This name, from the Dutch form which it bears, might suggest the idea that the visitor was a Dutchman; but it must be remembered that the Dutch were not in those seas till the end of the sixteenth century, and that the Synod of Dort was held in the years 1618 and 1619, which renders the suggestion at the close of the paragraph as to “the images to represent their divinity” unreasonable as coming from a native of that country. It is more probable that, from the lapse of time, a mistake was made in the repetition of the name by a savage, and that a Portuguese, and not a Dutchman, suggested the use of images to represent a divinity.
For the account of this voyage see a letter from Quiros to Don Antonio de Morga, cap. vi, p. 29, of De Morga’s _Sucesos en las Islas Filipinas_, Mexico, 1609, 4to.; and Figueroa’s _Hechos de Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, quarto Marques de Cañete_, Madrid, 1613, 4to., l. 6, p. 238.
In the collective volume in the British Museum which contains the original of the present memorial, are several memorials to the king from the Fray Juan de Silva, advocating the same cause on general religious and political grounds; but the editor has been unable to find the treatise here referred to as dedicated to the Infant Don Ferdinand, nor is any mention made of it by Nicolas Antonio or Leon Pinelo, both of whom speak of the memorials addressed to the king.
Dalrymple, in quoting this passage, thinks that the word “Aislada”, here translated according to its general meaning, “encompassed with water”, in this place rather signifies “separated into islands”. This suggestion is, however, entirely arbitrary, and even in contradiction to the context, which states the supposed circuit of the island. Even in maps anterior to the voyage of Torres, as, for example, Hondius’s Mappemonde, showing Drake’s track round the world, published in the Hakluyt Society’s edition of Drake’s _World Encompassed_, New Guinea is laid down as an island, although it is true that in much later maps the point is spoken of as doubtful. Meanwhile, the editor sees no reason to deviate from the recognized rendering of the word “Aislada”.
It is from this sentence that Dalrymple observed the passage of Torres through these dangerous straits, and consequently gave to them the name of that navigator.