New Light on the Discovery of Australia - as revealed by the Journal of Captain Don Diego de Prado y Tovar

Maker Captain Don Diego De Prado Y Tovar

Date1930

Object number00037892

NameBook

MediumPaper, ink, cloth bound boards

DimensionsOverall: 226 x 151 x 25 mm, 0.64 kg

ClassificationsBooks and journals

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionA book titled 'New Light on the Discovery of Australia - as revealed by the Journal of Captain Don Diego de Prado y Tovar.' Edited by Henry N Stevens and translated from Spanish by George F. Barwick, Keeper of the Printed Books at the British Museum 1914 - 1919. The book contains two separate charts of Australia and the Pacific Ocean. HistoryCaptain Don Diego de Prado y Tovar was, until Henry Stevens 'discovered' his manuscript in 1919, a lesser known or indeed unknown, member of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros's second expedition to the Pacific in 1605. Quiros took three vessels with him the SAN PEDRO Y SAN PABLO, SAN PEDRICO and a tender LOS TRES REYES MAGOS. After spending six weeks on an island in Vanuatu, which Quiros referred to as Espiritu Santo, the expedition took to the sea again. The SAN PEDRO Y SAN PABLO under the command of Quiros became separated from the other ships and returned to Mexico. In his absence Luis Váez de Torres is generally believed to have taken command of the expedition. He navigated through what is now named Torres Strait north of Australia and arrived in Manila 22 May 1607 after mapping parts of the New Guinea coast. This book by Henry Stevens reinterprets the accepted account of the Quiros expedition. Based on the manuscript written by Don Diego de Prado y Tovar that Stevens came across in 1919, he proposes that it was Tovar not Torres who was in charge of the journey once Quiros leaves. Stevens proposes that: "...however, safe to say that no one would have mentioned the name of that comparatively unknown and hitherto much-maligned man Captain Don Diego de Prado y Tovar (the author of the recently recovered Relación), to whom the honour of the first definite discovery of Australia undoubtedly belongs, for, as will be seen, he succeeded to the supreme command of the Quiros expedition under sealed orders opened at the Island of Espiritu Santo, after Quiros himself had abandoned the voyage and returned to America. This important fact, as revealed by the new Relación, is entirely new to history, for it has always hitherto been supposed that the voyage was continued under the command of Torres alone. We now learn that Prado, in company with Torres as his second in command, completed the voyage to Manila, but instead of passing to the north of New Guinea on the direct course, as provided for in the general orders, was compelled by stress of weather to sail along the south coast. To that fortuitous circumstance we owe not only the discovery of the tortuous passage between New Guinea and Australia (now known as Torres Strait) but incidentally the first definite discovery of Australia itself." [Stevens, Henry, ed. New Light on the Discovery of Australia as Revealed by the Journal of Captain Don Diego de Prado Y Tovar. London, Henry Stevens Son & Stiles. 1930]. SignificancePrado's manuscript is significant for its documentation of the Spanish expedition which was the first European voyage through the strait between Australia and New Guinea, confirming that New Guinea was an island. This was also the first European expedition to land on several islands which are now part of Australia