Señor. El Capitan Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, a V.M. pido licencia para quexarme si quiera vn poco de lo mucho ...

1614
SAFE 1/5r
Block print on laid paper

In this memorial Pedro Fernandes de Queirós (1563–1615) uses highly emotive language, conveying the passion he has for his quest to return to Austrialia del Espiritu Santo.

He begs Spain’s King Philip III to respond to his repeated requests to support a missionary expedition and relates his difficulties in persuading the Spanish authorities to send another expedition:

‘… Here I am in need of having to argue and to write as a great theologian, canonist and philosopher, being only a mere sailor and soldier. And I also ask, who are those who shall bear God's justice, so many souls, and so many assets that are lost each day in all those provinces, in whose name, and of its peoples ...’

With a government severely starved of funds, the King had no real intention of funding another expedition but finally dispatched Queirós to Peru in 1614 with hollow promises. Unfortunately Queirós died on the voyage and no further attempts were made by the Spanish to explore the South Pacific.