The very large islands seen by Torres in the 11th degree of south latitude, are evidently the hills of Cape York; and the two months of intricate navigation, the passage through the strait which separates Australia from New Guinea. A copy of this letter of Torres was fortunately lodged in the archives of Manilla; and it was not till that city was taken, in 1762, by the English, that the document was discovered by Dalrymple; who paid a fitting tribute to the memory of this distinguished Spanish navigator, by giving to this dangerous passage the name of Torres’ Straits, which it has ever since retained. The editor has striven in vain to learn into whose hands Dalrymple’s copy of this letter has fallen. He has been compelled, therefore, to reprint it from Dalrymple’s translation, supplied to Admiral Burney, as inserted at the end of vol. ii of his _Discoveries and Voyages in the South Sea_.
De Quiros himself reached Mexico on the 3rd of October, 1606, nine months from his departure from Callao. Strongly imbued with a sense of the importance of his discoveries, he addressed various memoirs to Philip III, advocating the desirableness of further explorations in these unknown regions; but, after years of unavailing perseverance, he died at Panama in 1614, leaving behind him a name which for merit, though not for success, was second only to that of Columbus; and with him expired the naval heroism of Spain. “Reasoning,” as Dalrymple says, “from principles of science and deep reflection, he asserted the _existence_ of a southern continent; and devoted with unwearied though contemned diligence, the remainder of his life to the prosecution of this sublime conception.” In the first document printed in this collection, which is from the hand of the Fray Juan Luis Arias, is given an account of his earnest advocacy of the resuscitation of Spanish enterprise in the southern seas, and especially with reference to the great southern continent.
But while the glory of Spanish naval enterprise was thus on the wane, the very nation which Spain had bruised and persecuted was to supplant her in the career of adventure and prosperity. The war of independence had aroused the energies of those provinces of the Netherlands which had freed themselves from the Spanish yoke; while the cruelties perpetrated in those provinces which the Spaniards had succeeded in again subduing, drove an almost incredible number of families into exile. The majority of these settled in the northern provinces, and thus brought into them a prodigious influx of activity. Among these emigrants were a number of enterprising merchants, chiefly from Antwerp,—a town which had for many years enjoyed a most considerable, though indirect, share in the transatlantic trade of Spain and Portugal, and was well acquainted with its immense advantages. These men were naturally animated by the bitter hatred of exiles, enhanced by difference of faith and the memory of many wrongs. The idea which arose among them was, to deprive Spain of her transatlantic commerce, and thus to cripple her resources, and strengthen those of the Protestants, and by this means eventually to force the southern provinces of the Netherlands from their oppressors. This idea, at first vaguely entertained by a few, became general when the Spaniards forbad Dutch vessels to carry on any traffic with Spain. This traffic had existed in spite of the wars, and had furnished the Dutch with the principal means of carrying it on.