“Indiae Orientalis Pars X”

-Theodor De Bry

-1613 - 1st Latin Edition published in Frankfurt by Matthias Becker
-32 pages (inc Title page), Letterpress title page to plates and 3 plates (complete text and title page but LACKING the 3 maps)

-Unbound

This is Part 10 of De Bry’s Petits Voyages which contains the important account of the Spanish voyages of the Pacific written by Pedro Fernandes de Queiros. The book also contains two other accounts of voyages: Hudson ’s search for the North West Passage to China and Japan (and discovery of Hudson bay), and Linschoten’s search for the North East Passage to the Far East.

De Queiros was a Portuguese Navigator who served the Spanish Monarchy for most of his life. In 1595 he first travelled to the pacific with Alvaro de Mendana y Neira on a voyage across the Pacific to the Solomon Islands and the Philippines. After returning, he petitioned the Spanish King to search for Terra Australis, eventually departing Peru in 1605 and passed The Pitcairn Islands, The Cook Islands and Kiribati. He likely sighted Tahiti but avoided French Polynesia and New Zealand due to a change in course, eventually arriving in Vanuatu. On the return journey his second in command, Luis Vaez de Torres, sailed between Australia and New Guinea in the strait which bears his name to this day.

Queiros’ Memorials - his reports of his voyages and petitions to the Spanish king - were circulated in Europe in the early 1600s. Published accounts included this early account by De Bry and a later publication by Samuel Purchas.