The Portuguese named a group of small islands from which, centuries later, will be named the Australian continent
Pedro Fernandes de Queirós (often in spagnolizzato Pedro Fernández de Quirós ), was born in Portugal, Évora, in 1565. He entered the English navy in the very young and, after years of practice in the route that connected the Viceroyalty of New Spain (now Mexico) with the Philippines, became an expert sailor and navigator.
Being a devout Catholic was able to obtain, during a visit to Rome in 1600, the support of Pope Clement VIII for further exploration, which had been denied by the English crown.
He then went to Peru in 1603, intending to discover the mythical Terra Australis, to be able to donate to the Government of Spain, which in turn could evangelize. The Quirós expedition was composed of 300 people aboard three ships: San Paulo, San Pedro and Los Tres Reyes Magos .
After tapping the various islands, islets and atolls in May of 1606 the expedition reached a group of islands he called Austrialia del Espiritu Santo (which was to be a possession Anglo-French with the name of New Hebrides, which are now an independent state called Vanuatu), where, in the throes of religious fervor, he founded a settlement called bankruptcy Nueva Jerusalen and created a new order of knighthood: Knights of the Holy Spirit .
Quirós A few weeks later he was forced for lack of food, hostility and resentment of the natives in 'crew, to return the sea. The bad weather separates it from other ships and, after weeks of sailing, he managed to land in Acapulco in November 1606.
Quirós then returned to Spain in 1607, settling in Madrid. Here he spent the next seven years in poverty, writing numerous accounts of his travels and imploring constantly King Philip III to the fund a new journey. The continued insistence and letters supporting him back in America, but no he had financed another expedition, and
