Luís Vaz de Torres

Pedro Fernandez de Queirós, a Portuguese-born navigator who had been a pilot on Mendana’s ill-fated 1595 expedition, had proposed an expedition to the Pacific in search of Terra Australis.

Queirós commands a party of three Spanish ships, San Pedro y San Pablo (one hundred and fifty tons tons), San Pedro (one hundred and twenty tons) and the tender (patache) Los Tres Reyes, which had left Callao in Spanish Peru on December 21, 1605, with Luís Vaz de Torres in command of the San Pedro.

Anchoring in a bay of the New Hebrides group on May 3, 1606, and assuming the islands to be outliers of the Great Southern Continent he seeks for his king, he names the yet-unseen continent “La Austrialia (sic) del Espiritu Santo,” a reference to the House of Austria, to which the king of Spain belongs, and a pun on “tierra austral,” ( “the south land”).

Queirós’ ships after six weeks put to sea again to explore the coastline.

Queirós in the San Pedro y San Pablo on the night of June 11, 1606, becomes separated from the other ships in bad weather and is unable (or so he will later say) to return to safe anchorage at Espiritu Santo.

He then sails to Acapulco in Mexico, where he will arrive in November 1606.

In the account by Prado, which is highly critical of Queirós, mutiny and poor leadership are given as the reason for Queirós’ disappearance.

Torres will remain silent on the subject other than to write his “condition was different to that of Captain Queirós.”

Willem Janszoon decides at Cape Keerweer (“Turnabout”), south of Albatross Bay, to return, finding the land swampy and the people inhospitable: ten of his men have been killed on various shore expeditions.

The Duyfken is actually in the Torres Strait in March 1606, a few weeks before Luís Vaz de Torres sails through it.

Luís Vaz de Torres had remained at Espritu Santo for fifteen days before opening sealed orders he had been given by the Viceroy of Peru.

These contained instructions on what course to follow if the ships became separated and who would be in command in the event of the loss of Pedro Fernandes de Queirós.

The orders appear to have listed Diego de Prado y Tovar as successor to Queirós, as he is capitan-entretenido (spare captain) on the voyage.

However, there is overwhelming evidence Torres remained in command, including Prado’s own account.

The San Pedro and Los Tres Reyes under Torres’ command on June 26, 1606 set sail for Manila.

Contrary winds had prevented the ships taking the more direct route along the north coast of New Guinea.

Prado’s account notes that they sighted land on July 14, 1606, which was probably the island of Tagula in the Louisiade Archipelago, south east of New Guinea.

Historians had for many years assumed that Torres had taken a route close to the New Guinea coast to navigate the one hundred and fifty-kilometer strait that now bears his name, but in 1980 the Queensland historian Captain Brett Hilder demonstrated that it was much more likely that Torres had taken a southerly route through the channel now called Endeavour Strait.

From this position, he would certainly have seen Cape York, the northernmost extremity of Australia.

Whether or not he did so, the ever pragmatic and calm Torres will never claim that he had sighted the southern continent and simply noted he had passed through a strait.

The expedition proves that New Guinea is not part of the sought-after continent.

The Torres voyage continues over the next two months, a number of landfalls being made to replenish the ships’ food and water and take possession of the land for Spain.

This brings the Spanish in close and sometimes violent contact with local indigenous people.

Prado and Torres both record the capture of twenty people, including a pregnant woman (who will give birth several weeks later).

Prado draws a number of sketch charts of anchorages in the Gulf of Papua, several of which survive.

Torres reaches the western extremity of New Guinea on October 27 and makes his way north of Ceram and ...

...Misool toward the Halmahera Sea.

Torres reaches Ternate, part of the Spice Islands, at the beginning of January 1607.

Torres sails on May 1 for Manila, arriving on May 22.

He intends to personally present the captives, weapons and a detailed account to the king on his return to Spain.

His short written account of the voyage indicates this.

However, it appears there is no interest in Manila in outfitting his voyage back to Spain, and he is told his ships and men are required locally for the king’s service.

Two ships arrive in Manila from South America on June 1, 1607.

One is Queirós’s former flagship San Pedro y San Pablo, now under another name, but with some of her former crewmen still aboard.

Torres, upon earning that Queirós had survived, immediately writes a report of his voyage to Queirós.

Although this account no longer survives, Queirós himself will refer to it in some of his many memorials to the king, agitating for another voyage.

Torres, his crew, and his captives disappear entirely from the historical record at this point, and their subsequent fate is unknown.

Prado returned to Spain, possibly taking one of the captive New Guineans with him.

Most documents of Torres's discoveries were not published, but on reaching Spain, filed away in Spanish archives, including Prado’s lengthy account and the accompanying charts.

Some time between 1762 and 1765, written accounts of the Torres expedition will be seen by British Admiralty Hydrographer Alexander Dalrymple.

Dalrymple will provide a sketch map which includes the Queirós-Torres voyages to Joseph Banks, who undoubtedly passed this information to James Cook.