Pedró Fernandez de Quirós (1565-1614), was born in Portugal but served his younger years in the Spanish naval service learning seamanship and navigation. A devout Catholic, Quirós visited Rome in 1600, where he obtained the support of Pope Clement VIII, for further explorations. He went to Peru in 1603 with the intention of finding Terra Australis the mythical "great south land," and claiming it for Spain and the Church. Quiros's party of three ships, San Pedro y Paulo, San Pedro and Los Tres Reyes left Callao in Peru on 21December 1605 with 300 crew and soldiers. In May 1606 the expedition reached the islands later called the New Hebrides and now the independent nation of Vanuatu. De Quirós landed on a large island which he took to be part of the southern continent, and named it La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo* (the Southern Land of the Holy Spirit). The island is still called Espiritu Santo. Here he founded a colony which he called Nova Jerusalem however the colony was soon abandoned due to the understandable hostility of the Ni-Vanuatu and to disagreements among the crew.

When de Quirós put to sea again he became separated from the other ships in bad weather finally sailing to Acapulco in Mexico, where he arrived in November 1606. His second-in-command Luis Váde Torres, after searching in vain for de Quirós, left Espiritu Santo and successfully reached Manila.

Luganville the capital of Santo is the centre for the de Quirós Anniversary where on May 10 2006 at Matantas, the President of the Republic of Vanuatu will officially launch the commemoration. The celebrations will carry through until May 14, the date de Quirós landed in Big Bay

*The name of Pedro Fernández de Quirós is today linked to Australia. Many writers wrongly credit de Quirós with coining the word "Australia" which was actually used by his translator in 1625 and later was strongly endorsed by Matthew Flinders.

de Quirós discoversVanuatu
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