not want to spend any more money on him. In 1614, after a long stay in Spain , Quirós died on arrival in Panama .

Works

• Relation to Mr. Petri Fernandes de Quir, Spanish main man etc., so he is king. May. In Spain etc. from the newly invented fourth part of the world (so called Terra Australis incognita in Mappis or Landtafflen) and the same countries, wealth and fertility etc. Printed in Spanish at Pampelona with the royal council permit, but now translated into good German. Dabertzhofer, Augsburg 1611 ( digitized version ).

literature

• Otto Kübler-Sütterlin: Columbus of Australia: The risk of Pedro Fernandes de Queiros . Verlag Karl Alber, Freiburg and Munich 1956 (historical novel, extensively researched).