In October 1606, the great Spanish navigator Luis
Baez de Torres took two vessels through the waters that divide the land masses
of New Guinea and Australia. In a journey of great adventure, courage and
hardship, he was the first European to sail through today's Torres Strait and
very possibly the first European to sight the east coast of Australia.
'Terra Australis Incognita' focuses new light on the Spanish voyages of
discovery that sailed from South America into the unknown south western Pacific
in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Crossing the planet's largest ocean
in small wooden ships with rudimentary navigation, these Spanish conquistadors
were in search of the legendary Great South Land first imagined by the ancient
Greeks.
This is a story of passionate beliefs, of high hopes and catastrophic failures,
of attempted colonies that ended in death and disaster, of violent
confrontations and tentative friendship with indigenous people, of a fierce
clash of cultures, and relentless ambition in search of the gold of King
Solomon's Ophir. It is also the story of the visionary adventurer Quiros who
planned a New Jerusalem in today's Vanuatu, the ruthless woman governor Dona
Isabel, the Solomon Islander chief Bilebanarra who was a friend of the Spaniards
and, of course, the great leader of men Luis Baez de Torres.
'Terra Australis Incognita' is a thoroughly researched, lucidly written and
unique narrative on the little known history of the great Spanish explorations
of the Pacific Ocean.
Contents:
Acknowledgements
Chronology
List of Illustrations
Map
Prologue
1. Gold, Souls and a Mythical Continent
2. The First Voyage: 1567-1569
3. Las Yslas de Salomon
4. Guadalcanal
5. The Last Anchorage
6. The Journey Back
7. The Second Voyage: 1595-1596
8. '... we opened fie on them'
9. Journey to Manila
10. Quiros
11. The Third Voyage: 1605-1606
12. The Voyage Begun
13. La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo
14. Knighthoods and a City of Marble
15. Separation
16. The Last Journeys of Quiros
17. A Different Commander
18. The Traverse of Torres Strait
19. 'Where are we?'
20. Ternate and Manila
21. A Legacy of Islands
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
